Objection · Case 09 · Atheism
A designer who wanted life wouldn’t need fine-tuning at all. An omnipotent God could sustain life in any universe by fiat. Isn’t fine-tuning what you’d expect if life depends on physics, which is the naturalist’s assumption?
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
A clever objection, associated with Hans Halvorson among others. The reply is that theism does not predict that God would sustain life miraculously against the physics; it predicts a universe with regular laws that make life possible, because a lawful world is what allows rational creatures to understand it and act in it. Fine-tuning is what one expects if God chose to create through natural regularities. The objection does show something: fine-tuning is not evidence for every conception of God, only for one that values a lawful creation.
About this exhibit
This objection is to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Fine-Tuning”.
Physicists identify a set of constants and initial conditions that must fall within narrow ranges for a life-permitting universe. The cosmological constant is a standard case. Its observed value is…
Under Claim 03: The basic constants of physics fall within narrow life-permitting ranges, which is evidence of a designer.