"For example, if the big bang had been one-part-in-a billion more powerful, it would have rushed out too fast for the galaxies to form and for life to begin"
About this Quote
The subtext is doing two jobs at once. On the surface, it sells contingency: galaxies, chemistry, and biology aren’t guaranteed outcomes but products of a particular balance. Underneath, it flirts with a larger argument about meaning and placement. If life depends on a narrow band of initial conditions, it invites the charged question people already want to ask: why that band? Depending on your priors, it can sound like a quiet nod to design, or like a setup for multiverse reasoning, or - in Lanza’s case, often - a gateway to biocentrism, where observation and consciousness get promoted from byproduct to participant.
Context matters because “fine-tuning” claims are a cultural pressure point between physics and metaphysics. Lanza’s phrasing is calibrated for that border zone: precise enough to borrow scientific authority, vivid enough to land as existential drama. It works by converting abstraction into stakes - not “parameters” but “life to begin” - and by leaving the causal chain open-ended, letting the reader supply the philosophy.
Quote Details
| Topic | Science |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Lanza, Robert. (2026, January 15). For example, if the big bang had been one-part-in-a billion more powerful, it would have rushed out too fast for the galaxies to form and for life to begin. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/for-example-if-the-big-bang-had-been-149954/
Chicago Style
Lanza, Robert. "For example, if the big bang had been one-part-in-a billion more powerful, it would have rushed out too fast for the galaxies to form and for life to begin." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/for-example-if-the-big-bang-had-been-149954/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"For example, if the big bang had been one-part-in-a billion more powerful, it would have rushed out too fast for the galaxies to form and for life to begin." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/for-example-if-the-big-bang-had-been-149954/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.





