The Multiverse—From Epicurus to Comic Books and Beyond
On this ID the Future, Discovery Institute senior fellow Andrew McDiarmid explores the roots of the idea that our universe is just one of many universes, an idea stretching back to the ancient atomists and given new life in the modern era, first by physicist Hugh Everett. McDiarmid then looks at how the idea percolated into comic books and from there into popular culture. He caps off the episode with a reading of a recent article about the multiverse hypothesis by Stephen Meyer, author of the recent bestseller, Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe.
Meyer shows why some atheist scientists are attracted to the multiverse idea. As he explains, there is little if any good evidence for the idea, but atheists need the concept to explain away the fact that the laws and constants of the universe are exquisitely fined tuned to allow for life. The fine tuning smacks of intelligent design, and American physicist Leonard Susskind has frankly remarked that the multiverse is needed to answer the arguments of intelligent design proponents. But as Meyer explains, not only does the multiverse hypothesis lack evidence, it doesn’t even remove the need for a fine tuner, a point that even the makers of recent comic book movies from Marvel and DC seem to grasp.