Tuesday, June 26, 2012

The Secular Outpost: 20+ Questions for Theists #6

John Loftus has posted a link to a  list of questions for theists from another blog. Rather than answer all of them in a single post, I will take each of them one at a time. Today:


6.   If you believe the universe is fine-tuned for intelligent life, why isn't our universe teeming with life, including life much more impressive than human life?


Just because we don't see life we recognize in every nook and cranny of the observable universe, doesn't mean that life isn't fine-tuned. Why hasn't it occurred to those who ask questions like this that God's purpose is for life to be exactly and only where it is now found? Also how do we know that if we can exist if all the uninhabitable locations in the universe are not necessary for our own survival on earth? That itself could be an example of fine-tuning and we just don't know enough to be able to tell it yet.

This is definitely how Paul looked at it.


24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25 Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. - Acts 17:24-28

If God would determine the places and times for everyone and everything on earth, how much for the rest of the universe? Of course He's free to make the universe anyway He sees fit  and we don't know all about the design criteria God aimed for. 


The Secular Outpost: 20+ Questions for Theists