The Case for Theism

[Drew_2013]

Hello Tonus

As I understand it, the "fine tuning" argument holds that there are certain 'settings' for the universe that had to be tuned to a very very narrow range in order to support life. Change any of them even a small amount, and the universe doesn't work. The idea is that the best explanation for a universe that is so carefully tuned that it could support life is that there was a deity who created it that way.

Fair enough.

But if the universe requires such fine tuning and could not support life under any other circumstance, it implies that god could not have changed the settings without breaking everything. Otherwise, the universe wouldn't need fine-tuning; life could emerge under any of the settings. If the latter is the case, then god isn't constrained. But that also undercuts the argument that such a carefully calibrated universe is the sign of a creator.

I see your point. If we observed a universe that didn't supoort or even allow our existence yet we existed anyway, we'd have no choice but to attribute our existence to an on going supernatural act. Although that wouldn't stop atheists from claiming there is some unknown naturalism in the gaps explanation that would account for it . I agree that if God wanted to make his presence unmistakenly known in some fashion God could do so. I conclude that for whatever reason, God chose not to do so. Thats the thing about personal agents, they can do things for reasons we don't know.

The last line of evidence I introduced wasn't the fine tuning argument per se.

4. The fact the universe has laws of nature, is knowable, uniform and to a large extent predictable, amenable to scientific research and the laws of logic deduction and induction and is also explicable in mathematical terms.

I noted characterisitics of the universe we find ourselves in and argued those characteristics are more in keeping with the theistic model than the non-theistic one. I will formally submit the fact there are exacting conditions not only for life as we know it to exist, but even for planets, stars and galaxies to exist. Actually your counter argument is of the type you rejected.

1. If God exists, God would create a universe in which sentient life came about in a fashion that is naturally impossible.
2. The universe allows life in a way that is naturally possible
3. Therefore God doesn't exist.

The falllacy is in point one, the notion that if God exists he would create a universe in which our existence is impossible barring a supernatural occurance and that is the only way in which God would create a universe.