Why is the physics of the universe “just right” for life to appear?

Spiral galaxy

Quick answers to common questions

The universe looks like it was designed.

Cosmologists have found that the physics – the laws and the numbers – all seems to fit together just right to produce a universe that permits life and allow us to live and observe it all.

If anything was a little different, we wouldn’t have been here.

But how did this happen?

  1. Was it an amazing coincidence?
  2. Is there some underlying physical necessity that meant it couldn’t have been any different?
  3. Is there a supernatural creator who made it this way?
  4. Or zillions of universes and naturally life only involved in the rare universe that supports life?

The cosmologists tell us a coincidence is impossibly unlikely. And they can find no reason why it had to be this way. So it was either God, or there are many, many universes – or maybe both of these.

Read the full page Was the universe designed for us?. Or return to the Q & A index page.