The anthropic principle is the concept that the universe has characteristics that, beyond coincidence, have allowed the evolution of intelligence. Because the proponents (mainly cosmologists) of this concept do not specify that a higher being is responsible for creating these characteristics, the anthropic principle differs from creationism and intelligent design, which attribute all complexity to a creative intelligence. First named in 1973 by cosmologist Brandon Carter, the anthropic principle maintains that human observers can deduce certain characteristics about the universe simply from the fact that they exist and are capable of studying it. In its strongest form, the anthropic principle insists that no universe could exist that did not have characteristics that would allow the evolution of intelligence at some point in its history. This principle relates to evolutionary science in that, if the principle is true, the evolution of intelligence could not have been a contingent (or chance) event.

Many cosmologists, such as the British Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees, consider the anthropic principle to be a tautology: Humans are here because humans are here. Others claim that it provides useful insights. From the evolutionary perspective, to say "the universe is just right for life" is backward; instead, life has evolved to fit the conditions of the universe. If the conditions had been different, life would have evolved differently. Anthropic theorists point out that physical constants of matter and energy took form during the first brief moments after the big bang and that if these constants had been just a little bit different, nothing remotely resembling life could have evolved at all.

Because the physical constants are "just right" for the evolution of intelligence, the anthropic principle has been called the "Goldilocks principle," both by admirers and detractors. Anthropic theorists ask, could all this just be good luck? Another possible example of a cosmic coincidence is that the cosmological constant is much smaller than it might have been. Physicist Albert Einstein posited a cosmological constant in his 1917 theory of the history of the universe. This constant is a number in the equation that accounts for the presence of dark energy, which is invisible but which causes the universe to expand faster as time goes on. Later, Einstein concluded that there was no empirical evidence that this was occurring, and he called the cosmological constant his "greatest blunder." Some evidence from the late 1990s suggests that the rate of expansion of the universe may itself be increasing, making it the first evidence to be consistent with a cosmological constant. Cosmologists remain unsure whether there even is a cosmological constant, but if there is, humans are pretty lucky that it is not any bigger than it is, or the universe would have expanded so fast that galaxies and stars would never have formed.

Life is possible on Earth because of water. Water is a molecule with highly unusual properties, mostly because the molecules stick together with hydrogen bonds. If the laws of chemistry had been slightly different, such that hydrogen bonds could not form, there would have been no life on Earth, or presumably anywhere else in the universe. This represents a non-cosmological example of the anthropic argument. . .

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