Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Is the Earth/Universe "Just Right" For Us?

This is another theist favorite.  Arguing that the universe and the Earth are "just right" for life and how could that be an accident.

There are a couple of major problems with this argument.  The two problems are 1. it puts the cart before the horse and assumes that our requirements were determined first.  2.  It assumes that life as we know it is the only type of life possible.

They can both be summed up in this reply, which I have found to be effective:

"Yeah, it's almost as if we evolved to fit the environment."

If our universe or Earth were different, who knows what form life on Earth might have taken?  No one.  We simply don't know enough to say that other forms of life are not possible.  We have certainly found a wide variety of life on our planet, even living in conditions that would be lethal to most other forms of life on Earth.  So, who's to say that other forms of life wouldn't arise under conditions we would consider to be unlivable.

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