Q&A: Life on Other Stars
Life on Other Stars
Question
Hello, honorable Rabbi.
If I have found favor in your eyes, let me ask something.
If the laws of nature are special and fine-tuned for the creation of life, why is there no life on all the other stars?
And if all the laws are arranged to bring about life, how do we know that random laws would not also bring about life, given that these laws are the only ones we have?
Tell me if I am right:
All the laws of physics, biology, etc., are basically like in the parable of the computer program that randomly generates the sentence “To be or not to be.” These laws can be examined—their limits and their nature—but it is impossible really to understand how they were created (is it really impossible?) and what they really are. These laws of nature basically govern matter and energy and led to the creation of complex life. In essence, we are the product of a machine called the universe, which seemingly operates according to random laws. But all this is valid only within the universe; the moment one looks at the machine from the outside, one sees how all the parts operate in an orderly way, and such a thing cannot be by chance.
The creator of that wondrous machine lets it do the work, but does not himself intervene in order to make sure that more perfect tools come out of it. And in the analogy, the divine hand never did anything after the formation of the laws of nature (although apparently there were a few cases that were not connected to the laws of nature and their workings, but rather to statistics—for example, I heard that if the energy at the time of the Big Bang had been different by a few precise terms, then matter would never have been formed, and so on).
Answer
Good question. It is possible that these laws have some probability of producing life, and that was realized on only one star. Just as even on Earth, life did not arise everywhere in parallel. Another possibility, of course, is that the Holy One, blessed be He, intervened and made sure that it would be here and only here.
Since we know how life arises and what it depends on, we know that under other laws of nature there would be no biology or chemistry, and therefore no life either. That is clear on probabilistic grounds as well. Laws of nature that produce life are very special, and there is no logic in assuming that every randomly generated system of laws would produce life.
I am not entirely sure I understood the picture you described. On the face of it, it seems right to me.