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Stephen Meyer: Let’s Compare Intelligent Design and Cosmic Fine-Tuning with the Multiverse Theory

Photo: Stephen Meyer, via Discovery Institute.

For the 2021 Dallas Conference on Science & Faith, Stephen Meyer gave a very helpful presentation focusing on how cosmic fine-tuning (there are two kinds) has advanced what he calls, in his recent book, the Return of the God Hypothesis. We’re releasing the video of the discussion today. Obviously, if the phrase is no misnomer, fine-tuning implies an intelligent, purposive agent capable of doing the tuning. Meyer quotes Amherst College astronomer George Greenstein who asked, “The thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency — or rather Agency — must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly, without intending it, we have stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme Being? Was it God who stepped in and so providently crafted the cosmos for our benefit?”

Proponents of the Multiverse Theory have their answer, groaning under the weight of strained conjectures. But Meyer here neatly explains why the theory fails, in two important respects, precisely where the inference to theism — the God Hypothesis — succeeds. For a different take on the conundrum that fine-tuning poses for a materialist picture of reality, see also an episode of Science Uprising, “Fine-Tuning: You Don’t Suck.”