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Agatheos :

ISSN 2004-9331

2 papers in the library · publishing 2024-2026

Papers

God, Fine-tuning and the Multiverse

Agatheos : January 30, 2026 William Hunt

The multiverse hypothesis does not significantly undermine the fine-tuning argument for God's existence when assessed with Bayesian confirmation theory, but traditional Abrahamic theism fares no better under the same framework. Pantheism, interpreted through integrated information theory, offers a more promising explanation for the universe's fine-tuning for life. Panpsychism follows from pantheism, and an evolving universal consciousness with intrinsic causal power maintains the fundamental constants to enable continuity of this consciousness. This self-preservation objective has causal implications for life's existence, as these constants are also conducive for life. The existence of these constants increases the likelihood of a pantheistic god, providing an explanation for life's existence and continuity without a creation teleology.

Connectedness: A Transformative Feeling and Spiritual Virtue

Agatheos : December 20, 2024 T. Ryan Byerly

The paper introduces and defends a virtue called “spiritual excellence,” which involves skillfully using a worldview—whether religious or secular—to cultivate transformative experiences of connectedness. Drawing on psychological research on awe and ego dissolution, it argues that such experiences have both instrumental and non-instrumental value. Religious worldviews offer especially fertile resources for this cultivation, though non-religious worldviews can also serve. The account integrates features from other leading accounts of living the spiritual life well and responds to objections that the trait is not a virtue.