Do We Live in a Multiverse?

Scientific Admissions

The answer may be seen in the title of a 2008 Discover magazine article: “Science’s Alternative to an Intelligent Creator: The Multiverse Theory.”

Scientists have long known that they cannot easily explain why our universe seems so finely tuned for life to exist. As Tim Folger writes in the article, “Tweak the laws of physics in just about any way and… life as we know it would not exist… In some strange sense, it appears that we are not adapted to the universe; the universe is adapted to us.

Such a fact—that the universe seems designed just for us—implies that there are just two options, one of which many scientists simply do not want! As New Scientist has explained, “[T]he main reason for believing in an ensemble of universes is that it could explain why the laws governing our Universe appear to be so finely tuned for our existence… This fine-tuning has two possible explanations. Either the Universe was designed specifically for us by a creator or there is a multitude of universes—a ‘multiverse’” (“Anything Goes,” June 6, 1998).

That is the ultimate “appeal” of the multiverse! For many, the idea of a multiverse is driven not by data or scientific findings, but rather by a desire to avoid the obvious implication that the universe has a Designer.

The matter is summarized starkly but honestly in Discover magazine by cosmologist Bernard Carr: If you don’t want God, you’d better have a multiverse.Make no mistake: for many scientists, embracing the idea of a multiverse is far more about religion than actual science.

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