Why Is the Universe Overwhelmingly "Inhospitable to Life"?

A reader asks for a response to the following challenge to the theory of intelligent design:

If the universe was designed for life, it must be said that it is a shockingly inefficient design. There are vast reaches of the universe in which life as we know it is clearly impossible: gravitational forces would be crushing, or radiation levels are too high for complex molecules to exist, or temperatures would make the formation of stable chemical bonds impossible... Fine-tuned for life? It woul...