Objection: anthropic principle — we shouldn't be surprised we live in a life-permitting universe

Objection: of course we find ourselves in a life-permitting universe — if it weren't, we wouldn't be here to ask the question. Response (firing squad analogy from John Leslie): if you face a firing squad of 100 marksmen, they all fire, and you survive — you should not dismiss your survival by saying "well, had I died, I wouldn't be here to wonder about it." That reasoning does not eliminate the need for an explanation. Likewise, the anthropic principle does not answer the question of why the universe is finely tuned — it merely observes that we can only exist in a universe that permits our existence. The question of the universe's fine-tuning still demands an answer.