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Sorry for the vague title but it’s going to take some explaining to try and get the point across.

So, Christians and religious people in general (I’m not bashing them or their religion this is just a good example) like to say that the earth is perfect for us, like how we are the perfect distance from the sun and our bodies are so complex and there’s plants everywhere etc, so there must be a god that created all this for us to be here, but in reality we are only here because this is the only environment that we can live in. If our planet was different we wouldn't be able to live on it and therefore wouldn’t experience it. So we are only experiencing this “perfect” world because it’s the only way we could possibly be able to experience it.

I’m really not sure I got what I wanted across here but can y'all think of any word or phrase meaning “we can only experience what we are experiencing because that is the only way we can experience it”?

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    What exactly do you mean by "video" in the title?
    – cigien
    Commented Oct 4, 2021 at 17:09
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    Are you thinking of the anthropic principle? The principle that there is a restrictive lower bound on how statistically probable our observations of the universe are, given that we could only exist in the particular type of universe capable of developing and sustaining sentient life? Commented Oct 4, 2021 at 17:19
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    Douglas Adams had an analogy: If you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!' Commented Oct 4, 2021 at 17:33
  • I've edited the title to be more searchable/relevant, while trying to keep the intent of your question. If you feel this alters the meaning of your question, feel free to rollback.
    – cigien
    Commented Oct 4, 2021 at 18:05
  • It’s interesting that what you are taking as a given is “current us”- “because this is the only environment that we can live in”. “In reality” if life exists here , it will have evolved to fit into its environment. In other words if the environment on Earth had been substantially different than we see today then “we” would have evolved differently/ we’d still be perfectly suited to that environment and we’d still behere.
    – Jim
    Commented Oct 4, 2021 at 18:56

1 Answer 1

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The argument, or feeling, you're describing is the anthropic principle, in particular, the weak anthropic principle

conditions that are observed in the universe must allow the observer to exist

The wikipedia page goes into more detail about this. Basically, if we're able to observe the universe at all, then the conditions in the universe must have been such as to allow us to make the observation.

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