Towards a New

Apologetic
Three lectures by Protopresbyter Dr Doru Costache on the Anthropic
Cosmological Principle and its usefulness for a contemporary
Christian apologetic

Greek Orthodox Youth Fellowship of Kogarah
13, 20 & 27 October 2014
Towards a New
Apologetic
13 Oct - A New Way of Thinking
What is the Anthropic
Cosmological Principle and why
there is there so much opposition
to it?
Old and New
Alliances
In the early Christian centuries, the
apologists sought to ally with the
philosophers against an oppressive paganism
Today, against atheism and agnosticism,
Christian apologists should seek alliance
with certain scientists and philosophers of
science who are not foreign to the
aspirations of the ancient sages
A Context
Modern times and their various issues, such as the
split between (cultural) anthropology, psychology,
biology and cosmology
Cultural shifts between anthropocentrism,
cosmocentrism and biocentrism
Inaptitude for holistic narratives: counting the trees
but missing the forrest, with its corollary, i.e. logging
the tress because there is no forrest to speak of
anyway
Denial of the meaning and purpose of reality
Thinking
Anthropically
The anthropic cosmological principle is a
complex philosophical and scientific
narrative, which proposes the integration of
all aspects of reality - as perceived by
modern culture - namely, human, biological
and cosmic. And because human conscience
can no longer be ignored as significant in
the making of reality, meaning and
purposefulness can no longer be ignored.
Thinking
Anthropically
In the perspective [] of these reaches of space and time, is not
man an unimportant bit of dust on an unimportant planet in an
unimportant galaxy in an unimportant region somewhere in the
vastness of space? No! [] Meaning is important, is even central.
It is not only that man is adapted to the universe. The universe is
adapted to man. Imagine a universe in which one or another
fundamental dimensionless constants of physics is altered by a
few percent one way or the other? man could never come into
being in such a universe. That is the central point of the anthropic
principle. According to this principle, a life-giving factor lies at
the centre of the whole machinery and design of the world. John
A. Wheeler, Foreword to John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler, The
Anthropic Cosmological Principle (Oxford and New York:
Clarendon Press and Oxford University Press, 1986) vii-ix, vii.
A Short History
The phrase anthropic principle was
coined by Brandon Carter
See his Large Number Coincidences and
the Anthropic Principle in Cosmology.
Longair, M. S. (ed.). Confrontation of
Cosmological Theories with Observational
Data. Dordrecht and Boston: D. Reidel
Publishing Company, 1974: 291-98.
A Short History
The classical work in the field is
that of John D. Barrow and Frank J.
Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological
Principle. Oxford and New York:
Clarendon Press and Oxford
University Press, 1986.
My Work
My most recent dealing with the anthropic
principle and related matters: At the
Crossroads of Contemporary Cosmology and
the Patristic Worldview: Movement,
Rationality and Purpose in Father Dumitru
St!niloae. Studii Teologice 2 (2013) 141-63,
155-60.
https://sagotc.academia.edu/DoruCostache/
Papers
Towards the Anthropic
Cosmological Principle
John D. Barrow, we must admit to a rationality larger than
the material universe The Origin of the Universe, Science
Masters series (New York: Basic Books, 1994) 45.
The numbers or constants of nature whose coincidence lead to
the idea of a fine-tuning of the universe (cf. Wheeler)
Integrating conscience, life and physics in one scientific
narrative for which the observers (human beings) condition the
observed (life, universe) the anthropic principle. [W]hat
we can expect to observe must be restricted by the conditions
necessary for our presence as observers. Brandon Carter,
Large Number Coincidences and the Anthropic Principle in
Cosmology 291.
A New Way of
Thinking?
The idea of a rational structure of
reality, at times expressed numerically,
features prominently in the classical
Greek cosmologies, where from it was
borrowed by various Christian authors
Clement the Alexandrian, Exhortation
to the Gentiles 6: the Logos of God is
the measure and number of all things.
A New Way of
Thinking?
The notion of a connection between
the human being and the universe was
shared in common by both the ancient
Greek philosophy and the early
Christian worldview
St Athanasius the Great, On the
Incarnation 41: the race of human
beings is a part of the whole.
Criticisms
The anthropic principle is philosophical in nature
not scientific
As much as we would like to live in a meaningful
and purposeful universe, in reality there is no
purpose to speak of
The anthropic principle is an anachronistic return
to anthropomorphism and anthropocentrism
The anthropic principle ends up in mysticism and
therefore irrationality
Ideological
Presuppositions
Addressing the criticisms
It cannot be scientific to dissociate the human
phenomenon from biology and cosmology, or to ignore
the fine-tuning and its anthropic implications
Behind the criticisms levelled at the anthropic principle
lies the instinctive fear of the critics that the anthropic
principle brings back religion atheism, agnosticism
Reading: St Athanasius the Great, Against the Gentiles 47
(dismantling the logic of dissociating the universe from
the Mind that established it for our contemplation and
wellbeing)
A New Alliance
Insofar as it discloses the meaningfulness
of a universe conditioned by/toward our
existence, with or without it being
endowed with theological connotations the
anthropic cosmological principle opens up
new avenues for the dissemination of the
Christian worldview and values today