Perhaps the notion of purpose is something we project onto the universe. Certainly, we tend to be uncomfortable when we lack stories which make sense of, and connect, the events that overcome us. We are prone to invent such stories, and these stories say more about us than the events they purport to account for. So we should be suspicious of any claim that purposes are manifest in the universe. However, when we look at the world around us, we gain the distinct impression that the application of purposes is fundamental to the way the universe operates. The universe appears to be fine-tuned for life. Life is present, everywhere on earth, in astounding variety. These phenomena are so extremely improbable that it is natural to think in terms of purposes. It is silly to think in terms of purposes each time you win a raffle, but if you win the national lottery every day for fifty years, it would be irrational not to.
The universe which we inhabit appears to be fine-tuned for life. The physical laws of the universe make life possible. If there is only one universe - as QO maintains - then the chances of this happening spontaneously are vanishingly small. A series of extraordinary coincidences has made the solar system such that conditions on Earth are sufficiently stable that life can maintain continuous existence on it. Even given the physical laws and the conditions on Earth, some steps in the development of life are vanishingly improbable.
These phenomena can be explained by maintaining that we are, indeed, that lucky. This may be characterized as a simple paradox, with an Occam score of 1000.
These phenomena can be explained by maintaining that there have been absurdly many shots at creating a universe, and it should be no surprise that beings who are capable of observing the universe happen to find themselves in a successful one. One of the explanations that have arisen out of mainstream science in order to explain how there could be so many shots is the multiverse. In this explanation, all possible values of a quantum wave have an actual physical existence in the multiverse. What we perceive as the universe is merely a slice of the multiverse in which collapsed' wave functions have the values that we have observed them to have, whilst the other possible values exist in other slices. The multiverse is the set of possible universes, including the universe in which we live. Together, these universes comprise everything that exists, including the physical laws and constants. In other slices of the multiverse, other physical laws and constants may apply. We just happen to live in a slice that is amenable to life. That should not surprise us, because we can only observe universes which allow us to exist. Accordingly, the fact that our universe is fine-tuned for life is not an argument for the life being the result of a purpose, because we would make the same observations whether such a purpose operated or not. The multiverse requires an simple hypothesis - the multiverse as such - and a complex gap, namely that there is some mechanism which generates physical laws and physical constants. Accordingly, it has an Occam score of 0310, relative to QO or the Big Bang.
QO takes another explanatory line, namely that quantum teleology operates, so that all possible designs of the universe are virtually present, and only purposed designs can become real. According to QO, the universe has had an almost infinite number of virtual attempts, and an attempt that succeeded became real - the QO multiverse. This explanation has an Occam score of 0000, relative to QO, and is therefore top be preferred.