Peter van Inwagen - Does a Fine-Tuned Universe Lead to God?

We human beings sit roughly midway between the sizes of atoms and galaxies, and both must be so perfectly structured for us to exist. It’s called ‘fine-tuning’ and it’s all so breathtakingly precise that it cries out for explanation. To some, fine-tuning leads to God. To others, there are non-supernatural explanations. Both are startling.

Peter van Inwagen is an analytic philosopher and the John Cardinal O’Hara Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.

Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[willbrink]

I'm agnostic at best but the fine tuning issue is the most compelling of higher consciousness being involved. Hard evidence, no, compelling, yes.

[docdaytona]

I just wish a LOT more people in both ‘camps’ on this question were okay with saying “I don’t know.”

I get the sense that we might currently be working with 50 pieces of a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle. And maybe that’s a charitable reading of the actual knowledge acquired.

[bobs]

As Sabine Hossenfelder observes, both the fine-tuning argument and the notion of the multiverse are nonscientific, largely because neither can be tested. Since there is no other approach to answering the question of why things are the way they are, it is entirely reasonable to ask which of these two particular notions about the subject is a better explanation. On the one hand, the notion of the multiverse is not just conjecture. As Max Tegmark correctly observes, the notion of the multiverse is a prediction made by established, scientific theories in physics. On the other hand, the notion of fine tuning is indeed just conjecture derived from religious scripture. I'd say, then, that of these two the notion of the multiverse is the much better explanation.

[Stegosaurus]

A great conversation between two brilliant yet humble thinkers.

[mohdnorzaihar]

Cant go beyond our limited human capacity..IQ + EQ + GUIDANCE = TRUTH..peace be upon us all

[gklgspy]

Comparing the 'odds' of the conststants being what they are to poker is just as obtuse, in my opinion. We can calculate the odds of card game outcomes. We have no idea what the probable or even possible values of the constants are or can be.
More apologetic nonesense.

[JesseRedmanBand]

I believe in provable science. But scientists are more willing to believe in multiple universes for which there is not even a shred of verifiable evidence over a common sense conclusion shows me that their belief system requires much more faith than a belief in a higher power as the explanation.

[ItsEverythingElse]

"any given set of precise values is as improbable as any other".... that's the whole point!

[tedgrant]

Fine Tuning is just one of many puzzles in science.
For example, what causes electrons to move ? Nobody knows.
Apparently, they never rest, even though they have a rest mass !

[dougsmith]

A fine-tuned universe might lead to God if the universe was really fine-tuned. But the ratio of living / conscious stuff to non-living stuff is so laughably tiny -- fractions of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction percent -- that evidence of intent becomes indistinguishable from chance.

[SimonBrisbane]

The reason why multiverse arguments are inferior is because they only kick the can further down the road. Where did they come from? Were their physical properties set by a creator?

[musicaangomera]

Why do people search for man in beard creating the Universe with his finger? The damage religion has done to humanity is irreparable. The problem is in the definition of God itself, God is not a man. The energy of what everything is made and its intelligent order - including the Universe and you reading this - is God itself. You wouldn't see a truck coming to hit you, would you?

[anteodedi]

Van Inwagen puts this pretty well. Arguments don't have the weight people usually think they have.
Theory is always prior to arguments.

[gloaming]

Why assume the universe is fine tuned? The only thing fine tuned is our minds as they have adapted to find significance in all things related to this niche in space time. Ultimately the orbit of the planets and math itself could be argued to be as significant and fine tuned as a mentally ill man seeing the word of God in a can of alphabetti spaghetti as its thrown in the air and spills out. That inner sense of significance we feel about anything is the great decider IMO.

[l.w.paradis]

Oops, he made an error at the start concerning probabilities. He also took our experience of causality within the universe and presumed it exists externally to the universe. Hume gave this argument a superb analysis, he didn't dismiss it, but . . . Well. It's not that strong.

[fjgiie]

Does a fine-tuned person lead to a new planet for us to live on?

[TheWeb]

Hmmm seems to me that poker game analogy can only work as an analogy when you presuppose agency behind the constants of nature. I'm not convinced...

[notgary]

@5:01 "If you unite 'multiple universes' with the laws of chance and assume that multiple universes can reset the laws of physics all the time..." I don't understand why this is considered a reasonable assumption, unless every universe has some kind of fully novel origin. That is, if you postulate a cyclical existence of each universe, or if you postulate that there's some origin invoking bubbles, then each universe has a common origin and one would (logically, in my opinion) think these all would exhibit the same properties.

One problem with extrapolating a "fine tuner" is that the laws of physics in the fine tuner's realm would have to be set so the fine tuner could exist. So, by this logic, the fine tuner must have had a creator...and so on ad infinitem.

[browngreen]

All it means is that Existence is cool enough to allow living creatures like ouselves to come into being. Unfortunately, it looks like we're headed towards an early extinction.😢