Known in his youth as an atheist, Hoyle became a promoter of panspermia, the idea that aliens have seeded life on earth, and backed away from his atheism. Hoyle likened the chances of the cosmos coming into existence by chance to a solar system of blind men solving Rubik's Cube simultaneously. Hoyle wrote these words:

“ ‘Some supercalculating intellect must have designed the properties of the carbon atom, otherwise the chance of my finding such an atom through the blind forces of nature would be utterly minuscule.’ … A common sense 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 beyond question.”

“The issue of whether the universe is purposive and whether the universe is a product of thought is an ultimate question that is way in the back of everybody's mind … I have to say that this is also my personal opinion, … There are very many aspects of the universe where you either have to say there have been monstrous coincidences, which there might have been, or alternatively, there is a purposive scenario to which the universe conforms.”

Sources: Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith of the American Scientific Affiliation, June 2014, page 113 and Wikipedia.

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