Cosmology

[Christy]

Can anybody who is studied about the origins of the universe point out what's wrong with this video?; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlLdq1tRcOg&t=12s

[hedrick]

The fine tuning argument is interesting. The most obvious alternative to God is that there are an infinite number of universes, or an infinite size universe with different properties. We obviously live in one where life developed.

As a matter of fact fine tuning is taken seriously by many people who are competent in science and reasonably objective in their reasoning. But it’s certainly not accepted by everyone.

The video has a somewhat bizarre response to ask whether God was fine-tuned. That’s not a typical skeptical response. While no Christian claims to know God’s nature in itself, it’s not typically considered to be so complex that it has a large number of finely tuned parameters necessary. I think that’s just rhetoric.

I’m also not sure I’d call this an argument from personal incredulity or unfalsifiable. But to make fine tuning work we do have to ask whether God is the only way to get a very unlikely event. I think the way the video treats this is unhelpful, however. The last part of the video seems like more rhetoric than useful analysis.

So let’s try to be more helpful. Let’s assume that alternate worlds aren’t a reality (since that would pretty much undermine the fine tuning argument). In that case the fact that all those parameters have values needed to permit life is at least surprising.

But that shouldn’t lead us to conclude that only God could have done it without at least some consideration. What kinds of things can lead to that kind of highly unlikely combination of parameters? The ones I can think of are

* just chance
* an intelligent agent that wants life
* some natural process that is biased in favor of life

The first is possible, but isn’t one I’d choose. How about the last? It’s actually conceivable. Quantum mechanics is very weird. It says that the act of observation can affect what’s going on. I’m not saying that quantum mechanics itself is our explanation. However it is an example of natural law being weirder than you might expect. Perhaps there’s something that causes nature to favor choices that result in intelligent observers. I have no idea what that could be, but I don’t see how you can rule it out. It’s no weirder than quantum mechanics would have seemed before it was discovered.

I also think an infinite universe, or an infinite number of universes is possible. We have no idea what happened “before” the big bang. But there are some ideas, and many of them do lead to many (maybe an infinite number of) universes.

So my conclusion is that fine tuning is very striking, and perhaps it shows us the results of God’s choice, but it’s very far from a proof.

[Paula]

This video addresses objections to the argument from design and seems to hit on many of the points raised in the video in the OP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO-Q...9NftjG&index=2

I do find the design argument persuasive although it is limited in what it can argue. I do think, even if other explanations can be raised, it is a rational inference from the data.