Could Our Universe Have Been Initiated Intentionally: An Epistemological Framework

The possibility that our universe was initiated intentionally is a compelling philosophical and scientific question that can be evaluated probabilistically based on four primary considerations: finetuning in our universe, hypotheses about the multiverse, the likelihood that intelligent life may be able to initiate a universe, and the possibility that we live in a simulation. This paper offers an equation analogous to the noteworthy Drake equation that is intended to be used as a structured thought experiment to help identify factors related to the initiation of our universe and to facilitate examining each in terms of what we know, do not know, and potentially could know about them.