Return of the God Hypothesis: Breakthroughs in Physics, Cosmology, and Biology Seeking Evidence for the Existence of God

by Stephen C. Meyer

As philosopher John Leslie has argued,27 contrary to what WAP advocates claim, the origin of the fine tuning does require explanation. He points out that though we humans should not be surprised to find ourselves living in a universe suited for life (since we are alive), we ought to be surprised to learn that the conditions necessary for life are so extremely improbable. To illustrate the fallacy behind the WAP, Leslie likened our situation in our finely tuned universe to that of a blindfolded man who has discovered that, against all odds, he has survived a firing squad of one hundred expert marksmen. Though his finding himself still alive is certainly consistent with the fact that all the marksmen missed, it does not explain why the marksmen actually did miss. Instead, Leslie argues the prisoner should be surprised that he is still alive, because the marksmen are known to be excellent shots and the probability of all of them missing (if they had intended to kill him) is extremely small. Clearly, the WAP makes a logical error. It treats stating a necessary condition of the occurrence of an event (in this case, our existence) as if it eliminated the need for a causal explanation of the conditions that make the event possible.