antropic argument

The basis of this argument is the Anthropic Principle. This is the philosophical consideration that observations of the physical Universe must be compatible with the conscious life that observes it. In other words, the Universe is Fine-Tuned for the existence of life. Two types of this principle are the Strong Anthropic Principle (SAP) and the Weak Anthropic Principle (WAP). SAP argues that the Universe is "compelled" or driven to eventually create life, that possibly a higher being or God is compelling or driving the Universe. WAP brings in the Multiverse theory, that there are multiple universes. Only the universes capable of supporting life will life eventually form to observe their universe, while non-life supporting universes will never be observed.

refutation :

Both SAP and WAP have been dismissed as truisms or trivial tautologies, that is, statements true solely by virtue of their logical form and not because a substantive claim is made and supported by observations of reality. Such an example would be the statement "if things were different, they would be different." If WAP is right and there are multiple universes, each being different from one another, it doesn't being to describe how they would be different. I believe there have been advances in research into the makeup of different universes via super computers, but that's for another thread. A critical term was brought up in the first paragraph, Fine Tuning. Many theists cite how the universe is so finely tuned such that if one of any innumerable constants were changed, life would not be possible. I've seen/heard them talk about the gravitational constant, the mass of a proton, and several others, but I know of two big problems with this form of argument. First off, as mentioned above, this is a truism. Yes, if the mass of a proton were different, things would be different, but we have no easy way of showing how they would be different. It's possible in one universe where the mass was different there'd be no life, but also possible in another universe with the same different mass life would still exist, albeit in a different form than we know it. Second, the Universe itself isn't very fine tuned for life. The visible matter we see only makes up a small portion of the universe. Deadly gamma radiation all throughout the cosmos. The large, vast distances between planets, stars, galaxies. The size of the Universe itself. God needed to create something so large just so we could be born and occupy one planet out of the countless others?