Chapter 1, Part 2: Is the universe fine-tuned for life?
Is anyone there? · Lesson 2 of 5 · About 29 minutes · Grades 1–5
The Evidence for Jesus · A lesson for grades 1–5Is anyone there?
Big questionIs the universe fine-tuned for life?
By the end, kids can
- Name some of the universe's “dials”: how hard gravity pulls, how tightly atoms hold together, and how hard space pushes apart, and say what happens if one is nudged.
- Weigh the three explanations for the settings: necessity, chance, or design.
- Know that the God who set the dials so we could be here is mindful of us, and keep learning the memory verse: Genesis 1:1 (grades 3–4: Psalm 19:1; grade 5+: John 1:3).
You'll need
- This part's one-page worksheet for each child's level (grades 1–2, 3–4, or 5), handed out at the start
- Pencils
- A radio, or a phone with a music app, to tune a little off the station (optional, for the warm-up)
- A screen with sound and internet: the clips come from the video “Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Life?”
Before you teach
This lesson plays one of the chapter's video lessons in clips. Its page makes the same case for teens and adults, with every source written out: watch it to prepare, or use it with older kids and youth groups. Click a part to go to its slide:
- Is the universe fine-tuned for life? The dials of the universe · In class: The dials, The hardest dial, Why?, The scientists, Going deeper · Grades 3–5, Good news
The lesson
- 2 min Warm-up: just right
- 2 min Memory verse
- 6 min Turn the dials: watch (1½ minutes), turn four dials, and the worksheet
- 3 min The hardest dial: watch (under a minute), then zoom in
- 3 min Necessity, chance, or design?: watch (half a minute), then talk
- 3 min What the scientists said: watch (1 minute), then talk
- 2 min Going deeper (grades 3–5): the firing squad (half a minute)
- 2 min A quick check
- 3 min Good news: watch (under a minute), then he is mindful of you
- 3 min Memory verse again, talk, and pray
Worksheets
Print this lesson's one-page sheet for each child, at their level. They fill it in as you go: the ✎ Worksheet sticker on a slide says which part goes with it.
Send it home
After class, share the one-minute Short with families, to watch together and talk about this week:
Answer key
The worksheets don't print their answers. Here they all are, and on the slide before the credits.
Grades 1–2
- Set the dial! The needle points into the thin green part.
- Genesis 1:1: beginning
Grades 3–4
- Turn the dials: 1-C · 2-A · 3-B · 4-D
- Psalm 19:1: glory
Grade 5+
- Necessity, chance, or design? necessity, Chance, word, Fifty, design
- John 1:3: things
Presenting
Each part opens with a ▶ Watch slide that plays a clip of the 5-minute video “Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Life? The Fine-Tuning Argument” right on the slide: read the two questions, then click (or press →, or use a clicker) to play the clip. The slides wait while it plays and stops by itself; click twice to stop it early. Then click to show the answers. The clips need an internet connection.
Click the slide, or press → or Space (a clicker works too), to show the next thing; ← goes back, even while a clip plays. F presents full screen (Esc leaves it). P opens the presenter view, a second window with your notes, the next slide, and a timer, that moves with the slides: put it on your laptop and the slides on the projector. N shows the notes under the slides.
Your script
Is anyone there?
Say: Last time we saw that the universe had a beginning. Space, time, and matter all started together, and whatever began them has to stand outside them.
Say: Today is Part 2 of five. If the universe began, why does it look set up, just right, for you to be here?
Just right
Do: If you brought a radio, find a station, then turn the dial a tiny bit off so everyone hears the static. Turn it back. (No radio? Just ask the question.)
Ask: If you found a radio with every dial set exactly to your favorite station, what would you think? (Someone set it.)
Say: The universe runs on a handful of numbers that work like dials. Let's turn a few and see what happens.
Clicks: 1. the line “The universe has dials too. Today we'll see how they're set.”
Sources: Fine-tuned universe
Memory verse
Do: Say it together once with the motions from last time: “in the beginning” (point back over your shoulder), “God created” (hands up), “the heavens” (reach high), “and the earth” (touch the floor). Then click to show the missing word as kids call it out.
Answer: beginning (the same word as the grades 1–2 sheet).
Older kids: Grades 3–4 practice Psalm 19:1 and grade 5+ practices John 1:3. Psalm 19:1 is in today's video.
