Objection · Case 08 · Science
Barnes is a Christian and an active advocate for the design argument. Isn’t presenting his review as a neutral technical survey misleading?
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
Barnes is a Christian, and that should be said. His review was published in a peer-reviewed astrophysics journal, and its documentation of the fine-tuning cases has been accepted by physicists who reject the design inference, including Sean Carroll, who debated him and granted that the constants are fine-tuned while disputing what follows. The phenomenon is accepted across the divide even where the interpretation is not, and Carroll’s concession is the cleanest evidence of that.
About this exhibit
This objection is to Luke Barnes’s review of the fine-tuning literature.
Barnes, an astrophysicist, surveyed the technical literature and catalogued cases where small changes to the constants or the starting conditions produce a sterile universe. He wrote the review…
Under Claim 07: The basic constants of physics sit in narrow ranges that allow stars, chemistry, and life, and shifting them even slightly would rule life out.