Fine Tuning Argument

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THE FINE TUNING ARGUMENT

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http://hettingern.people.cofc.edu/Philosophy_of_Religion/Collins_Scientific_Argument_for_Existence_of_God.htm

The fine-tuned Universe is the proposition that the conditions that allow life in the Universe can only occur when certain universal fundamental physical constants lie within a very narrow range, so that if any of several fundamental constants were only slightly different, the Universe would be unlikely to be conducive to the establishment and development of matter, astronomical structures, elemental diversity, or life as it is understood.[1] The proposition is discussed among philosophers, scientists, theologians, and proponents and detractors of creationism.

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The idea that it is very unlikely that a life permitting universe came about by chance.

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The fact that the dials are perfectly set, or the dart has hit the target, strongly suggests that someone set the dials or aimed the dart, for it seems enormously improbable that such a coincidence could have happened by chance.

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Prime Principle of Confirmation

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If observation O is more probable under hypothesis H1 than under hypothesis H2, then O provides a reason for preferring H1 over H2. The idea is that the fact that an observation is more likely under the assumption that H1 is true than under the assumption H2 is true counts as evidence in favor of H1.

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Surprise Principle

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a principle governing abductive inference; an observation O strongly favors one hypothesis (H1) over another (H2):
a.)If H1 were true, you would expect O to be true.
b.)If H2 were true, you would expect O to be false

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Example of Surprise Principle

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If I am really strong, then I can crumple this piece of paper.
I can crumple this piece of paper.
Therefore, I am really strong (expected)

Example 2:

Observation: Person is carrying a backpack.

H1: person is running away.

H2: person is going to their class.

Due to the surprise principle, if H1 is true I would be less surprised to see the observation if H2 is true.

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The More Fundamental Law Objection

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One criticism of the fine-tuning argument is that, as far as we know, there could be a more fundamental law under which the parameters of physics must have the values they do. Thus, given such a law, it is not improbable that the known parameters of physics fall within the life-permitting range.

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Other Forms of Life Objection and response

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Another objection people commonly raise to the fine-tuning argument is that as far as we know, other forms of life could exist even if the parameters of physics were different. So, it is claimed, the fine-tuning argument ends up presupposing that all forms of intelligent life must be like us. The answer to this objection is that most cases of fine-tuning do not make this presupposition. Consider, for instance, the case of the fine-tuning of the strong nuclear force. If it were slightly larger or smaller, no atoms could exist other than hydrogen. Contrary to what one might see on Star Trek, an intelligent life form cannot be composed merely of hydrogen gas: there is simply not enough stable complexity. So, in general the fine-tuning argument merely presupposes that intelligent life requires some degree of stable, reproducible organized complexity. This is certainly a very reasonable assumption.

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The Anthropic Objection (and firing squad analogy)

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a. If laws of nature not fine tuned, we would not be here to comment on this, so fine tuning not surprising or improbably, but follows from fact we exist
Collins reply:
b. Firing squad analogy
i. If 50 sharp shooters pointing their rifles at me all missed, it would not make sense for me to conclude that it happened by chance (that it was not improbable), since I would not be commenting on this fact unless they had missed

Make more sense to suppose they were not trying to kill me or some other non-chance hypothesis.

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The Multiverse Objection (and reply)

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Large #, perhaps infinite, # of universes with differing fundamental physical parameters

b. In vast majority of these universes, life-permitting values don’t exist, but in a few they do

c. So no longer improbable that universes such as ours exist.