2012/01/28 by Victor J. Stenger, V. J. Stenger, Stenger, Victor J.
Arts and Humanities · Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #Evolution and Science Education #FOS: Physical sciences #History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph) #Popular Physics (physics.pop-ph) #Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life #Theology and Philosophy of Evil #astro-ph.CO #physics.hist-ph #physics.pop-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1202.4359
arxiv created 2012/01/28 · openalex publication_date 2012/01/28 · arxiv updated 2012/02/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In 2011, I published a popular-level book, The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning: Why the Universe is Not Designed for Us. It investigated a common claim found in contemporary religious literature that the parameters of physics and cosmology are so delicately balanced, so "fine-tuned," that any slight change and life in the universe would have been impossible. I concluded that while the precise form of life we find on Earth would not exist with slight changes in these parameters, some form of life could have evolved over a parameter range that is not infinitesimal, as often claimed. Postdoctoral fellow Luke Barnes has written a lengthy, highly technical review [arXiv:1112.4647] of the scientific literature on the fine-tuning problem. I have no significant disagreement with that literature and no prominent physicist or cosmologist has disputed my basic conclusions. Barnes does not invalidate these conclusions and misunderstands and misrepresents much of what is in the book.