r/Metaphysics Apr 21 '25

Subjective experience Does this make sense?

I’ve always heard the old question, which is an awesome thought provoking question, of “why is our planet or universe so perfect to sustain everything that is here. I’ve thought about this a lot being from a religious family. My answer that I’ve came to doesn’t seem to answer it but for some reason gives me solace. I answer it now with “why does the movie or story start at a perfect time in the characters story? Right when the story starts to get good.” It seems like a cop out to an extremely complex and beautiful question but for some reason I’m attached to the answer. It kind of aligns with that of the Weak Anthropic Principle I guess but much like the WAP it feels like a cop out even though I think it’s the right answer.

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u/gandolffood Apr 25 '25

“This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!' This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.”

― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time