Evidence for Fine-Tuning 1

Perhaps the most widely discussed argument from design in the last thirty years has been that based on the fine-tuning of the cosmos for life. The literature presenting the evidence for fine-tuning is fairly extensive, with books by theoretical physicist Paul Davies (1982), physicists John Barrow and Frank Tipler (1986), astrophysicist Martin Rees (2000), and philosopher John Leslie (1989) being some of the most prominent. Yet despite this abundance of literature, several leading scientists are still skeptical of the purported evidence of fine-tuning. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg, for instance, says that he is “not impressed with these supposed instances of fine-tuning” (1999:46). Other physicists, such as MIT’s astrophysicist Alan Guth, have presented similar reservations. ² As explicated in the Appendix, there is some basis for this skepticism. The arguments for some of the most widely cited cases of purported fine-tuning are highly problematic.