(December 2, 2014 at 10:14 am)Heywood Wrote: Other than me, how many other theists have you seen claiming that the universe is fine tuned for emergent complexity? Google "fine tuned for emergent complexity" (make sure you include the quotes). As far as I know I am the only theist who contributes to the internet who looks at the universe this way. You know why they do not? Because it means the universe is what is a special creation of God....not life.As I said before, this is just kicking the can down the road. The uniqueness of your reason for fine tuning doesn't magically make fine tuning in and of itself a reality. You have yet to provide an example of any physical constant having a different value or describe a mechanism by which the constants could vary. Conjuring a god or a multiverse as something that could change universal physical constants and then pointing to fine tuning as evidence/proof of a god or a multiverse is circular reasoning.
(December 2, 2014 at 10:14 am)Heywood Wrote: Maybe it is a curse or maybe it is a blessing but I have come to realize that this universe is something special. Only a multi-verse or God can credibly explain it(I have rejected all other explanations I have heard). I lean toward God for reasons stated in this thread and others.
I too consider the universe as something special; it's home. I marvel at its scale, beauty, and wonders. I am continually fascinated by what we have collectively come to understand, the history of the discoveries and the enigmas that remain.
I believe you arrived at the god or multiverse conclusion through good intentions, but the reasoning is still circular. Both suffer from a lack of explanatory power and invoke more questions than they resolve. I'm okay with the wild speculations that come with asking 'what if the constants were different?'. Speculation has often been a nursery for lines of scientific discovery, but prematurely drawing conclusions based on this speculation is unscientific and intellectually reckless.
I thought I would also explain my insistence on using lowercase 'g' god rather than God in this discussion; I am not doing it in a belittling fashion. Assuming for a moment that fine tuning had any merit, the most you would get is a deistic watchmaker god. There is no way to get from there to the God of the Bible; there are simply no dots to connect. In fact fine tuning presents significant problems for God's customary attributes. Fine tuning suggests that God would be limited to choosing between physical constraints. Not only does this shatter the omnipotent bit, but begs the question 'what is the source of the constraints?'.
