near to death episodes (Endings)

by David Turell , Thursday, March 06, 2008, 18:14 (6104 days ago) @ John Clinch

John Clinch thinks that the weak anthropic principle has great explanatory power. I just don't see that. We have a universe which is extremely fine-tuned for life, roughly 20 major and 80 minor parameters that have been defined. We are here. It is obvious the two statements require each other. We don't know why the universe is so life permitting, we know how it is. Andre' Linde and others use the weak principle to evoke multitudes of universes and by luck we are here in this one which permits us. There is no way to prove that multitude of universes. We can't get out of this one. The most interesting source on this puzzle is John Leslie, retired philosophy professor. His book "Universes" concludes that there are only two alternatives: there is a God or there are multi-universes. (1989) His most recent book, "Imortality Defended", 2007, reinvokes Platonic philosophy. The Big Bang is a creation, with the problem, obviously, by whom or by what. Antony Flew has come to think there is a God. He notes that he is willing to be a flexible thinker, to follow the evidence. Unless you know all the current evidence, you cannot make your own conclusion.