One of the mainstays of the Intelligent Design movement is the idea that if any of the laws of physics were not exactly as we find them in our universe, galaxies, stars, and indeed life-bearing planets, could not have come into being.

Not so.

Calculations find that many universes could sustain stars
Fred Adams sees stars in the most unlikely places.

His calculations suggest that, contrary to some previous claims, stars are not only common in our cosmos but are also ablaze in myriad other universes, where the laws of physics may be drastically different. Even in a cosmos where balls of gas and dust never collapse and ignite to make conventional stars, radiation produced by black holes and clumps of invisible material called dark matter may play the same role as stars, says Adams, a theorist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

By allowing all three of the parameters, rather than a single parameter, to vary, Adams created a simulation that may embrace a larger number of possible universes, he says. He finds that stars are stable entities in roughly one-fourth of the universes he considered. "That's a sizable amount of real estate."

Had Adams found that the range of parameters that allowed for stars was very small, that would have suggested that the laws of physics in our universe have been "fine-tuned" to allow for star formation, Aguirre notes. Instead, Adams' study shows that our universe doesn't seem particularly special in that regard.

"This open-minded approach can serve, in some cases, as a counter-argument to claims that our universe is fine-tuned for life."

Another argument for creation bites the (star) dust.

We call it petrol, you might call it gas, but whatever it is you'll know that the price has been going up and up and up... until recently that is, when oil prices have fallen back and prices at the pump have started to go down a little. So who gets credit for this reduction? Who else? God, that's who.

Petrol pump pilgrims keep faith
A prayer group in Washington DC is claiming the credit for the recent sharp drop in the US price of petrol.

Rocky Twyman, 59, a veteran community campaigner, started Pray At The Pump meetings at petrol stations in April.

Since then, the average price of what the US calls gasoline has fallen from more than $4 a gallon to $3.80.

"We don't have anybody else to turn to but God," Mr Twyman told the BBC. "We have to turn these problems over to God and not to man."

His first pilgrimage to the pump was prompted by fellow volunteers at the First Seventh Day Adventist Church in Petworth, a working-class neighbourhood of the US capital, who were struggling with higher gasoline prices.

He led them down the block to the local Shell gas station to pray. And over the months since then, he has held similar prayer meetings at pumps all over the US.

Prayer warriors

"We were down in Huntsville, Alabama. We finished praying," Mr Twyman said. "Immediately the owners came out and changed the gas prices. They brought it down. We had marvellous success down in St Louis, Missouri."

This week the group returned to the site of their first prayer meeting to celebrate. Singing "We shall overcome," they changed the words of the well-known hymn to "We'll have lower gas prices".

Mr Twyman is sceptical that market forces might be responsible for the lower prices. But he and his prayer warriors have changed their motoring habits.

"We believe not just in prayer - because we believe that faith without works is dead. So we've encouraged people to car-pool more and organise their days more, because it's a combination of faith with these other factors."

Pray At The Pump plans to build on its success and drive gasoline prices even lower. In the words of Rocky Twyman: "We just thank God for blessing us with small victories and we expect greater things to come."

Of particular note is the fact that this moron is 'sceptical that market forces might be responsible for the lower prices'. So what made the prices so high in the first place? Pixies? Of course, he never blames God for bringing on the massive price hikes which preceded this does he? No, no, that would be Satan's fault, right?

See what has happened here? Some idiot preacher has enough common sense and craftiness to realise that sooner or later the price of oil really did have to fall, simply because its peak was caused by speculation in the market rather than actual shortage of supply. So he started to pray that this would happen, in the full knowledge that it would happen anyway, with or without prayer. It's like praying for rain - during a drought, if you pray long enough, it is guaranteed that it will rain. Eventually. And so it goes on, with these prayer groups demonstrating apparent success, and probably converting more gullible fools as they do so.

Expect more stories like this when the housing market starts to pick up again. "I dun prayed fer the credit crunch t' end and the good Lord heard ma voice. Praise Jeeeeesus."

I don't think further comment from me is necessary other than, "Get a fucking grip on reality, you stupid, deluded, ignorant bastards."

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Footnote:
This article, posted in May before the prices began to fall, notes that the prayer gatherings are not entirely welcomed by the fuel station owners: "Last week, as one of the demonstrations was winding down, an angry gas station manager in Petworth chased them from the property, Twyman said, annoyed that the activists were hampering business." And page two of the article just confirms what I mentioned about the rain. This same group did exactly what I suggested - praying for rain, only for rain to eventually fall. It's always easy to take credit if something is certain to happen.

See what I did there? I disappeared from view again! Okay, this time I am making the most of the good weather and doing some serious gardening. The exercise I've been doing this year (I've lost well over 50 pounds) means that I can now do way more than a couple of hours without getting exhausted or feeling ill, which is fantastic. It also means I have less time on the computer. Which is also great - real life is much more interesting, after all.

The garden is a big job. I've lived in this house for 18 years and have done the absolute minimum outside. And I do mean minimum - when the grass grows tall enough so that I can't see my dogs out there I cut it, and that's basically it. Sometimes not even that! I have a pile of concrete slabs outside which have been there for several years waiting to be laid down as a patio. Still waiting. Until last month (the start of my adventures in the garden) I had a garden with a surface like a rollercoaster because over the years soil had built up in the jungle undergrowth. I've had to strip the entire layer of grass and soil off and am in the process of digging it level and at the same time removing any unwanted growing things (in this case, that is everything).

So that's why I'm away. And it's going to be a while. But I do have a project on the go, a big, exciting thing which I'm writing and which, funnily enough, the gardening is helping. While I dig, my mind is clear of the clutter which usually bombards it when I sit down in front of the computer (the Internet is a habit which is hard to kick), and outside I get more and more ideas, and frequently have to run into the house to write them down. Today was particularly productive in that respect - at one point I just stopped going back outside for a while because I was writing down so much. With pen and paper - no keyboard involved. Anyone still remember when that was the only way to write things?! In the time when I am actually still in the house, or when the weather is bad so I can't go out, I turn the ideas into... things. I can say no more. If I did I might jinx it. Suffice to say, it's something you would never ever expect from me. Or indeed from any of the other YouTube atheists. 'Different' is not the word. Well, yes it is the word, but it's not strong enough.

I'll be around. Not making videos, maybe not even blogging very much, but I'm not gone, I'm just... busy. Sorry!