The Dial Fallacy: Why Cosmic Fine-Tuning Arguments Don’t Work

The Dial Fallacy is a version of begging the question that is committed by any appeal to cosmic fine-tuning that considers different possible values of one or more mathematical and physical parameters of the universe while leaving other mathematical or physical parameters unchanged.  By leaving the other characteristics unchanged, the fine-tuning argument assumes the real possibility of a universe where the variable parameters and the unchanged parameters could both obtain at the same time.  However, if all the parameters of the universe contingently evolved in relation to each other, then changing the value of one or more parameter without assuming the other parameters would themselves change begs the question against the possibility of an evolving universe.  If the other…