AccScience Publishing / BIJP / Volume 10 / Issue 4 / DOI: 10.18491/beytulhikme.1645
Cite this article
0
Views
Related Info Links
More by Authors Links
Journal Browser
Volume | Year
Issue
Search
News and Announcements
View All
RESEARCH ARTICLE

The Fine-Tuning Argument: Does Science Point to God?

Tufan Kıymaz1
Show Less
1 Bilkent Üniversitesi, İnsani Bilimler ve Edebiyat Fakültesi, Felsefe Bölümü 06800, Ankara, Turkey
BIJP 2020, 10(4), 1367–1381; https://doi.org/10.18491/beytulhikme.1645
Received: 27 August 2020 | Published online: 9 December 2020
© 2020 by the Authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

The fine-tuning argument is a theistic argument which, based on the claim that if the initial conditions of our universe, the physical constants, and the laws of nature were slightly different, then the universe could not be life-permitting, states that the existence of our universe is evidence for the existence of a divine designer. In this paper, I defend the thesis that the fine-tuning argument presents no epistemic reason for a person who does not think that the existence of God is probable to accept that the existence of our universe is evidence for a designer. I argue that the fine-tuning argument can reinforce one’s belief in God, but, if a person is not already assigning high probability to the existence of God, then, based on the other premises of the fine-tuning argument, she should reject the claim that our universe is fine-tuned.

Keywords
Fine-tuning
theism
atheism
agnosticism
Bayesian evidence.
References
  1. Barnes, L. (2012). The Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 29(4), 529-564.
  2. Collins, R. (2003). Evidence for Fine-Tuning. God and Design: The Teleological Argument and Modern Science. (Ed. Neil A. Manson). London: Routledge, 80-178.
  3. Collins, R. (2009) The Teleological Argument: An Exploration of the Fine-Tuning of the Cosmos. The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. (Eds. W. L. Craig and J. P. Moreland) Oxford: Blackwell, 202-281.
  4. Davies, P. (1982) The Accidental Universe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  5. Davis, J. J. (1987). The Design Argument, Cosmic ‘Fine Tuning,’ and the Anthropic Principle. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 22 (3), 139-150.
  6. Hawking, S. W. (1996). The Illustrated a Brief History of Time. New York: Random House.
  7. Holder, R. D. (2002). Fine-Tuning, Multiple Universes and Theism. Noûs, 36 (2), 295-312.
  8. Hume, D. (1748). An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  9. Manson, Neil A. (2009). The Fine-Tuning Argument. Philosophy Compass, 4 (1), 271-286.
  10. McGrew, T. & McGrew, L. & E. Vestrup, E. (2001). Probabilities and the Fine-Tuning Argument: A Sceptical View. Mind, 110, 1027-1038.
  11. Penrose, R. (2005). The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
  12. Weinberg, S. (1994). Life in the Universe. Scientific American, 271 (4), 44-49.
Share
Back to top
Beytulhikme An International Journal of Philosophy, Print ISSN: 1303-8303, Published by AccScience Publishing