{"id":375,"date":"2010-08-15T01:01:25","date_gmt":"2010-08-14T15:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asktheatheist.com\/?p=375"},"modified":"2010-08-15T01:01:25","modified_gmt":"2010-08-14T15:01:25","slug":"the-anthropic-principle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asktheatheist.com\/?p=375","title":{"rendered":"The Anthropic Principle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Question from Alanis:<\/strong>
\n
\nIn Richard Dawkins’ widely acclaimed book “The God Delusion” he dedicates a few pages to the Anthropic Principle, emphasizing that it is an alternative to the argument for fine tuning\/design, rather than a factor of it. Please elaborate on what Richard could possibly mean by that. From my (admittedly weak) understanding of the anthropic principle, all it states is that given the fact that we are here to observe it, it should not be surprising that life originated in the universe. I do not see how that debunks or supports intelligent design in any way.
\n
\nAnswer:<\/strong>
\nDawkins’ point relates to probability. The fine-tuning argument as it relates to Earth, for example, is that it’s so staggeringly unlikely that Earth would be just the right size, distance from the sun, elemental composition, etc. that it must have been created specifically so that life could exist here. The anthropic principle is that we would be considering the same thing from whichever<\/em> planet we had emerged on.
\n
\nThe sheer number of planets in the universe (probably within one order of magnitude of the number of stars, about ten thousand billion billion) goes a long way towards balancing out the low probability that any given planet will produce life, giving the universe as a whole a more reasonable chance of naturally producing life somewhere. Even so, the nature of people (hence “anthropic”) is that we consider only the aspect of this calculation which gives a low probability and therefore makes us feel special.
\n
\nOf course there’s also the fine-tuning argument which relates to the whole universe, not just the planet. The anthropic principle applies in that case if you consider the possibility of a multiverse. That hasn’t been confirmed or debunked, but there are other replies to that sort of fine-tuning argument which don’t rely on the anthropic principle at all so it’s not a critical point.
\n
\nGames of chance make a good analogy. Whoever wins the lottery feels special, or even blessed, but they forget that millions of people have also played and the chances that someone won’t<\/em> win the jackpot decrease rapidly as successive weeks are considered. The chances for an individual are millions to one, but someone’s going to get rich eventually.
\n
\n– SmartLX<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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