We are very lucky to live in a universe so carefully arranged that it is possible for us to exist!
ATHEIST: Yep, we sure are lucky!
THEIST: Yep, God sure arranged it carefully!
There is really no other productive argument which can be made along these lines.
Yes, we are lucky. Now explain, using scientific evidence, where God came from.
THEIST: Yep, God sure arranged it carefully! ....There is really no other productive argument which can be made along these lines.
To be truly illustrative, your dichotomy should include some adjectives.
ATHIEST: Yep, we sure are staggeringly, mind-blowingly, down-to-the-most-impossible-and-exquisite-detail...lucky.
The other day I was reading on how stroke victims can slowly heal their damaged brains. The circuitry for living can gradually "rewire" itself through the nerves which previously handled different "information."
How I marvelled. And I also marvel at those who do NOT marvel.
Exactly. I have no problem with the anthropic priniciple, but for what it is - a metaphysical argument - not as a scientific theory or even hypothesis. It's a fact that if the universe was not the way it is we would not be here to question why it is the way it is. As to the answer to that question, well I don't know. Maybe one or more of the religions has it right. Maybe science will someday provide an answer, but currently the best it can say about the reason the universe is the way it is and not some other way is "we don't know."