RE: Let's say that science proves that God exists
February 22, 2013 at 10:51 pm
(This post was last modified: February 22, 2013 at 10:53 pm by Angrboda.)
Oh, and ETA:
Among other problems with the fine-tuning argument that are slowly unfurling before me, as noted, the choice of specific improbable event in the general fine-tuning argument, and in particular your version of it with its emphasis on life, yields another counter-example. Some time in the next century, some people are predicting that artificial intelligence may reach critical mass and begin an asymptotic climb in terms of intelligence. Given the run away nature of anthropogenic global warming, if the timing is right, the singularity could take off early enough to watch humanity and all animal life on the planet go extinct, and early enough for the machines to take over their own self renewal and maintenance. How do you know that god didn't design the universe for the machines, and life was just a convenient stepping stone?
(And more on the back side, it appears prima facie that the fine-tuning argument is at heart a reductio ad absurdum which turns on a) assuming naturalism, b) pick a naturally occurring event, c) show that the probability of that event occurring is too low for it to have occurred naturally. Unfortunately, I'm weak on both symbolic logic and reductio, so I'll leave that to someone else or another day. If true, the argument turns on demonstrating that event P was too improbable to have occurred naturally, which throws off all sorts of red flags.)