Why is there something rather than nothing? Why is that something such that it has the remarkable capacity to evolve into the complex yet orderly universe we behold, so orderly that predictability and science are possible? Why do even the simplest living cells contain genetic information analogous to complex computer codes?
These are not meaningless questions. Nor is it obvious why the only intelligent answer to such questions is simply a roll of the dice. Or that’s just the way things are. In all areas of human endeavor, we look for reasons and causes to account for the way things are. It’s hard to see why the hypothesis underlying all these extraordinary realities makes simpletons of those who propose it.
Bumper sticker philosophy like “Atheism is a myth understood” or “Religion stops a thinking brain” or references to “flying spaghetti monsters” may be entertaining, but, surely, they don’t qualify as loftily intellectual.
English philosopher Anthony Flew, after a lifetime of scholarship and atheism, came to see the existence of God as a cogent explanation for the seemingly miraculous fine-tuning of the universe in its apparent origin.
Alex O’Connor, a contemporary online podcaster, invariably thoughtful and gracious, though still an unbeliever,
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