Please make a post stating your level of interest in participating in the discussion of The Grand Design.

Sorry, I'll be busy reading "The Devil."

My level of interest in this discussion is pretty high. I'll be participating.

I better be participating.

I'm holding back reading more chapters so I can read along with others here.

BTW: The book is currently #5 on the New York Times Bestsellers List for Hardcover Nonfiction.

I have read the book. I plan to read it again. I have lots of questions!

I'm in. I just finished it recently and would enjoy exploring the ideas further.

Yes, I will read it. I liked Hawkings' A Brief History of Time. However, I find the arrogance of mainstream astrophysics breathtaking in their positivist assertion that there is no meaning outside science. My academic background is in philosophy, with an MA Hons Thesis on The Place of Ethics in Heidegger's Ontology. One of Heidegger's main arguments is that scientific objectivity, while necessary, is not sufficient to explain meaning and significance in human life, and that philosophy is needed to enframe science within a wholistic worldview.

I always enjoy finding out about new ideas in science, and especially the debate about the role of science in culture. I hope this book proves informative and provocative.

I believe Hawking's hypothesis is that life evolved on Earth because we live in a Universe that supports the various chemical bonds (a couple dozen precise physical constants) to allow complex molecules to develop, multiply, evolve and then it's survival of the fittest for billions of years. Our Earth is in a very opportune distance away from our pretty much stable Sun that allows water to evaporate and freeze with active tectonic plates, erosion, and weather patterns to spice things up. Jupiter pretty much protects us from most asteroids.



To me, it all comes down to the Big Bang. Was there absolutely nothing including space and time "before" the Big Bang? Shifting the creation of the Universe to a "Creator" just hides the initial cause. What was "God" doing "before" the Big Bang? Yet people want to find purpose as to why we are here. Sometimes the answer is just pure luck. We evolved into naked apes that had superior brains that would dominate the Earth.

Thanks Robert (below) as this should be in the Chapter One thread, instead of here.

Reply at Ch.1 The Mystery of Being