ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the Confirmatory Version provides very weak grounds for preferring theism to atheism. It also argues that its epistemic force cannot be buttressed with an appeal to other design arguments. The role of the design inference in empirical contexts is to identify and understand intelligent behaviour – and not to show the existence of intelligent agency. The chapter formulates that argument, however, it is ambiguous because there are a number of different ways to interpret the important notion of 'epistemic grounds'. It describes the cumulative design Strategy seems to resolve primary problem by using the other design arguments to provide a fuller picture of the comparative probabilities of the two hypotheses. The confirmatory version of the fine-tuning argument provides a reason for believing the Theistic Hypothesis – though this reason falls well short of being a strong reason. Given the view of many scientifically-minded persons that theism is irrational, this is certainly a worthwhile result.
