The existence of God

[polymath257]

There's a natural bias in the illusion of fine-tuning - only in a universe where the physical constants are within certain parameters, in a region of the universe where conditions are stable enough to permit evolution to the level of sentience, will such an observation occur.

Even if the universe was created by a god, though, it's a long, long slog to try to connect the dots to the god of Christianity.  Its behaviours in the Old Testament don't engender much confidence as to its competence to fine-tune anything, and its temperament doesn't suggest enough emotional stability to stick with it over the long haul.  Sorry.

Thanks for your reply. Fair enough that it doesn't connect to the Christian God. I just wanted to establish that fine tuning points to a designer of some sort. Your argument is that fine tuning is an illusion? There is a real case to be made that there is fine tuning though. If the physical parameters were different we may not even have atoms, let alone life. Why is the universe like that?

And so if the constants were different, we would not have life and nobody would be around to observe that case.

There are lots of alternative possibilities. Here are a few.

1.There is a multiverse with a lot of universes, each of which has its own set of constants and where every possible combination of constants appears in some universe.

In this case, a very small proportion of the universes will have life, but ALL observations by living things will comes from such universes.

2. The constants change from place to place in *our* universe with all the possible combinations happening somewhere. Once again, the part of our universe with constants allowing for life would be very small, but all observations would come from such locations within our universe.

3. The constants vary and their values are pushed by natural laws in a direction promoting complexity. if this happens, the complexity associated with the production of the elements necessary for life and then of life itself would be automatic.

Notice that none of these relies on 'chance' for life to arise somewhere. We just happen to be in one of the locations in which that is possible.

Next, even defining 'fine tuning' is tricky. Yes, the conditions for life might well be very restricted (we do now know this, by the way). But that does not mean that life is the goal when it appears. In fact, the vast majority of this universe is very inhospitable for life. So to think the universe was designed to produce life would suggest a very poor designer.

Another aspect is that it is possible other values for the constants can produce life, but just not life 'as we know it'. For example, maybe fusion happens so rapidly that carbon is rare, but some other element has the correct properties for life to develop. Or perhaps life on the surface of a neutron star is the norm, not life on planets.

To say that the universe was designed for us seems to be more than a little bit of hubris. It is like a puddle claiming the hole in the road was perfectly designed to fit the puddle. Much more likely, as complexity rises, life develops to fit whatever constants show up.