I have written against Trent Horn and his poor grasp of the theology and Scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I also wrote a follow-up article on his criticisms of "swords" in the Book of Mormon:
Notwithstanding, he is a very bright apologist in his main areas of concentration, including issues relating to pro-life, as seen in his book, Persuasive Pro-Life: How to Talk about Our Culture’s Toughest Issue (San Diego: Catholic Answers Press, 2014), and it is generally accepted, even by Protestants, that he defeated James White in their debate on eternal security (video from Catholic Answers; video from Alpha and Omega Ministries). Today I read his work critiquing atheism. While LDS will disagree with some things, including Trent’s defence of the Kalam Cosmological Argument (see Blake Ostler’s refutation of the arguments of William Lane Craig, for example), many of his arguments are good, including the issue of fine-tuning. I liked his interaction with Richard Carrier who tried to refute the fine-tuning argument for God:
Responding to this type of argumentation, Horn wrote the following:
According to some atheists, saying the universe is fine-tuned for life is like saying the Sahara desert is fine-tuned for water.
How can we say that the universe, which is 99.9999999999 percent empty space that is hostile to life, is fine-tuned for life? Richard Carrier sayings that if the universe were the size of a house, the area that would have life in it would be smaller than one of the atoms in the house. He said, "If you walked into such a house, would you conclude that it was 'fine-tuned for life?'"
But Carrier's analogy is misleading. To say the universe is "fine-tuned" for life does not mean it is a perfect place for the maximum amount of life to evolve. Fine-tuning only means that out of all the possible universes (or "houses") it is much more likely that there should be no life at all (or not even a single "atom" of life in the "house"). The fact that our universe does not accommodate life (regardless of how little) against such incredible odds requires an explanation. (Trent Horn, Answering Atheism: How to Make the Case for God with Logic and Charity [San Diego: Catholic Answers Press, 2013], 155)
On the issue of fine-tuning, a good work to start off with for those wishing to delve into the topic, see Alister E. McGrath, A Fine-Tuned Universe: The Quest for God in Science and Theology (Westminster/John Knox Press, 2009)
