Reddit reviews A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos
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Cambridge University Press
Interested in fine-tuning arguments? Luke Barnes is The Dude.
The Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life
A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos
Why science cannot explain why anything at all exists
One of the Big Issues between them concerns the possibility of "brute facts." When do why questions come to an end?
Can you explain something by appealing to a “brute fact”? by Ed Feser
Parfit on brute facts by Ed Feser
@ 50 minutes, Carroll argues that this universe isn't what we should expect if G-d exists. It's too big and too finely tuned. I don't know what to make of this argument. What should we expect?! (If it were up to me the universe would consist of nothing but tropical fish. You're lucky I'm not in charge!)
Carroll considers the fine-tuning argument to be the best argument for Theism, but considers the multiverse a better explanation. No one brought up the notorious BBP:
>To bolster the argument against a multiverse, consider the Boltzmann Brain paradox. A Boltzmann Brain is a hypothetical state in which something like a brain fluctuates into existence, and back out again. However, it is by chance self-aware and thinks it has a memory. The odds of this can be calculated to be a very small fraction of the odds of the initial condition. The odds of an observer being a Boltzmann Brain is inconceivably higher than being a person in a well-ordered universe. The anthropic principle therefore appears to demand that we would observe ourselves to be Boltzmann Brains. With that in mind, we can propose an experiment to test the anthropic principle.
>1) If we are in an extremely improbable state of low entropy, then we require a causal explanation for order. This is necessary for daily deductions and is built into the laws of thermodynamics.
>2) Either we are in a relative state of high entropy, or we are in a relatively low state of entropy.
>3) The null hypothesis is that which is more probable.
>4) Comparing the relative states of entropy of the big bang and Boltzmann Brains, the Boltzmann Brain is more probable.
>5) We are not Boltzmann Brains, so the null hypothesis is rejected.
>6) Therefore, we are in relatively low state of entropy.
>7) Given the degree of entropy, it is improbable to the point of borderline impossible that the universe could have arisen by chance. So following from 1, it requires causal explanation for order. ShamanSTK
The multiverse seems like a means of artificially inflating one's probabilistic resources. If we're playing poker and I get three consecutive royal flushes, you'll demand an explanation. "Millions of people are playing poker, so somebody is bound to get three consecutive royal flushes," won't satisfy you. There's a better explanation involving my (non-benevolent) design.
@ 1:14 Again with the "brute facts"! Carroll insists they're the Bottom Line and he's comfortable with them. How is this not special pleading?
You're thinking the exact thing as most prominent astronomers! The "fine tuning problem"* notices that if the universe's constants like the electron mass, the gravitational constant, and the cosmological constant were even SLIGHTLY different then life wouldn't have been possible. Suggests something deeper...
Sources for more information **
https://www.amazon.com/Fortunate-Universe-Finely-Tuned-Cosmos/dp/1107156610
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-tuned_Universe?wprov=sfla1
You're on to something but philosophers of religion take it a lot further. Check out the argument from fine tuning. The general argument is that basic irreducible constants relating to natural law - eg. the constant of gravity, the mass of an electron, the strength of electromagnetic force - are such that if they were any other value, any sort of complexity in the universe (let alone life!) would not exist at all - usually this alternative universe would be a soup of helium or hydrogen, etc.
Check out this book
https://www.amazon.com/Fortunate-Universe-Finely-Tuned-Cosmos/dp/1107156610
Sorry, I'm not a deist at all, just randomly decided to come in here.