Multiverse

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth! Lately, we’ve been looking at the relationship between science and religion and how Christians should see it. Today, we’re going to be continuing that look by discussing the doctrine of the multiverse.

Now a lot of us out there are probably skeptical of the idea of a multiverse. As per usual here however, I would recommend that when debating someone, be more than ready to grant them the multiverse. Why should it be that such a belief would be seen as a threat to the existence of God? Does the existence of more than one universe make the source of those universes more unlikely?

Yesterday in church I gave an example to illustrate this. I pointed to a parking lot across the street from our church and said “Suppose you were told that there was a dead body in the parking lot across the street and saw that indeed there was.” Immediately, you will be wondering a number of questions and one of them will be “How did a dead body wind up there?”

Now suppose that there was a detective who came over and said “I saw some of you people come out and look across the street wondering what was going on. I want to assure you that you have nothing to wonder about. My officers inform me that there are five hundred more bodies behind this building. Therefore, there’s no need to wonder about this one.”

None of us would accept that. If we were wondering what the cause of one body was, we will be wondering even more what the cause of 500 bodies were. Thus, if we have one universe and we have a hard time explaining that one, it does not help to say “Well we can solve the explanation of this universe by saying there are X more universes.” That’s only increased the difficulty!

For each of these universes, we will have to ask what is the cause of that universe. If we have universes that are somehow producing other universes, it becomes more of a puzzle. What is it in a universe that gives it this power that it can in a way reproduce itself into another universe?

In fact, if these other universes were somehow able to be found and we could find out that they had life as well, that would not lessen our wonder. It would increase it. How could it be that there is a source of universes that not only produces universes but tends to produce life-sustaining universes? Why is it that the universes that are thriving supposedly are the ones where life is being sustained?

Of course, if modern ideas are correct, it could be we will never understand such questions. Many of us will live as if there is one universe, but let us not see the multiverse as a threat to theism. Instead, let’s push it back on to the non-theist and remember the reformulated argument given yesterday.

All things that have potential to change depend on something else for their existing.
The universe has potential to change.
The universe depends on something else for its existing.

That works not just with our universe, but any other universe.