you’ve ever asked yourself these “Why is the world the way it is?” questions, you are not alone. Scientists, philosophers, and theologians throughout much of Western history have asked just such questions. And throughout that history, one of the most popular ways to answer these sorts of questions has been in terms of God. On this way of thinking, just as an arrow in a bull’s-eye requires a skilled archer, a universe with the just-right properties of ours requires an intelligence to pick them out. Just as a watch requires a watchmaker, goes the thinking, life requires a designer. This is the basic idea behind what philosophers call the teleological argument (from the Greek word ‘telos’, meaning ‘end’ or ‘purpose’). It is more widely known as
