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I can see that you are well-versed and knowledgeable in this area. Your counter-arguments are thought-provoking. It is plausible that energy from the earth's crust would be sufficient for life, however, that is only one factor out of many. There are, of course, other factors I did not mention: Amount of hydrogen in the universe, for one. Does Jupiter, with its immense gravitational pull, also not serve as a bulwark of sorts, protecting the Earth from collisions with various space rocks? One could justifiably extrapolate from the anthropic principle that the universe and solar system are fine-tuned expressly to support life on earth. Of course, this conclusion springs from my judeo-Christian worldview. I believe it can be shown, if a person be honest, that one's worldview is the basis and starting point for all scientific and moral beliefs. With the advent of naturalism in the 19th century, science shifted from its based in judeo-Christian thought ("uniformity of natural causes in an open system") to "uniformity of natural causes in a closed system." Indeed, the explosion of scientific breakthroughs from the 16th to 18th centuries are directly attributable to theistic men (many of them Christian), to wit: Newton, Copernicus, Galileo, Pascal, Bacon, etc. Indeed, Christian thought. is responsible for the scientific breakthroughs in history - anyone who takes an objective look at the past will have to admit this. These breakthroughs did not come from China or Asia because those worldviews did not have the correct philosophical foundation that would enable such discoveries. For instance, relativistic worldviews (e.g. "both and") is not conducive to scientific discovery, since it is plain that the universe is ordered. In the late 17th century, a shift occurred with the faulty philosophies of Hegel, Hume, Kant, Freud, Darwin, Marx, et al. Science is philosophically driven. There is no such thing as an unbiased scientist because one interprets the evidence through the lens of his particular worldview. Presently, science is being monopolized by dogmatic neodarwinian naturalists who are terrified that judeo-Christian thought might creep back into the picture and people may begin to question the status quo (which is happening). Where am I going with this?

Your mention of hydrogen is an interesting note. In the bang concept of creation, the first stars were void of the heavier elements ... hydrogen, helium and lithium, are theorized to be the stuff of first stars. Only after these first stars were destroyed by using up their elements in fusion reactions did heavier elements come to exist in the spacetime realm. There is a small problem with this notion however, since heavier elements have 'coalesced' in the planets and lighter elements have coalesced in gas giant planets, while the lighter elements still run the fusion reactions on the sun. [The existence of neutron stars leftover from super novas and black holes lurking about explains the heavier elements to be coalesced in later solar systems, but the questions of why the future solar systems aligned as they have is still open for theories. There is a recent Discover magazine --or was it a Scientific American article?-- that discusses these questions more effectively than I could. You might find it of interest by doing a site search at the mag sites.] Now, as we discover planets around other stars, we're finding that other (some) solar systems have gas giants in tight orbits around the star ... out of place according to the current explanation of solar system formation.

The location of Jupiter and Saturn in our solar system have tended to do what was witnessed with the meteor impacts on Jupiter, they tend to sweep up debris sailing around or dropping out of distant location at the edge of our solar system. That sweeping action has allowed this planet to sustain life long enough for intelligent life to arise.

And that brings me to the central point of the anthropic principle, the notion that the balance of fundamental forces, so finely tuned at such improbable ratios, is essential to our intelligent life manifesting in the universe and that manifestation may be the reason the forces are so tuned ... so the universe may become aware or be sensed. Cosmologists apply the anthropic notion as a means to shortcut their search for a unifying theory of everything, kind of like peaking at the answer to a calculus problem then backing up in the calculations to find the proper equational flow.

Christian thought is responsible for the scientific breakthroughs in history...

Exactly. As well as the foundation of our governing principles.

By it's very definition, Christianity compels the individual to take God's earthly creation and make it fruitful and righteous, as a reflection of His grace.

Unlike ever other religion in history, Christianity charges its flock to seek, grow and glorify in this life, rather than merely preparing for the next life.

The Pilgrims had it right.

COLOSSIANS I:10-11 "That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.