Atheists like Adam Hazzard argue that God isn’t a good explanation for anything because God can’t be falsified. (Allegedly. Though of course you can demonstrate that God-under-a-particular-description is false, e.g. by demonstrating that the description is incoherent or self-defeating.)
But here is the problem. Whatever happens, you can just say Goddidit! And that provides no illumination. It has no explanatory power. It is truly a black hole of explanation.
Yes, well … then there’s the multiverse.
You know what I’m talking about. The cosmic fine-tuning necessary for our universe to be a life-permitting universe is extraordinarily slim.
It is so slim that countless scientists and philosophers of science from John Barrow to John Polkinghorne to John Leslie (yes, that’s a lot of Johns) have seen the evidence as supporting the conclusion that this universe was fine-tuned for life.
It makes sense. You have an extraordinarily unlikely set of factors all finely tuned for an outcome. The inference to intelligence is hardly a leap.
But wait, maybe there are other universes, trillions and trillions of them! The vast majority are life-prohibiting. Ours just happens to be a life-permitting one. Yes, that will explain the data, and without the need to resort to God.
In other words, the answer to “Why did a particular extraordinarily unlikely event occur?” is “Because you’re in the type of universe where it occurs.”
What a satisfying explanation! It explains so much!
And the best part is that it has the potential for multiple applications.
For example, Bill asks, “Why were the brake lines cut in my car and why did my wife increase my life insurance policy and why does my tea taste funny today?” Here’s the answer: “Well Bill, you’re just in the kind of universe where those things happen.”
Yes, the multiverse is a truly wonderful explanation, because it explains everything while explaining precisely nothing. And that, my friends, is quite a feat.
