ABSTRACT
Wehave seen in preceding chapters that there is a widespread consensus that modem cosmology has demonstrated that the universe which we inhabit is remarkably finely-tuned for life. l This facthas promptedrenewed interest in theological arguments from design? A counter-strategy often adopted by those who wish to deny design has been to postulate the existence of many universes in which the constants of nature, and/or the initial conditions, are chosen randomly for each. Whilst some authors seem to think that 'vastly many' universes will do the trick,l others are drawn to postulate an infmite ensemble 'characterized by all conceivable combinations of initial conditions and fundamental constants'.4 Although I took issue with the claim in chapter 6, perhaps an infinite and exhaustive ensemble is in a sense simpler than some limited number after all. Be that as it may, we are then not supposed to be surprised to find ourselves in our particular member of the infinite ensemble of all possible universes, since we could only exist in a universe very like ours. The existence of all possible universes is taken to explain ours by the simple maxim, 'Everything that can happen will happen, somewhere sometime.'
