God, the Big Bang & the fortunate universe

We live in a universe that sustains life – but what are the chances of that?

And scientists now believe that if the laws of physics were different by just a fraction – our universe would be either empty, simple, or long ago extinct.

If the strength of gravity or the mass of an electron was different by even the tiniest amount, the universe as we know it would not exist. So tiny even that the difference itself is almost beyond comprehension.

Why has this cosmic fine tuning come about?

The philosophical and even religious implications are so profound, that this is one of the most exciting questions in astrophysics.

This is our final in our short series on science, religion and belief.

Over the past 3 weeks we've explored the relationship between science and religion, the persistence of the idea of creationism...and now...why are we here at all? Can science ever answer that fundamental question?

And it’s so exciting that this week on the God Forbid panel, we have two internationally acclaimed astrophysicists to tackle this and much more.

GUESTS:

Luke Barnes - Senior Lecturer and astrophysicist at Western Sydney University

Geraint Lewis - Professor of astrophysics at The University of Sydney

This program was made on the land of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation