What’s the name of this logical fallacy?

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When people say that e.g. it’s such a miracle that life on Earth exists because the slightest change in its distance from the Sun or gravity or the lack of water would make it impossible for us to be around – forgetting that our existence presupposes all this. Or an argument for God that it cannot be accidental that we have all the preconditions on Earth to sustain ourselvea and that the way nature and our body works is a miracle – but it’s precisely why it can work and there are many planets where life couldn’t form for the lack of these components.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I’m not sure it’s a logical fallacy, it’s a valid question. As we currently understand it, there are many constants that changed slightly would mean there would be no suns or no chemistry/life.

One of the main responses is around the anthropic principal. If it was different then there would be no-one around to notice.

The analogy I’ve herd is if there is some rain and a puddle forms. You might say the hole in the ground is perfectly shaped for the puddle/water. If the hole was slightly different dimensions than the puddle’s dimensions it wouldn’t fit. But that’s the wrong way to look at things, the puddle will take the shape of the whole in the ground. So it’s not some random chance the hole’s dimension perfectly match the puddles.

One form of the anthropic principle is around many worlds, as in there exist worlds with all the different constants. So we find ourselves in the world that has constants suitable for life.

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