Clicks: 1. the missing word “beginning”
The dials · Watch: Turn the dials
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's about 1½ minutes and stops by itself.
Ask after: How strong is gravity? What happens if the strong force is weaker? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Is the universe fine-tuned for life?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: By far the weakest. That gives stars and planets room to form, and time. · 3. the answer to 2: Nothing but hydrogen.
Sources: Fine-tuned universe · Rees, Just Six Numbers (1999) · Barnes, “The Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life” (2012)
Nudge a dial
Say: 1. Gravity is by far the weakest force, and that's what gives stars and planets room to form. The astronomer Martin Rees worked out that a stronger gravity would leave only a small, short-lived universe.
Say: 2. The strong force glues the cores of atoms together, so carbon, oxygen, and iron can exist. Weaken it just a little, and the periodic table would be nothing but hydrogen.
Say: 3. Stars forge both carbon and oxygen, and life needs both. Nudge electromagnetism the tiniest bit, and stars would make carbon or oxygen, but not both.
Say: 4. When a star burns, a tiny part of its fuel becomes energy. If stars turned just a little more of it into energy, the hydrogen would have been used up soon after the Big Bang. No water, and no stars like the Sun.
Do: Have everyone hold up a pretend dial and turn it very, very slowly.
Worksheet: Grades 1–2 set the dial now: draw the needle in the thin green part.
Worksheet answers: Grades 1–2, Set the dial!: The needle points into the thin green part.
Clicks: 1. step 1 · 2. step 2 · 3. step 3 · 4. step 4 · 5. the line at the bottom
Sources: Rees, Just Six Numbers (1999) · Barnes, “The Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life” (2012) · Fine-tuned universe
The hardest dial · Watch: Dark energy
Say: Now the hardest dial of all. Watch how far the video has to zoom in.
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's under a minute.
Ask after: What does dark energy do? What if it's too strong? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Is the universe fine-tuned for life?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: It's the push that makes space stretch faster and faster. · 3. the answer to 2: Space flies apart before a single star forms.
Sources: The cosmological constant problem · Stars and atoms in the observable universe · Barnes, “The Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life” (2012)
Zoom in, and keep going
Say: Our best theory expects dark energy to be enormously bigger than it is. To find the narrow window where stars can shine, you'd zoom in more times than there are stars in the observable universe, more times than there are atoms in it, and keep going.
Say: And that's just one dial of many.
Ask: If you had to set that dial by luck, how likely would you be to hit the window? (Hardly at all.)
Worksheet: Grades 3–4 draw a line from each dial to what happens when it's nudged. Everything is in the clips you just watched.
Worksheet answers: Grades 3–4, Turn the dials: 1-C · 2-A · 3-B · 4-D
Clicks: 1. the line “To find the window where stars can shine, you'd zoom in more times than there are atoms in the universe.”
Sources: The cosmological constant problem · Stars and atoms in the observable universe · Barnes, “The Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life” (2012)
Why? · Watch: Necessity, chance, or design?
Say: So why are the dials set this way? Listen for three possible answers.
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's half a minute.
Ask after: What are the three explanations? What would chance need? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Is the universe fine-tuned for life?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: Necessity, chance, or design. · 3. the answer to 2: A multiverse of countless universes, and there's no evidence one exists.
Sources: Fine-tuned universe · Barnes, “The Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life” (2012)
Three explanations
Say: Necessity? As far as anyone knows, no law of physics forces these values. They could have been otherwise.
Say: Chance? Only if there were a multiverse of countless universes, and there's no evidence one exists. The physicist Luke Barnes says, “‘Multiverse’ is not a magic word that will make all the fine-tuning go away.”
Say: Or design: someone chose the settings on purpose.
Ask: Which one fits a radio with every dial set to your favorite station? Which one fits the universe?
Clicks: 1. the card “Necessity” · 2. the card “Chance” · 3. the card “Design” · 4. the line at the bottom
Sources: Fine-tuned universe · Barnes, “The Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life” (2012)
The scientists · Watch: What the scientists said
Say: Some of the scientists who studied the dials most closely said what they thought it meant. Listen for four of them.
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's about 1 minute.
Ask after: What did Hoyle say? What did Townes win the Nobel Prize for? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Is the universe fine-tuned for life?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: A superintellect. · 3. the answer to 2: The work behind the laser.
