Fine tuning argument assessed

[hatsoff]

This universe/life within it doesn't seem a bit improbable to you?

Improbable in what sense?

Granted, the appearance of life on earth seems like a very improbable occurrence given what we know of the conditions at the time. But that's not what fine tuning is about. Instead, fine tuning regards the formation of the universe, not the formation of life on earth. We know very little about the formation of the universe. I don't have an probabilities to assign to it, and neither do scientists. All they can do is point to how relatively tiny are the life-permitting ranges for the physical constants. But they have no way to overlay probability distributions on those ranges. That's why philosophers like Robin Collins have to develop machinery (namely, a suitable principle of indifference) to do it themselves---because there is no science behind it.