Journal: Journal of Christian Apologetics
Volume: JCA 01:2 (Winter 1997)
Article: General Revelation And The Anthropic Cosmological Principle
Author: Hal N. Ostrander

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JCA 1:2 (Winter 1997) p. 87

General Revelation And The Anthropic Cosmological Principle

Hal N. Ostrander1

Introduction

The last quarter of the twentieth century has produced an increasing number of scholars characterized by a growing concern for ultimate questions, particularly with respect to those addressing the origin and destiny of the universe. These scholars include philosophers, theologians, and scientists alike, some demonstrating a surprising richness of proficiency in all three disciplines. With the entire cosmos as the object of their intense scrutiny, both on microcosmic and macrocosmic scales, a plethora of penetrating questions is raised at the bidding of these contemporary metacosmologists.2 Why is the universe the way it is? Why does it appear to be finite? Why does it even exist at all? What are the driving forces behind space, time, matter, energy and consciousness, and why are they so delicately balanced that the slightest difference in their fundamental makeup would prevent both the creation and perpetuation of life? Furthermore, what cosmic ingredients are necessary for a universe to exist, and how has it been enabled to support intelligent life? Could there be a range of conceivable universes, each with its own potential for giving rise to special states of existence for various other forms of conscious life? Is it possible to construct universes with different sets of natural laws in which life, intelligence, and self-consciousness could subsist? And the questions go on interminably.

The purpose of the present study is not to provide definitive answers to the above questions but to emphasize the fact that the very createdness of the universe itself can serve us nobly as the impetus for exploring such matters within theistic as opposed to nontheistic frameworks. The universe itself, then, insofar as it displays its “createdness” aspects by way of general revelation and by virtue of the resulting questions it rightfully engenders, gives us a number of reasons to be optimistic about the fact that God has indeed made himself “known” to us naturally, and this has always been the case.3 But if the revelatory insights

JCA 1:2 (Winter 1997) p. 88

normally attributed to general revelation per se are viewed from the vantage point of a single overarching, meta-cosmological rubric of sorts — that of the anthropic cosmological principle — they seem to acquire a collective cogency far more energetic and effectual than at any time previously in the history of theological, philosophical and scientific trialogues.

The Anthropic Cosmological Principle

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