(March 27, 2014 at 6:45 am)jesus_wept Wrote: When most people think of an intelligent designer they mean god, but what I dont get is why does god need to fine tune the universe and have it work in a way which is indistinguishable from naturalistic means? Surely god could have made life exist in any kind of universe he wanted? Otherwise why call him god and what is the point in a god that has to play by the rules of nature?
The argument seems self defeating to me .
Exactly.
The question theists have to answer is, could an omnipotent god create a universe of any description he wanted, even one that should not be able to support life, and yet have life thrive in it?
If he wanted for us to see signs of his existence, why a universe that continues to have mounting evidence for a natural origin?
Every time I see the fine tuning argument, I can't help but think of Douglas Adams parable:
"Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, “This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!”
In other words, we are only here having this discussion because the universe is such that it is able to produce and support life. Not because the universe was designed to support life.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
