Is cosmic fine-tuning evidence against design? A Bayesian reply

Abstract The fine-tuning argument (FTA) contends that the fact that the universe is life-permitting is evidence for a cosmic designer. I examine three arguments going in the opposite direction, each contending that fine-tuning is evidence against design: a perfect designer would not create laws that require fine-tuning (Licon, 2015), a supernatural designer could create life miraculously without fine-tuning the constants (Ikeda & Jefferys, 2006), and physics itself supplies the objective chance of a life-permitting universe, such that the latter cannot function as evidence for a designer (Halvorson, 2018). Utilizing a Bayesian approach to theory confirmation, I show that none of them succeed.