This blog post explores whether the universe is God’s design or merely one among infinite parallel universes. We seek answers within this debate, where science, philosophy, and religion intertwine.
“The universe is the intricate work of an omnipotent God.” This sounds like something a devout clergyman of the 16th-century Catholic Church might say. For the environment of the universe, solar system, and Earth necessary for human existence to be formed, all the constants determining the universe must be perfectly combined. The probability of this combination is incomparably lower than our chances of winning the lottery this week. Yet the current universe appears to exist despite this absurdly low probability. So, did an omnipotent being—God—design the universe to overcome such minuscule odds? This debate has a long history and remains a subject of active discussion today.
Opposing the 16th-century clergy are those who believe in parallel universes. It’s not just the most authoritative scientists in physics, like Stephen Hawking and Max Tegmark. Philosophers, literary figures, and even many clergymen also believe in these parallel universes, or multiverse. While their perspectives aren’t entirely uniform, they share the common ground of believing that diverse worlds exist beyond our own. This essay introduces Hugh Everett’s perspective and discusses its validity.
Hugh Everett, who as a child once flustered Albert Einstein with questions about the chance events sustaining the world, would later open the door to the full-fledged theory of the multiverse. According to his principle of relative states in quantum mechanics, every time a quantum system is observed in a superposition state, a new world unfolds. New branches of the universe emerge, and all these branches of the universe exist simultaneously. For example, suppose we give a cat poison that has a 50% chance of killing it within an hour and place it in a box out of sight. After an hour, we do not know whether the cat is alive or dead. This is precisely the quantum system being in a superposition state. The moment we check the cat’s fate, a new branch of the universe emerges, and a new world is born somewhere in the multiverse. In our world, the cat is fortunately alive, but in another world, the cat dies. Hugh Everett’s explanation is that worlds branch off like this, forming an infinite multiverse.
The multiverse theory provides a clear answer regarding the intricate complexity of the universe, which emerged despite extremely low probability. The constants constituting the universe have a finite number of possible values, and even multiplying all these possibilities yields a finite total. However, in the multiverse, the number of diverse worlds is infinite. Therefore, not only our universe but also universes with even lower probabilities exist, and even worlds perfectly identical to ours could exist. It’s as if our duplicates are living somewhere in the multiverse.
String theory garnered significant attention because it was expected to perfectly explain our universe before the multiverse theory emerged. However, string theory ultimately produced not just one universe, but an incredibly vast number reaching 10 to the 500th power. The multiverse theory finds its answer here. In the multiverse theory, all 10 to the 500th power universes are considered to exist. The number of universes is not an issue in the multiverse theory.
So, can the existence of parallel universes be scientifically and logically proven? Today, humanity has succeeded in determining various information about our universe, such as its age and size, using electromagnetic waves of various wavelengths, including light. Thus, we primarily obtain information from space using electromagnetic waves. But could we use electromagnetic waves to obtain information from other universes within the multiverse structure? Until recently, this seemed impossible. However, the possibility of proving parallel universes through other methods, using the anthropic principle as an auxiliary tool, is now emerging.
If the existence of parallel universes, currently still a hypothesis, is proven, the only remaining obstacle to this theory would be conflict with religion. When Nicolaus Copernicus proposed the heliocentric theory in the 16th century, the Church exerted every effort to suppress it. The current situation is similar. The Church asserts that our universe is a life-friendly universe meticulously designed by God. The parallel universe theory, however, asserts that our universe is merely one among an infinite number of universes, and that we happen to live in one of the many universes that is life-friendly. Yet, the arguments in this debate are not simply divided into two opposing camps. Some scholars seek to accommodate both positions. For example, theoretical physicist Don Page asks why God couldn’t have created a multiverse. Moreover, religions other than Catholicism have long embraced concepts similar to the multiverse. One example is Kabbalah, the mystical tradition of Judaism. Kabbalists interpret the biblical Genesis differently from Catholics. Genesis contains the verse: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” Regarding this verse, Kabbalists propose an interpretation that God made several mistakes. The story goes that God created the universe multiple times and bestowed His blessing on the best one. Thus, since the parallel universe theory does not necessarily conflict with religion, it is expected that it could sufficiently persuade those with strong faith.
There is still no evidence making parallel universes an inevitable conclusion. However, if parallel universes are real and our duplicates live somewhere in another universe, what meaning does our existence hold? Even if we didn’t poison the cat out of compassion, in another universe we poisoned the cat; in some universe the cat lives, and in another the cat dies. Some believe the multiverse negates our free will. Even if we act virtuously by our free will, an alternate self in another universe might act viciously, rendering our choice meaningless. Conversely, scholars like David Elieser Deutsch argue the multiverse actually grants us freedom. “If you live a successful life, your counterparts also succeed by making the same decisions. Your good deeds nurture the parts of the multiverse where good things happen,” says David Elieser Deutsch. Finding meaning in our existence and lives within parallel universes will be another challenge.
