Big South Trail, Comanche Peak Wilderness [AAW13]
The Big South Trail along the South Fork of the Cache La Poudre River in the Comanche Peaks Wilderness Area is a nice shoulder-season hike, if you want to stay off the snowy high ridges. Our trailhead was at the confluence with the South Fork and main stem of the Poudre. Within a short distance we enter the wilderness area proper and for the rest of the day we walk within earshot of the river. It is about 7 miles to the turn around point. There used to be a bridge there crossing the river and continuing on into Rocky Mountain National Park. The Bridge was washed out long ago and until late summer or early fall the South Fork flows fairly high and fast so we will not be crossing it today.
The trail is mostly wooded with occasional open views.
It is one of those mosquito packed days in the trees. The scenery is mostly close in and I let my thoughts wander as I maintain the rhythm of the walk at a sufficient speed to keep the blood feeders at bay.
There is so much here that is pleasing. The color of sunlight hitting the forest floor, the sound of the river, the cool green vegetation. The trail is only slightly up hill so the walk is easy and a brisk pace is fun. It all seems so wonderful that I want to think it must have been made just for me to be here just on this day. If I had tried to design it all, I do not think I could have done a better job. Even the wood grain exposed in a rotting log on the forest floor is breathtaking.
Of course, it would seem that way. Being one of the numerous lifeforms resulting from several hundred millions of years of evolution of life on this planet makes it so. I breath the air and my body uses the oxygen to propel me along the trail. I drink the water that my body requires (being descended from single cell animals who evolved in water) and the planet quenches my thirst and extends my life a few more hours. My eyes see the light given off by the star we are seemingly incessantly circling. My ears pick up the vibrations in the atmosphere and I hear the birds sing, the river roar. It seems like a day designed for me, but, more likely I was seemingly designed for the day.
The Anthropic Principal, the idea that the physical constants and fundamental forces of the universe (gravity, strong and weak nuclear forces, electromagnetic force) are within a narrow range of values that allow the existence of "life, the universe and everything," gets plenty of abuse these days by those with questionable motives. They present it as scientific evidence that the universe was deliberately "fine tuned" by a supreme-ish being for the existence of humanity, If any of these values were off enough in one direction or another, perhaps humanity would not exist or even the universe would not exist. The concept is used in attempts by apologists for various mythologies to provide a scientific justification for their preferred designer.
But is there any real support for a designer here?
Well, here we are existing in the universe. And it is quite nice. At least it can feel quite nice on a warm day hiking in the mountains. But, actually a vanishingly small amount of the volume of the universe is quite nice for humans. A thin portion of the atmospheric layer on the surface of the earth is all that we know of to be survivable by humans in the entire immensity of the universe. Even less of that thin layer is actually habitable by humans. Drop a human on the 78% of the earths surface that is open ocean and it is animal food within hours. Same for a lot of the land surface - drop a human on the continent of Antarctica and it is dead within minutes. Hardly seems that even our planet is "fine tuned" for the existence of human life. We exist on the earth in spite of its constant attempts at trying to erase us from its surface. In spite of its blatant inhospitality.
If you consider the 4th dimension - time - things seem even less friendly to humanity. Humans have existed on earth for about 200,000 years or so. By definition, that is how long we could have existed since it took from 4.45 billion years ago when the earth formed to 200 thousand years ago for humans to evolve. Carl Sagan famously noted, "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." Same deal goes for humans too.
It hardly seems that the accident of our brief existence would even be noticed by the universe. Humanity exists in such a infinitesimally small space and time of the universe that it seems a bit absurd, and astonishingly arrogant, to think the universe was fine tuned for us.
Ah, but look at this pretty fern.
Here it is existing in a crack in a cold and uncaring boulder along the South Fork. From the ferns point of view, the protection of the crack in the rock and the bit of soil washed in during river flooding seem designed just for its existence. From the ferns point of view the universe exists for its purposes and pleasures. A fern with this view sees a universe designed for a fern by a Supreme Being with infinite love of ferns.
In an open letter to a recent editorial in a national news paper with poorly informed editorial practices, Lawrence Krauss noted (emphasis mine), "The appearance of design of life on Earth is also overwhelming, but we now understand, thanks to Charles Darwin that the appearance of design is not the same as design, it is in fact a remnant of the remarkable efficiency of natural selection."
It seems much more likely that human life on earth is fine-tuned to a tiny bit of space-time of the universe through millions of years of evolution rather than the universe was fine tuned for human life.
This is not sad. This is beautiful.
This is appreciation - a deep understanding - of who we are and the fact that we make our own "why". Our "whys" are not dictated to us by some mystery. We are not here for a purpose other than the purpose(s) we select for ourselves. On this day my purpose was to stroll along the river for 14 miles. My purpose was to be here on this infinitesimally thin little sliver of the universe where I can exist as a part of the universe, as an eddy of stardust, breathing the universe (the chemicals O2, NO2), drinking the universe (the chemical H2O), snacking on the universe (the chemical C57-H104-O6). And my purpose was to appreciate it all because of the chemistry and physics going on inside my brain that give me a temporary and finite consciousness.
It seems to me that the Anthropic Principle and fascination with claims of design are akin to being amazed that my legs are long enough to reach the ground (paraphrased from Abraham Lincoln, perhaps?).
So, we're back to the trail. The route is obvious for only a short distance ahead. And that is fine by me.
