The Multi-Verse: Part II – Where’s the Evidence?

 

Theists are often told that there is no evidence for God’s existence, which we obviously disagree.  The evidence is the same, but the conclusions drawn from the evidence are different.  However, there are times when a claim is made that should have evidence for it and the absence of that evidence renders the claim highly improbable and not worthy of belief.  An example of this is the idea of a multi-verse.   If there is a multi-verse, our universe should look very different.

 

 

 

In 1929, Edwin Hubble observed that every galaxy in our universe was moving away from Earth.  It was like a giant balloon was being blown up.  The galaxies that were twice as far away appeared to be moving away twice as fast and galaxies that were three times as far away appeared to be moving away three times as fast.  The diagram on the right is a model of what it looked like.  The white is for the initial observation and the red is the observation at a later time.  When the red and the white are laid on top of each other, the red galaxies are offset from their original position.  The blue and green galaxies are the fixed points to show that the visual is consistent no matter where in the grid your observation point is.  The observation Hubble made could mean one of two things: 1)  The Earth is the center of the universe or 2)  The universe is expanding.  As cool as Geocentrism sounds, the logical conclusion is that the universe is expanding.

 

In order to discuss the a naturalistic view of the multi-verse, I must assume that an infinite number of actual things, causes, time, etc. can exist in reality as opposed to just mathematical concepts.  I explained why I don’t believe this is possible in a previous post, but for the sake of argument, I’m assuming that I’m wrong.  A real infinity is necessary because in order for there to be a natural cause to the origin of our universe, the cause must extend into the infinite past either as an uncaused cause or an infinite series of causes. 

 

If there is a multi-verse and no creator, it has an infinite past and a non-zero probability of producing universes.  With an infinite amount of time the probability of a possible event, no matter how low the probability is, becomes irrelevant as long as that event is truly possible.  At a bare minimum, we know an expanding universe such as ours is possible.  In an infinite amount of time, there would be an infinite number of expanding universes produced at every possible location within the multi-verse.  Even the idea that different universes with different fundamental constants would be produced is irrelevant because you have an infinite amount of time, so there would be an infinite number of expanding universes just like ours and an infinite number of every other possible universe. 

 

 

The multi-verse would be full of universes because every possible space that can form a universe would form a universe, even if there is an infinite amount of space, because there is an infinite amount of time to fill that space.  The multi-verse would be a literal Hilbert’s Hotel; it would be full, yet have more room for infinitely more universes.  Our universe would have collided with many other expanding universes; some formed an infinite time ago.  It would be like a giant fireworks show; the ultimate grand finale.  We would not be able to tell that our universe is expanding because galaxies from other universes would be coming at us and moving away from us from all directions.  The universe would appear random and chaotic because it would have been formed randomly out of chaos.

 

 

Some say that the multi-verse is outside of our visual range and the other universes are somewhere outside of our universe.  If this is true, there will never be evidence for a multi-verse and the idea of the multi-verse can never be proven true or falsified.  It becomes a claim based on blind faith, which is counter to the ideals held by the scientific community that preaches we should only believe in things that can be empirically verified. 

 

The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but it does make belief in the multi-verse a leap of blind faith.  There are other philosophical and scientific problems with a naturalistic concept of the multi-verse and I hope to cover these in a future post.  Ironically, if the multi-verse does exist, the best explanation for its existence is a designer.  In trying to escape faith in a designer, atheists have posited an idea that requires faith…and also a designer.