Restricted Access
Reason: Access restricted by the author. A copy can be requested for private research and study by contacting your institution's library service. This copy cannot be republished
Fine-tuning arguments
thesis
posted on 2017-02-28, 00:04 authored by Saward, MarkOur universe appears to be fine-tuned. That is, it seems that of all the many ways we think universes could possibly be, very few of those ways are life-permitting. Some have supposed that this gives reason to think that God exists, and have, as a result, formulated arguments to that effect. By argument, I mean that they have offered a collection of premises that entail the conclusion that God exists or that God's existence is more probable given the evidence of fine-tuning. It is my contention that the current fine-tuning arguments fail to be persuasive, and that we should be advancing this discussion in terms of how well particular hypotheses explain fine-tuning. This thesis is therefore divided into two parts. In the first part I examine some extant arguments, in the sense of collections of premises and a conclusion, and show where they go wrong. In the second part I examine the role of explanations, and offer examples of theistic and atheistic hypotheses that purport to explain fine-tuning, and some of the challenges they face. I then tentatively suggest that in discussions about God's existence, fine-tuning is better explained by theism.
Awards: Vice-Chancellor’s Commendation for Masters Thesis Excellence in [2014].
History
Principal supervisor
Graham OppyYear of Award
2013Department, School or Centre
PhilosophyCourse
Master of PhilosophyDegree Type
MASTERSCampus location
AustraliaFaculty
Faculty of ArtsUsage metrics
Categories
No categories selectedKeywords
Licence
Exports
RefWorks
BibTeX
Ref. manager
Endnote
DataCite
NLM
DC