"If the laws of physics were even slightly different, life could not exist. The tiniest variation of the laws governing chemistry would prevent life from functioning. Even a minor change in the physical properties of water would instantly kill us all. This obviously proves that all of the parameters of the universe had to be perfectly designed for us to exist, and only a Supreme Being could have been so precise."
Rebuttal
Suppose you go to a demonstration of archery, and the archer fires his bow at the side of a barn. The bow strikes the side of the barn, and then the archer walks over to the side of the barn and paints a big target around the point where the arrow struck the barn. "There!" he says triumphantly. "A perfect bullseye!"
Would you have a problem with this? Of course you would; he drew the bullseye after the fact! He could have hit that barn anywhere and claimed a perfect bullseye, couldn't he?
Now let's apply this analogy to the argument in question: the universe existed before man, according to both science and religion. Ergo, life came after the universe did, and it would naturally be adapted to the universe's parameters. In this case, the "bullseye" (life) was definitely painted after the arrow struck the target. So when the creationist cries "a perfect bullseye", it means nothing.
Fallacy watch:
The Texas Sharpshooter fallacy (so named because the fallacy was first described as a Texan sharpshooter painting a bullseye around the hit rather than an archer)
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