Annoying BBC science documentaries

[martin_wisse]

Bright Young Thing on the BBC Horizon documentary on gravity just asked a particularly stupid question that always vexes me: "Why is the universe built in a way that life can exist at all"?

First, the universe isn't built, it just exists.

Second, the fact that (our kind of) life exists is because our universe is the way it is. It has certain inherent qualities that ultimately gave rise to carbonbased lifeforms like yours truly. To imply that the universe exists the way it does because that's how life can exist, is confusing cause and effect. Had the universe been different, another sort of life, or no life at all would exist.

Comments

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

It may be a stupid question, but it's a well known stupid question. And not every scientist comes up with the same answer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle