Objection · Case 09 · Atheism
The firing squad analogy assumes we know the marksmen intended to hit you and that missing is improbable. For the constants we know neither. Doesn’t the analogy import the design conclusion into the setup?
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
The analogy isolates one point: I could not have observed otherwise does not explain why the improbable thing happened. That point holds regardless of whether the marksmen were aiming. The critic is right that the improbability of the constants is the disputed premise, which is the normalizability problem again. The firing squad answers the anthropic dismissal; it does not answer the probability question, and it should not be asked to.
About this exhibit
This objection is to The anthropic reply and the firing-squad response (John Leslie).
Of course we observe a life-permitting universe. If it were not life-permitting we would not exist to observe anything, so no designer is needed, or so the objection goes. But as the philosopher…
Under Claim 03: The basic constants of physics fall within narrow life-permitting ranges, which is evidence of a designer.