Summary
The universe has a physical structure that is extraordinarily balanced to support life. In fact, it is balanced on a razor's edge - so finely tuned that should parts of the universe's laws and initial makeup be changed ever so slightly, life and matter itself could not form.This fine-tuning is so intricate and "just right" for life that the probability that it occurred by chance is infinitesimally small. The more plausible reason for the universe to be like it is would be that a cosmic Designer designed it.
Class Notes
Suggested Reading
Hugh Ross is a cosmologist and Christian apologist who has a team that studies and writes about the fine-tuning of the universe (among other things) on the website Reasons To Believe. Here are some interesting articles related to the Teleological Argument:- Dr. Ross documents over 150 finely-tuned parameters that he feels warrants belief that the universe is designed.
- Dr. Ross wrote a book Why The Universe Is The Way It Is where he describes certain features of the universe and how it can point away from chance and towards design.
- Dr. Jeffrey Zweerink, an astrophysicist, provides some musings on the multiverse.
Dr. Robin Collins is one of the foremost authorities and defenders of the Fine-Tuning Argument. He has written an article for lay people that describes his stance on the issues titled God, Design and Fine-Tuning.
Dr. Collins also has a short paper titled Universe or Multiverse? A Theistic Perspective in which he provides his thoughts on the multiverse and how, even if it does exist, it, too, would require fine-tuning and therefore doesn't escape the conclusions of the Teleological Argument.
