Re: [asa] The Multiverse - Physics or Metaphysics?

Phil,

I think you make a good point on this: not to fall into the false dichotomy of

"either or".??It not so different from what got us (believers in general) into the
embarrassing position of preaching scientific creationism nonsense.? There
may be middle ground somewhere: something like "we need to do a little
thinking and interpretation before we draw any firm conclusions on such far
at the edge theoretical research".? At the same time, as some people have
keenly pointed out, claims that the multiverse is far superior explanation of
all matters under the sun and should?remove any further?need to consider God;
such claims are?surely hubris and even rather hypocritical.?

To some other points made by others on Smolin's book.

I?have managed to read part of Smolin's book. He has some valid points, but
I already feel some of the "sour grapes" as far as I have read.? I have one
friend who suffered under the fiefdoms?of academia and later became
unemployed due to the shift of funding to string theory.? He is happy where
he is now, as far as I can?tell.???

Fiefdoms?can?occur because, in fields of this sort of theoretical physics, you
have only two or three people in the world?who?understand the same?stuff.?If
those two or?three people?have?some vested interest, then sin is knocking at
their door.??We all can fall to temptation, so best to?bear the Lord's yoke when
you are young (La 3:27).

I suspect that the real reason for stronger support for string theory over other
ideas at the time was because it _look_ more promising than the others at that
time. It has had a little more time to mature, and now we begin to see some of
the pitfalls.? Perhaps the decision by funders to support string theory at the
expense of other ideas was a bad one.??Still, that is what they did, and perhaps
these are some of the consequences.?????

We should reflect that at the forefront of our understanding, the road is wide.
It is God we must pray to?for help that?maybe we will walk that narrow path in
the valley of uncertainty and darkness. Know it is by Grace that you find anything
worthwhile on your journey.

by Grace we proceed,
Wayne
-----Original Message-----
From: philtill@aol.com
To: asa@calvin.edu
Sent: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 7:05 am
Subject: Re: [asa] The Multiverse - Physics or Metaphysics?

(Susskind also points out that if the multiverse is incorrect, it will be hard to answer the IDists. In fact, his book gives some of the clearest expressions of cosmological fine tuning.)

I think we need to avoid the "either-or" fallacy in addressing multiverses, MWI, string landscape, etc.?

First, it may be presently difficult for us to imaging God creating a string landscape, but perhaps he chose to do so.? After all, the heavens declare his glory, and how big is that?

Second,?a cornerstone of revealed religion is that there is an unrevealed lostness to which humanity defaults through sin.? At one point in the Bible this is described as saying that God hides.? How good is God at hiding?? Can we defeat him through science apologetics and flush him out?? We shouldn't be surprised if the anthropic arguments eventually fail as a string theory or some other multiverse cosmology becomes established, if God is choosing to hide.

This is just a friendly word of caution for the overall topic.? I think there are many worthy things to discuss in regard to these multiverse theories, but let's not be afraid of them or vilify them entirely.? They are describing a subset of God's capabilities, and if the subset exists then so might the superset, so no falsification of our faith is involved.? In fact,?it affirms the subset and that is progress.?

Phil

?

Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail!

________________________________________________________________________
Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! - http://mail.aol.com

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Tue Sep 11 20:47:36 2007