and M.J. Rees, "The Anthropic Principle and the Structure of the Physical World," Nature 276 (April 12, 1979) pp. The term ‘anthropic principle’ (or fine tuning or design qua regularity) is the idea that the universe is structured in such a way that humans will come to exist to observe it. A Primer on the Principle; FAQs. Is the Weak Anthropic Principle Compatible With Divine Design? The Anthropic Principle.

The Doomsday Argument; Further resources.

Notes: See my review on this site of Richard Swinburne's Is there a God?. ; A good online summary of the constants of physics and the parameters of the planet earth is given in Design and the Anthropic Principle by Hugh Ross.


The reader is challenged to give serious and open-minded consideration to the timeless design argument, valid for the apostle Paul and William Paley, as well as for Max Planck and thousands of present-day scientists too. And whereas the cosmological argument could focus on any present event to get the ball rolling (arguing … The argument is that the fundamental laws of the universe are necessarily compatible with human existence and that the laws of nature allow life to happen. 1 Carr, B.J. Professor, Faculty of Philosophy & Oxford Martin School Director, Future of Humanity Institute & Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology University of Oxford. REFERENCES . In recent discussions dealing with anthropic principles there has appeared a new version of the design argument, in which cosmic design is described without the use of ideological terms. Unlike the ontological argument, the design argument and the cosmological argument are a posteriori. Nick's related papers; Elsewhere on the Web; Media & Contact ; About the author. This article is an extract from A Sceptic’s Guide to Atheism, by Peter S Williams (Paternoster, 2009), pp.

In their massive study The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, [1986] [1] John Barrow and Frank Tipler provide the most comprehensive analysis to date of the so-called Anthropic Principle and its relation to the classic teleological argument for a Divine Designer of the cosmos. The Anthropic Design Argument - an extract from 'A Sceptic's Guide to Atheism,' by Peter Williams .
605-612. 191-197, used with kind permission of the publishers. The teleological argument, or argument from design, is considered by many to be one of the strongest arguments for the existence of god(s). The design argument, cosmic "fine tuning," and the anthropic principle JOHN JEFFERSON DAVIS Philosophy of Religion 22:139-150 (1987) ©Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht - Printed in the Netherlands Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA 01982 Nature has been kinder to us than we had any right to expect. A Response to Craig (1997) Kyle Kelly . The weak anthropic principle (WAP), a most critical version of all these principles, describes the fine‐tuning of physical parameters necessary lo the genesis of carbon‐based life. At the same time the article is a good illustration of a theist who accepts both the fine tuning argument and the impossibility of spontaneous origin of life as design proofs. The Design Argument Elliott Sober1 The design argument is one of three main arguments for the existence of God; the others are the ontological argument and the cosmological argument.