INTRODUCTION

 

Bismillāhir Rahmānir Rahīm, As-salāmu ʿAlaykum wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuh. Peace be upon you brothers and sisters.

 

Welcome back to the Muslim Converts Channel!

 

The argument from Design brings us to our last argument for God’s existence. Note that there are about 11 to 13 arguments for God’s existence, but we’ve chosen the three most prominent ones.

 

The argument from Design has a wide range of different arguments. At its most basic level, this argument states that if we observe design in nature, we can often conclude that there is a designer behind the design since random chance is impossible or nearly impossible.

 

There are plenty of arguments from design. The two prominent ones stem from biology and cosmology.

 

In this lesson, we’re going to cover the cosmological version of the argument from design and we will support it with arguments from recent discoveries in cosmology.

 

BODY OF TEXT

 

The cosmological version of the argument from design is known by different names such as the teleological argument or the argument from fine-tuning.

 

The argument goes like this:

 

1. The fine-tuning of the universe is due to either physical necessity, chance, or design.
2. It is not due to physical necessity or chance.
3. Therefore, it is due to design.

 

So let’s open the argument up

 

Physical Necessity

 

A life-inhibiting universe is far, far more likely than a life permitting universe. The universal constants that currently exist that make life possible in the universe are infinitesimally unlikely. The alternative is much more likely and as such, physical necessity is out of the question here. There is no evidence that fine-tuning is physically necessary.

 

Let’s look at some numbers:

 

Scientists have discovered the numbers of physical constants that permit life in the universe. They fall within a very narrow life permitting range. If these numbers were to alter even by a little bit, life in the universe could not exist.

 

The force of gravity for example is set by a gravitational constant, if this number varied by just one in 10 to the power of 60, no human would exist.

 

Another example is the cosmological constant. If its value changed by one part in 10 to the power of 120, the universe would either expand too rapidly or too slowly, in either case the universe would be life-prohibiting.

 

If the current distribution of mass and energy changed by 1 part in 10 to the power of 10 to the power of 123, the universe could not host life.

 

Chance

 

The probabilities involved are so remote that all of these measures and numbers would come into one place in our universe is practically impossible. Most scientists don’t even consider this. In order to explain our current fine tuning, they tend to argue for the existence of a multiverse where the existence of enough universes, or an infinite number of universes, would make the existence of our fine tuning possible.

 

In other words, if there are enough universes in existence, chances are that one universe like ours may come about and we’re just the lucky ones. The problem with this argument is that there is no evidence for a multiverse as the top physicist Roger Penrose argues.

 

Design

 

So what’s left here that the current constants and numbers are the product of design and therefore a designer. In monotheistic religions like Islam, we believe that God is just another name for the Designer of the universe.

 

Until Next Time, Thank you for watching. As-salāmu ʿAlaykum wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuh