John A. Leslie
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John Andrew Leslie (born August 2, 1940 - ) is a Canadian philosopher. He was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, earning his B.A. in English Literature in 1962 and his M.Litt. in Literae Humaniores (a research degree in Philosophy) in 1968. His interests include the philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and ethics. He has written severals books, including Value and Existence (1979), Universes (1989), Physical Cosmology and Philosophy (1990), The End of the World: the Science and Ethics of Human Extinction (1996), Infinite Minds: a Philosophical Cosmology (2001), and "Immortality Defended" (2007). He is currently Professor emeritus at the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada, however, he is a resident of Victoria, British Columbia, where he lives with his wife Jill.
In his book Universes, Leslie describes a philosophical parable in which an individual survives a firing squad of fifty expert marksmen unscathed. He offers two explanations for this remarkable event: either it is a fortuitous outcome, to be expected occasionally by pure chance among many thousands of attempted executions by firing squad, or it is actually intentional. Francis Collins references this parable in his book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief to argue that the Anthropic Principle strongly suggests a Creator with intent.
About his life's work, Leslie stated, "What I have to contribute is some technical defense of the idea that if you had a infinitely rich [universe], it could be explained by reference to its value. Its goodness could be the creative force which had produced it. I think if I would like to be remembered as a philosopher for any one thing, that would be the thing I'd most like to be remembered for."
