When Science Denies the Miracles Foundational to Science and Progress

So we confront a doctrine that has shaped modern cosmology and philosophy alike: the mediocrity principle. Mediocrity asserts that we are not special, our galaxy is unremarkable, our solar system is average, and our planet is just one of many in the cosmos. According to this view, Earth’s conditions for life are not exceptional but typical of what would be expected in a universe teeming with planets.

This principle has been used to dismiss notions based upon what has been termed an “Anthropic Principle”: the observation that the physical laws of our universe are fine-tuned to allow for life. If we are not special, then the fact that Earth supports life is not surprising; it is simply what one would expect in a vast and diverse cosmos. But this reasoning is flawed. For while it may be true that many planets exist, it should not follow that we have found no others which support life. The conditions required for life are so improbable that even among billions of galaxies, the chance of finding another planet with similar properties may be vanishingly small, perhaps impossible.

Moreover, the mediocrity principle demands we must find no reason to believe in a special role for Earth or humanity. It’s dictatorial and demoralising to the extreme, a cold master that nobody asked for. You see, this presumption is itself an act of extraordinary hubris on the part of creators and proponents. To claim that our existence is unremarkable is to ignore the sheer improbability of the circumstances that made it possible. The fact that the universe’s fundamental constants are precisely calibrated for life, yet life only exists upon our planet, suggests that something more than chance is at work.

We are encouraged in all avenues to ignore this because it violates our presumption of mediocrity. This is not science; it is ideology, purely. Not simply just any ideology either, it is ideology with the results of demoralisation and venality. To dismiss the miraculous universe in favour of a cold, indifferent, and largely invisible multiverse is to deny ourselves. We are here, and our presence is more than accidental.