In his final paper on the multiverse hypothesis, the world’s best-known atheist made a supernatural creator more plausible
Many scientists believe that that are an infinite amount of universes which are being formed all the time. They could all have different laws of physics and if there are an infinite amount of them, then occasionally one could support life. But what happens is the maths tells us that all the universes have the same laws of physics?
The problem is that the less variety there is among the universes, the less capable the multiverse hypothesis is of explaining fine-tuning. If there is a huge amount of variation in the laws across the multiverse, it is not so surprising that one of the universes would happen to have fine-tuned laws. But if all of the universes have exactly the same laws – as in Hawking and Hertog’s proposal – the problem returns, as we now need an explanation of why the single set of laws that govern the entire multiverse is fine-tuned.
There is still hope for a scientific account of fine-tuning. However, by ruling out one of the two scientifically credible options for doing this, Hawking and Hertog have slightly strengthened the alternative explanation in terms of God. It is ironic that the atheist Hawking should, in his final contribution to the science, make God’s existence less improbable.
The Guardian
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