Some cosmologists think there are an infinite number of universes. Does this conflict with the existence of God and Christianity?
I have two names of cosmologist from the book, "Is God Unnecessary? Why Stephen Hawking is Wrong according to the Laws of Physics,"who disagree with infinity universes, Alan Guth and Paul Davies. Are there any others?
I picked up a book in a Protestant bookshop yesterday called “Big Bang Big God - A Universe Designed for Life” by Rev. Dr. Rodney D. Holder, whose blurb states he is former course director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at St Edmunds College, Cambridge. He was awarded a D.Phil. in astrophysics and a degree in Theology.
So he knows a thing or three.
I’ve only just started reading the book but he has a section on Multiverses, and the problems associated with it.
Skimming ahead, I’m only going to give the main areas that make the idea of multiverses look somewhat unlikely -
- The physics associated involved with multiverses is speculative, to say the least (his words), especially when it comes to string theory.
- The Paradoxes of infinity - How many multiverses are you going to have? What’s an infinite number?
- The criterion of simplicity (scientists like simple explanations) and multiverses defy that trend.
- Multiverses and Predictability - Multiverses are more than likely to be chaotic and collapse on themselves, or unsuccessful if you like.
- The Cosmological Constant - it needs to be precisely tuned to create a universe capable of supporting life.
- Fine Tuning Required for a multiverse - “Some multiverse models require an element of fine tuning for there to be a multiverse in the first place.” (his words) This means that not only is our universe fine tuned to support life, but multiverses require fine tuning just to exist. This is pushing probabiity pretty hard.
- The Order of the Universe at the Beginning - Any universe requires order at the beginning. Where does this order come from?
- Fine tuning for embodied conscious agents - We happen to live in a universe which is open to observation by embodied conscious agents. For embodied conscioius agents to exist in the first place, precise fine tuning is required, with suitable conditions for those embodied conscious agents to live eg. build houses, send up satellites (if the gravity were 10 times more, we’d find it extremely difficult just to live, and much, much harder to launch Hubble Telescopes).
- The prevalence of “fake universes” - how do we know we’re not just one more universe which has been simulated by some super intelligence (actually there might be somethingn that if we call the super intelligence “God”.).
Frankly, I think the business of multiverses has speculative atheism written all over it. It’s just one more attempt by Man to try to avoid God. As simple as that.
As my old pastor said once, “Man doesn’t
WANT to believe in God” So we search around for ways to avoid His invisible but everpresent gaze.
I’ve said before the night my own father died, he appeared in my room. The episode ended when he disappeared with one almighty, terrifying scream. I think he’s in hell, and the terror was contagious. Fortunately he disappeared before I was too overwhelmed.
He thought his behaviour hadn’t been seen either. Too late he found out he’d been observed every day of his life. “That which is hidden will be shouted to the roof tops” and “a man will account for every useless word.”
Mulitiverses are just another cop-out, like “spirituality” without theology.