Sources: Hoyle, Engineering and Science (1981) · The New York Times, 1991 (Sandage) · UC Berkeley interview with Charles Townes (2005) · Polkinghorne, Science and Theology (1998), p. 75
Not a happy accident
Say: Fred Hoyle was the Cambridge astronomer we met last time, the one who named the big bang. He had long been an atheist. He wrote: “A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology.”
Say: Allan Sandage, who worked under Edwin Hubble, said: “I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle.”
Say: Charles Townes won the Nobel Prize for the work behind the laser, and he was a Christian. He said, “This is a very special universe.” And John Polkinghorne, a Cambridge physicist who was also a priest, called it “too remarkable to be dismissed as just a happy accident.”
Ask: Why does it matter that someone who didn't believe in God said this? (He wasn't hoping to find a designer, but the facts pointed that way.)
Clicks: 1. the line “John Polkinghorne: fine-tuning is “too remarkable to be dismissed as just a happy accident.””
Sources: Hoyle, Engineering and Science (1981) · Fred Hoyle · The New York Times, 1991 (Sandage) · UC Berkeley interview with Charles Townes (2005) · Polkinghorne, Science and Theology (1998), p. 75
Going deeper · Grades 3–5 · Watch: “We wouldn't be here to ask”
Say: Here's an answer people often give. Let's hear it, and why it doesn't explain anything.
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's half a minute.
Ask after: What do some people say? How many marksmen missed? Click once for each answer.
Say: It's true that we couldn't be here to notice if the dials were wrong. But the man who walks away from fifty marksmen would be right to keep asking why they all missed.
Worksheet: Grade 5+ fills in the blanks on the three explanations now; the words are in the clips.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Is the universe fine-tuned for life?”
Worksheet answers: Grade 5+, Necessity, chance, or design?: necessity, Chance, word, Fifty, design
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: “Of course the dials suit us. If they didn't, we wouldn't be here to ask.” · 3. the answer to 2: All fifty.
Sources: The anthropic principle · Barnes, “The Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life” (2012)
True or false?
Do: Read each one and have kids stand up for true and sit down for false. Click to stamp each answer.
Answers: 1. False. 2. True. 3. False. 4. True.
Clicks: 1. the answer to 1: False. It's by far the weakest. · 2. the answer to 2: True. · 3. the answer to 3: False. There's no evidence a multiverse exists. · 4. the answer to 4: True.
Good news · Watch: Who set the dials?
Say: If someone set the dials, who? And does he care about you?
Do: Read the two questions out loud, then click to play the clip. It's under a minute.
Ask after: Who named him? What did David wonder? Click once for each answer.
Prepare: Before class, watch the video lesson this clip comes from, with every source written out: “Is the universe fine-tuned for life?”
Clicks: 1. play the clip (it stops by itself) · 2. the answer to 1: A shepherd boy who became a king: David. · 3. the answer to 2: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them?”
Sources: Psalm 19:1 · Psalm 8:3–4
He is mindful of you
Say: David looked up at the same sky you can see tonight and said: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”
Say: The God who set every dial is mindful of you. He knows your name. The Bible's whole story is about him coming close to us, most of all in Jesus.
Say: Tonight, look up at the sky and thank him. You could pray, “God, you set it all just right. Thank you for making me and caring for me.”
Ask: What would you like to say to the one who set the dials?
Clicks: 1. the line “The one who set the dials so you could be here hasn't forgotten you.”
Sources: Psalm 19:1 · Psalm 8:3–4
Say it again
Do: Say the verse together with the motions, then try it with eyes closed.
Worksheet: Everyone fills in the missing word in their memory verse and colors a star each time they say it.
Worksheet answers: Grades 1–2, Genesis 1:1: beginning
Worksheet answers: Grades 3–4, Psalm 19:1: glory
Worksheet answers: Grade 5+, John 1:3: things
Clicks: 1. the missing word “beginning”
Talk and pray
Do: Talk about one or two of the questions, then pray together. Kids can repeat the prayer one line at a time.
Do: Send the worksheets home, with this part's one-minute Short for families. The link is in your guide, under “Send it home.”
Say: Next time, Part 3: life itself. Can life come from non-life?
Clicks: 1. the prayer
Answer key
Do: Show this when kids check their work, or keep it on your laptop in the presenter view. The worksheets don't print their answers, so this is the key.
Pictures and Scripture
Every picture on these slides, with its credit, license, and a link to its source.