Father Dr. Manuel Carreira: "It has been calculated that if it had 10% more mass or less we would not be here, and if the distance from the Earth to the Sun were changed by 10% we would not be here either. So there are many coincidences that seem only explainable by saying that everything is planned so that intelligent life can occur."
Dr. Ibáñez-Soto: Let's talk about another exclusive peculiarity of our planet: the Moon. Mars and Venus lack significant satellites. What is the real impact of our immense satellite on the viability of human life?
Father Dr. Manuel Carreira: "If the Moon did not exist, the Earth would pitch like a top, like a top when the spin is ending. And the Earth would pitch from being perfectly perpendicular to the orbit of the axis to being more than 60 degrees. And this would change the climate in a catastrophic way and there would not have been an evolution to the human being. On the other hand, because the Moon acts as a seesaw, the axis remains almost always identical."
Dr. Ibáñez-Soto: Faced with this overwhelming accumulation of millimeter coincidences (atomic forces, mass, distance, iron, the Moon), many science fiction and exobiology enthusiasts continue to hope to contact alien civilizations under the premise that the universe must be full of life. What does scientific rigor say about it?
Father Dr. Manuel Carreira: "About 30 years ago, a well-known American astrophysicist, Carl Sagan, and another Russian, Shklovskii, wrote a book... and calculated that in the Milky Way there should be at least a million planets with intelligent life. About 10 years later, in Soviet Russia there was an astrophysics congress and the Russian scientist Shklovskii spoke there, and he said that... he had come to the conclusion that life intelligence on earth (and this was said in Soviet Russia) was a miracle, and we are probably unique in the universe."
Dr. Ibáñez-Soto: Let's look to the future. Thermodynamics tells us an unavoidable destiny for this immense theater of galaxies. How does modern physics describe the end of the material universe?
Father Dr. Manuel Carreira: "Each star will end up using up its fuel and going out, and there will be less and less recyclable material... there will come a time when new stars will no longer be made, the last generation will go out and the universe will consist of a collection of dark and cold bodies... there will no longer be life anywhere."
Dr. Ibáñez-Soto: Philosophically, this poses an abysmal absurdity. What is the point of a universe that for 14 billion years generates so much wonder and mathematical perfection, only to annihilate it in darkness and absolute ice?
Father Dr. Manuel Carreira: "If a universe that begins, produces so many wonders and then destroys everything seems absurd to us, the more stupid it is to repeat it over and over again. A stupid thing is still stupid if we do it many times... That's why scientist Steven Weinberg says: 'The more we know the universe, the more absurd it seems', because there is no satisfactory answer... there is no logical answer."
Dr. Ibáñez-Soto: This is where physics must remain silent and give the floor to higher disciplines.
Father Dr. Manuel Carreira: "It is here therefore where we have to resort to something that goes beyond physics, and that has to be something of metaphysics and theology to give a satisfactory answer, or else the universe is absurd... The universe has already fulfilled its purpose giving rise to us existing. Even if the stars go out now, they have already played their role, it no longer matters."
In the fourth and final installment of this exciting series, we will conclude with Father Carreira's formidable lessons regarding the historical fallacy of the conflict between religion and science, demystifying iconic cases such as that of Galileo Galilei.
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