Q&A: The Specialness of the Laws of Nature and a Vehicle That Fit Eight People in Time
The Specialness of the Laws of Nature and a Vehicle That Fit Eight People in Time
Question
You mentioned the story there after the accident you went through, when a neighbor who happened to be passing by at exactly that moment, in the middle of the night, stopped and took all of you — eight people. There were other details too that made the story rare and unusual. And still you said that because you don’t know how many cases like that happen and how many of them work out, it’s impossible to know whether this was really a “miracle” or just statistics. In other words, even a case that seems to us rare and special can’t be judged objectively without seeing how often it happens.
I want to ask about the specialness of the laws of nature: we don’t have examples of other laws of nature or other universes that were created; we know of only one case, the one we live in. So how can we claim that it is special and requires intervention?
Answer
It is possible to know whether a case is special. The case in Gedera was very special, and the creation of the world certainly is as well. The question I was dealing with was: assuming it is special, what is the likelihood that it came about on its own (without a guiding hand)? In the case of Gedera, there are lots of cars in lots of places and times, so that requires examination. In the case of the world, we do not have knowledge of even one additional case.
Discussion on Answer
There is no probability here, because there is no event space and distribution. There is plausibility. And of course, straight reason.
How can one know that the probability is low for an event that, as far as we know, happened only once, when we don’t know how it happened and whether others like it have happened?