Transcript: The anthropic principle is an extraordinary idea that is somewhat controversial even amongst scientists. It’s possible that the existence of life in the universe is not an accident, that the role of life in the universe is more central than we might imagine. The anthropic principle postulates that the presence of life in the universe is intimately connected with the properties and structure of the universe itself. There are several forms of the principle. The weak form of the principle is almost a tautology, saying only that we must observe properties of the universe that are consistent with the presence of life. The strong form is far more dramatic, saying essentially that the universe is built for life and must have had life because it contains us. Notice that this idea, the anthropic principle, completely subversed the Copernican principle of mediocrity where there is nothing special about us, our star, our planet, our galaxy, or our biology. It says that we are central to creation and existence. The primary criticism against the anthropic principle is that it’s not predictive in a standard scientific way, but it’s provocative enough to have stirred up debate amongst philosophers, scientists, and even theologians.