Oct 4, 2021 09:17 PM
(This post was last modified: Oct 5, 2021 04:00 PM by C C.)
Weak Anthropic Principle? Not an Explanation but a Tautology!
https://mindmatters.ai/2021/10/weak-anth...tautology/
EXCERPTS: My friend and colleague Dr. Bob Marks has a wonderful podcast with Swedish mathematician Ola Hössjer and Colombian biostatistician Daniel Díaz, regarding a recent paper they published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics on fine tuning for life in the universe.
It’s very clear from astrophysics that many physical variables in the early universe needed to take very specific values — with very little margin for error — to permit the emergence of life. This is quite remarkable, and the authors have written a very nice paper exploring the probabilities involved in this apparent fine-tuning in considerable detail. It’ fascinating and I highly recommend listening to the podcast.
In the most recent segment, “Our universe survived a firing squad — and it’s just an accident?”, Bob and his guests discussed the Strong and Weak Anthropic Principles. Both principles are efforts to explain the fine-tuning of the universe for life.
The Strong Anthropic Principle explains the fine-tuning as purposeful, with a goal in mind. This seems to be the obvious (and I will argue only) explanation for the remarkable and precise fine-tuning that the data reveals.
The proponents of the Weak Anthropic Principle purport to explain the fine-tuning as uninteresting, because without fine-tuning we would not be here to comment on it. We couldn’t not find it, because, if the universe were not fine-tuned, we wouldn’t be here. The implication is that there’s nothing surprising about the fine-tuning and no reason to take the Strong Anthropic Principle seriously — that is, there’s no reason to infer design.
The Weak Anthropic Principle, which is widely held by atheists, is meaningless: Only in a universe that permits the existence of intelligent beings can intelligent beings exist — i.e., only a universe with intelligent beings can be a universe with intelligent beings. The Weak Anthropic Principle is a tautology. And a tautology is not an explanation. It’s merely a sentence in which the predicate is the same as the subject. It’s meaningless.
The Weak Anthropic Principle isn’t a scientific explanation for the fine-tuning in the universe. It isn’t science and it isn’t an explanation of anything — no tautology is.
[...] By contrast, the Strong Anthropic Principle — the theory that the universe is designed for life — is a scientific explanation. Its implications are revolutionary and are consistent with an enormous range of data in cosmology, physics, and biology that point unmistakably to the existence of an Intelligent Designer.
If the scientific profession were not infested with atheism and materialism, the debate over intelligent design would already be settled... (MORE)
https://mindmatters.ai/2021/10/weak-anth...tautology/
EXCERPTS: My friend and colleague Dr. Bob Marks has a wonderful podcast with Swedish mathematician Ola Hössjer and Colombian biostatistician Daniel Díaz, regarding a recent paper they published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics on fine tuning for life in the universe.
It’s very clear from astrophysics that many physical variables in the early universe needed to take very specific values — with very little margin for error — to permit the emergence of life. This is quite remarkable, and the authors have written a very nice paper exploring the probabilities involved in this apparent fine-tuning in considerable detail. It’ fascinating and I highly recommend listening to the podcast.
In the most recent segment, “Our universe survived a firing squad — and it’s just an accident?”, Bob and his guests discussed the Strong and Weak Anthropic Principles. Both principles are efforts to explain the fine-tuning of the universe for life.
The Strong Anthropic Principle explains the fine-tuning as purposeful, with a goal in mind. This seems to be the obvious (and I will argue only) explanation for the remarkable and precise fine-tuning that the data reveals.
The proponents of the Weak Anthropic Principle purport to explain the fine-tuning as uninteresting, because without fine-tuning we would not be here to comment on it. We couldn’t not find it, because, if the universe were not fine-tuned, we wouldn’t be here. The implication is that there’s nothing surprising about the fine-tuning and no reason to take the Strong Anthropic Principle seriously — that is, there’s no reason to infer design.
The Weak Anthropic Principle, which is widely held by atheists, is meaningless: Only in a universe that permits the existence of intelligent beings can intelligent beings exist — i.e., only a universe with intelligent beings can be a universe with intelligent beings. The Weak Anthropic Principle is a tautology. And a tautology is not an explanation. It’s merely a sentence in which the predicate is the same as the subject. It’s meaningless.
The Weak Anthropic Principle isn’t a scientific explanation for the fine-tuning in the universe. It isn’t science and it isn’t an explanation of anything — no tautology is.
[...] By contrast, the Strong Anthropic Principle — the theory that the universe is designed for life — is a scientific explanation. Its implications are revolutionary and are consistent with an enormous range of data in cosmology, physics, and biology that point unmistakably to the existence of an Intelligent Designer.
If the scientific profession were not infested with atheism and materialism, the debate over intelligent design would already be settled... (MORE)
