We read in Psalm 19:1 that “the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork:’ Paul writes in verse twenty of his first letter to the Romans that “ever since the creation of the world, His invisible nature, namely His eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made:’ In the anthropic principle we seem to have a thrilling confirmation of these ancient passages. Not only does the anthropic principle suggest a creator who is incomparably intelligent and resourceful, but it also suggests a creator who has special concern for us. This is a personal creator, not some abstract “first mover” who uncorked the universe without any evident care for the creatures who would eventually inhabit our planet. Through science we are witnessing powerful evidence that our human destiny seems to be an intrinsic part of a divine plan. No longer do we need to be intimidated by the vast empty spaces of the cosmos. They exist, in a sense, for our sake. Contrary to the principle of mediocrity, we live in a meaningful and purposeful universe. The anthropic principle suggests that human beings are part of the intended handiwork of God.
Leading scientists have acknowledged the far-reaching implications of the anthropic principle. “A commonsense interpretation of the facts.” writes astronomer Fred Hoyle, “suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with the laws of physics.” Physicist Freeman Dyson says, “The more I examine the universe and study the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known we were coming.” Astronomer Owen Gingerich writes that the anthropic principle “means accepting that the laws of nature are rigged not only in favor of complexity or just in favor of life, but also in favor of mind. To put it dramatically, it implies that mind is written into thelaws of nature in a fundamental way.” Astronomer Robert Jastrow observes that the anthropic principle “is the most theistic result ever to come out of science.”
As you might expect, the anthropic principle has provoked a huge debate and a strong reaction. In this debate there are three positions, which for simplicity I call Lucky Us, Multiple Universes, and the Designer Universe. Let’s examine them in sequence. The first response, Lucky Us, attributes the fine-tuning of the universe to incredible coincidence. “The universe,” writes physicist Victor Stenger in Not By Design, “is an accident.”
An accident? Steven Weinberg and Richard Dawkins are not impressed by how improbable this is. According to Steven Weinberg, “You don’t have to invoke a benevolent designer to explain why we are in one of the parts of the universe where life is possible: in all the other parts of the universe there is no one to raise the question.” Richard Dawkins concurs. “It is no accident that our kind of life finds itself on a planet whose temperature, rainfall, and everything else are exactly right. If the planet were suitable for another kind of life, it is that kind of life that would have evolved here.” In science this is called a “selec- tion effect:’ Since we are here, we know that—whatever the odds—the game of cosmic chance must have worked out in our favor.
There is a problem with this reasoning that I’d like to dramatize by giving an example from philosopher John Leslie. Imagine a man sentenced to death, standing before a firing squad of ten shooters. The shooters discharge their rifles. Somehow they all miss. Then they shoot again and one more time they fail to hit their target. Repeatedly they fire and repeatedly they miss. Later the prisoner is approached by the warden, who says, “I can’t believe they all missed. Clearly there is some sort of conspiracy at work.” Yet the prisoner laughs off the suggestion with the comment, “What on earth would make you suggest a conspiracy? It’s no big deal. Obviously the marksmen missed because if they had not missed I would not be here to have this discussion.” Such a prisoner would immediately, and rightly, be transferred to the mental ward.
