The chance that higher life forms might have emerged through evolutionary processes is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junk yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the material therein.
Fred HoyleRead
A commonsense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the complexity of the universe indicates an intelligent design rather than random forces.
Fred Hoyle argues that the intricate and precisely balanced laws of physics, chemistry, and biology imply the existence of a guiding intelligence rather than chance alone. He feels the overwhelming evidence from scientific observations strongly supports the idea that nature operates under an intelligent hand, challenging notions of randomness in natural processes.
Themes
Intelligent DesignScienceNatureSuperintellectPhysicsBiology
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on the origins of the universe, one might say, 'As Fred Hoyle noted, the complexity of our existence points towards an intelligent design.'
More from Fred Hoyle
All quotes →Once we see, however, that the probability of life originating at random is so utterly minuscule as to make it absurd, it becomes sensible to think that the favorable properties of physics, on which life depends, are in every respect deliberate.... It is, therefore, almost inevitable that our own measure of intelligence must reflect higher intelligence -even to the limit of God.
Fred HoyleRead
Similar quotes
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Karl PearsonRead
When the wrong question is being asked, it usually turns out to be because the right question is too difficult. Scientists ask questions they can answer. That is, it is often the case that the operations of a science are not a consequence of the problematic of that science, but that the problematic is induced by the available means.
Richard LewontinRead
No one knows the diversity in the world, not even to the nearest order of magnitude. ... We don't know for sure how many species there are, where they can be found or how fast they're disappearing. It's like having astronomy without knowing where the stars are.
E. O. WilsonRead
We didn't build the interstate system to connect New York to Los Angeles because the West Coast was a priority. No, we webbed the highways so people can go to multiple places and invent ways of doing things not thought of by the persons building the roads.
Neil Degrasse TysonRead
The brain of man, like that of all animals is double, being parted down its centre by a thin membrane. For this reason pain is not always felt in the same part of the head, but sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, and occasionally all over.
HippocratesRead
All you are is a bag of particles acting out the laws of physics. That to me is pretty clear.
Brian GreeneRead