The
proposition that the universe is hospitable to human life,
potentially supporting a teleological argument for God, is
implausible at a first glance. So far as we now know with certainty,
the universe is congenial to human life only on the rind of one minor
planet of one among 1021
stars. Almost all of the real estate of the universe is distinctly
hostile to biological organisms, and this will remain the case as a
matter of the percentages even if the recent success in finding
extrasolar planets turns up some that are good candidates for life.
A
second glance, however, reveals some developments in theoretical
cosmology that may seem to give currency to the old saw that God made
the world for our use and enjoyment. Theists (and a few of the very
few deists there are) draw our attention to the “fine tuning” of
certain physical constants and initial conditions, a fine-tuning that
makes the existence of life possible.
