You say "Anthropic cosmological principle," I say "God."

I came across the transcript of a fascinating talk given to a gathering of scientists at the Hayden Planetarium. Basically, the question of why our universe seems to be precisely engineered for life is only becoming more vexing for scientists as they seek any recourse besides God. Discoveries such as dark energy and the incalculable mystery of M-theory have made our life-friendly universe only seem more miraculous. As speaker James Gardner says:

If we put to one side theological approaches to this ultimate issue, what rational pathways forward are on offer from the scientific community?

He then goes forward with a hypothesis he admits is entirely guesswork. But, the "scientific" thinking goes, since we can't consider a theological solution to a scientific question, what else is there?

One of my favorite Christian blogs, Jim Slagle's Religion Blog, recently had a post about the Anthropic Principle as well, but from a slightly different angle. Jim noted that not only is the Earth specially suited for life, but it is also specially suited for observing the rest of the universe. The position and size of the moon, for example, mean that humans were able to study the sun thousands of years ago during solar eclipses. If the moon appeared smaller or larger, we would not have been able to observe the sun's corona.