Philosophy Radio! drlabasham777's Podcast
Society & Culture:Philosophy
Philosophy of Religion/Introduction to Philosophy: Fine Tuning Arguments for God's Existence
Hi people!
A number of considerations have appeared in the last few decades that turn to science for evidence that God exists, not merely a mental construct. The general form of these arguments is simple,
p1) [some feature] we observe of the universe allows for [life, molecules, whatever you wish that seems important].
p2) This feature has a mathematical quantity.
p3) If this mathematical quantity is randomly set, [life, molecules, whatever you wish that seems important] is highly unlikely it would be set to this mathematical quantity.
p4) If this mathematical quantity is set by an extremely powerful, extremely intelligent designer (something like God), it is highly likely it would be set to this mathematical quantity.
p5) We should accept (all other things being equal) the explanation that makes what we observe more likely.
C) So, we should accept the existence of an extremely powerful, extremely intelligent designer (something like God).
Whenever you see this pattern of reasoning, you are in the presence of a "fine tuning argument" for God's existence.
We will examine what might be termed the "elector-negativity" version of this. But first, a little Earth/Sun distance discussion, so we can more easily understand the pattern of fine tuning arguments.
It's going to get really interesting!
Cheers~
Dr. Lee Basham
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/fine-tuning/
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