Evidence · Case 09 · Atheism
The multiverse explanation (Susskind, Rees, Tegmark)
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
On this account there is not one universe but a vast ensemble of universes with different constants. Life-permitting universes are rare, but observers can only arise in the rare ones, so it is no surprise that we find ourselves in a finely balanced universe. Cosmic inflation together with the string-theory landscape is often offered as a mechanism that could produce many universes, and many capable physicists take this seriously as a leading response.
Sources
Objections & responses
- Doesn’t the inverse gambler’s fallacy cut against the multiverse? Many universes elsewhere no more explain why this one is fine-tuned than many dice rolls elsewhere explain why this roll came up double six.
This is Ian Hacking’s argument, and it is a real one in the literature. The standard reply is that observer selection makes the difference: we could only find ourselves in a life-permitting universe, which blocks the fallacy charge in the multiverse case in a way it does not in the dice case. Whether that reply works is an ongoing debate (Roger White against Darren Bradley, for instance). It is a point in the theist’s favor that is often left out, and it belongs in any serious weighing of the multiverse.