What is the Anthropomorphic Principle?

Question: What is the Anthropomorphic Principle?

Answer: The Anthropomorphic Principle suggests that the Universe appears to be find tuned to support human life…or that it was prepared for human beings.

When you look from the perspective of a scientist at the universe, it looks as if it knew we were coming. There are 15 constants – the gravitational constants, various constants about the strong and weak nuclear force, etc. – that have precise values. If a any of any one of those constants was off by even one part in a million, or in some cases, by one part in a million million, the universe could not have actually come to the point where we see it. Matter would not have been able to coalesce, there would have been no galaxy, stars, planets or people. (Francis Collins, the Language of God., quoted in the Reason for God, Keller, p 134)



Some physicists have explored the notion that if the dimensionless physical constants had sufficiently different values, our universe would be so radically different that intelligent life would probably not have emerged, and that our universe therefore seems to be fine-tuned for intelligent life. The anthropic principle states a logical truism: the fact of our existence as intelligent beings who can measure physical constants requires those constants to be such that beings like us can exist. There are a variety of interpretations of the apparent fine-tuning, including a divine creator (the apparent fine-tuning is actual and intentional), or that ours is one universe of many in a multiverse (e.g. the Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics), or even that a universe without the capacity for conscious beings cannot exist. (Wikipedia/Physical constants)



(Find list of constants)

The explanation for how our solar system formed leaves us with many mysterious coincidences. The precise size and position of the moon cause it to exactly cover the sun during an eclipse. The synchronous revolution of the moon and the earth keep the same side of the moon always facing the earth. The prefect distance between the earth and the sun places the earth in a very “restricted” habitable zone, where water can exist in all three of its forms—liquid, solid, and vapor. (The Source, John Clayton 2001, p101)







Preconditions which optimize life

Having the Right kind of Space in space (Essential pre-condition)

Being in the right kind of Galaxy

Being in the right place in the Galaxy

Having the right kind of star

Being the right distance from the star

Having the proper planetary mass

Having the proper planetary spin

Having the proper planetary tilt

Having comet sweeping planets

Not being near a black hole

Having a large solitary moon

Possessing a magnetic field capable of shielding the Earth

(The Source, Clayton p 24)





Standard Objections:

Standard Objections (or Counter Offers)










1) (The Weak Anthropomorphic Principle.) We sense that the universe was designed on our account is tied to fact that we are in fact, here. It is about like the discovery that our shadow connects to our feet. (Should the universe not be of such of a form to support human life, no human would be present to offer the suggestion.) A man who finds himself wrecked on a desert island, may wonder at providence or his good luck, when in fact the island was just there (and all those who did not find such an island are in no condition to ascertain their fortune or lack thereof.)

Before shooting an arrow at a target, it seems highly unlikely that one will hit the bull’s-eye. After the fact, the trajectory appears all but inevitable.


2) The fine tuning argument assumes that many constants are indeed very narrow. But it may be that these constants are not nearly as narrow as suggested, or that if altered, other life forms might have emerged. (It is very difficult to create a climate consisting of different universal constants, and thereby test the impact of altered numbers!)

3) These constants (or the Laws of Science) are descriptive, but not “applied” There are no absolutes (or transcendent Laws governing the Universe) and all such constants simply reflect the mechanical properties of the parts. Nature being what it is, is what it is.)

4) Given enough time, anything can happen.

5) Given enough locations (or Universes) anything can happen.

6) Anything can happen. (Because there are no real rules ---and science is built on an illusion of predictability.)



As an argument, the Fine Tuning or Anthropomorphic Principle must be a pretty powerful one, because there are a lot of fierce rebuttals being published about it. The most common rejoinder, which Richard Dawkins makes in the book The ‘God Delusion’ is that there may be trillions of universes. (Keller, the Reason for God, p135)


Again, as a “proof” the Fine-Tuning Argument is rationally avoidable. Though there’s not a shred of proof that there are many universes, there’s also no way to prove that there aren’t.

However, as a clue, this line of thinking has force. Alvin Plantinga gives this illustration. He imagines a man dealing himself twenty straight hands of four aces in the same game of poker. As his companions reach for their six-shooters the poker player says, “I know it looks suspicious! But what if there is an infinite succession of universes, so that for any possible e distribution of poker hands, there is one universe in which this possibility is realized? We just happen to find ourselves in the one where I always deal myself four aces without cheating.” (quoted Keller, RfG p 135)


Find and list some of these constants.