Multiverse
From PhiloWiki
Did our universe emerge from a multiverse? If there is a multiverse, is there evidence of other universes?
Christian views
Secularists place an unreasonable amount of faith in “modern cosmological theories.” Many of these theories, if not most, and perhaps all, will one day be completely debunked by observable/measurable science. Here are a few examples:
- The theory of an infinitely old “steady state” universe was once championed by atheists as a means to discredit the “creation moment” or “beginning” taught in the Bible. Einstein showed us the error of that theory. We now commonly believe that the universe had a beginning, a “big bang” as it is commonly known.
- The theory that our planet once had a vast “primordial soup” that percolated for a billion years before randomly producing proteins, RNA, and DNA required for life has been proven wrong. There is currently no evidence of such a “soup,” and even if there was, many assume that there was simply not enough time for all of the gradual steps to take place. Scientist and author, Michael Behe, is just one of many scientists who debunk that theory.
- The theory of Darwinian gradualism (where species evolve into new and different species - macro-evolution - over time) remains pure theory, completely unsupported by the fossil record or any other scientific evidence despite over a hundred years of examination. This was once the reigning paradigms used by atheists to show how simple life-forms/species evolved gradually into more complex (and starkly different) life-forms/species. There is simply no evidence of that. None. Examples of the micro-evolution within the horse species does nothing to support macro-evolution. There simply is no evidence to support the theory that those horses became elephants, giraffes, etc. Secularists claim to have strong evidence for this. Where is it?
Secularists say that many modern cosmologists believe the creation of multiverses to be a natural and exceptionally commonplace phenomenon. But they admit that those multiverses are not observable. Is that supposed to be convincing? And keep in mind that whenever secularists say “there are many cosmologists who believe _________,” logic tells us that there must also be some (perhaps many) who believe otherwise. We do know, in fact, that many modern cosmologists believe the universe was created by a divine being, a first-cause Creator. The only question for most people is the who/what question.
Multiverses are also " unknowable." Both ends of the spectrum, the infinitesimally huge and the infinitesimally small, are unknowable. But that doesn’t stop some scientists from speculating that multiverses exist and that they may even contain life. That seems to be a double-standard.
And, if indeed it is true that there is no cosmic justice, then this is a bad place indeed. If the end-product of evolution is sentient beings who have free will, then evolution has doomed humanity to certain self-destruction. And remember, while you are combating “them,” “they” are combating you. If truth is relative, then you are “bad” to some people, and Hitler is “good.” That seems logically wrong, but according to your view, they are as right as anyone else because there is no absolute right and wrong.
- "I will be addressing both the compatibility of the multiverse hypothesis with theism and the degree to which it provides an alternative to the hypothesis that God designed the universe to bring about conscious, embodied beings such as ourselves. I do not expect necessarily to convince anyone of the theistic point of view, realizing that many factors -- both theoretical and personal-- underlie our views of the ultimate nature of reality. My intention here is simply to sketch some of the reasons why one might think that contemporary physics and cosmology is not only compatible with theism, but that it actually might suggest a theistic explanation of the universe or multiverse."
Secular views
Modern cosmological theories consider the creation of universes within the multiverse to be a natural, even exceptionally commonplace, phenomenon. The universes themselves are not contactable, but the mechanism to create them flow naturally from quantum mechanics, inflation, and cosmological theories.
And, to be clear, the focus of the work is not the oscillating universe idea. Scientists have discarded that concept as extremely implausible. The multi-universe theory is different – it states that, within the realm of our known laws, it is not unreasonable that universes can expand from deltas in the quantum foam/scalar field background of other universes. But Christians are correct that both theories avoid the first-mover problem – it is just that the multiverse theory is considered much more acceptable than the fallacious ‘bouncing universe’.
- "In recent years, advances in physics and cosmology have given the 'multiverse' idea a plausible scientific basis. Its new lease on life can be traced to the popular theory of inflation, which held that a split second after the Big Bang the universe abruptly jumped in size by a huge factor. In the variant introduced by Andrei Linde, inflation spawns a network of branching 'bubble' universes with different laws of physics operating inside of them. It has become fashionable to invoke some species of the multiverse theory to account for the well-known examples of parameter fine-tuning associated with the emergence of life in the observable universe where Earth has its home."
- "What is conventionally called 'the universe' could be just one member of an ensemble. Countless other universes may exist in which the laws are different. This new concept of a 'multiverse' is, potentially, as drastic an enlargement of our cosmic perspective as the shift from pre-Copernican ideas..."
- "Imagine, life as we know it exists on a tiny speck of dust floating through nearly empty space in a universe that is but a tiny island in a vast multiverse."
- "Andrei Linde has suggested that in the first instants after the Big Bang, the Universe was a 'chaotic froth', with different regions with different properties, each undergoing inflation at different times. The regions became so thoroughly separated through the inflation process that they are now out of touch with each other, forming what amount to separate cosmos.
- Guth actually thinks that a separate universe could be created in the laboratory by compressing something the size of a bowling ball to the densities of a black hole, and then letting it expand again, much as our Universe did in the Big Bang. Guth says: "I like to think of it as an engineering problem, probably solvable by some future civilization.""
- "Tegmark has extended the Copernican principle beyond our Universe to an infinite set of universes. Not only is there nothing special about our status within the Universe, he claims; there is nothing special about the status of our Universe within the infinity of universes that constitutes the multiverse."
