On the primordial miracle - An essay on some philosophical issues of modern cosmology

In the first part of this article some general philosophical and methodolog ical questions concerning the "standard" cosmological model of the expandin g universe are outlined (horizon problem, homogeneity and isotropy of space -time, infinity vs finiteness of the universe etc.), while in the second pa rt the main topic of discussion is the epistemological question whether the so-called "anthropic principle" as an alternative to the classical teleolo gy of creation is really an adequate explanation of the evident "well-tuned ness" of cosmological parameters for the emergence of life and consciousnes s, since this principle presupposes the existence of many universes ("multi verse"). The author, after having compared logical and cosmological many-wo rlds concepts, comes to the conclusion that the ontological reality of the "multiverse" is an even more problematic hypothesis as some revised version of the teleological causality which does not have to be a theistic explana tion of creation, but also yields some kind of pantheistic explanation of o ur universe, life and consciousness.