FAITH IN AN UNPROVABLE MULTIVERSE

Along with other physicists, MIT physicist Alan Lightman affirms that the apparent fine-tuning of the universe for life is bewildering:

·       If the values of some of the fundamental parameters of our universe were a little larger or a little smaller, life could not have arisen. For example, if the nuclear force were a few percentage points stronger than it actually is, then all the hydrogen atoms in the infant universe would have fused with other hydrogen atoms to make helium, and there would be no hydrogen left. http://winteryknight.com/2015/06/28/mit-physicist-alan-lightman-on-fine-tuning-and-the-multiverse/

The is just one instance of the many physical law constants that are precisely calibrated for life. One physicist has calculated its probability as one chance out of ten followed by one hundred zeros – an impossible probability. Lightman therefore reasons:

·       If such conclusions are correct, the great question, of course, is why these fundamental parameters happen to lie within the range needed for life. Does the universe care about life? Intelligent design is one answer. Indeed, a fair number of theologians, philosophers, and even some scientists have used fine-tuning and the anthropic principle as evidence of the existence of God. For example, at the 2011 Christian Scholars’ Conference at Pepperdine University, Francis Collins, a leading geneticist and director of the National Institutes of Health, said, “To get our universe, with all of its potential for complexities or any kind of potential for any kind of life-form, everything has to be precisely defined on this knife edge of improbability…. [Y]ou have to see the hands of a creator who set the parameters to be just so because the creator was interested in something a little more complicated than random particles.”

Lightman observes that the theory of a multiverse is not evidentially-based but faith-based:

·       The… conjecture that there are many other worlds… [T]here is no way they can prove this conjecture. That same uncertainty disturbs many physicists who are adjusting to the idea of the multiverse. Not only must we accept that basic properties of our universe are accidental and uncalculable. In addition, we must believe in the existence of many other universes. But we have no conceivable way of observing these other universes and cannot prove their existence. Thus, to explain what we see in the world and in our mental deductions, we must believe in what we cannot prove.

Lightman’s observations point to the fact that those who reject ID do not do so based upon science or evidence but upon an ideological/faith commitment.