Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Christian Sci-Fi and the Multiple Worlds Interpretation

Science Fiction writers, especially television writers, love the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics. This is the interpretation that allows for characters to slip into a parallel universe and interact with duplicates of themselves, the only difference being that one made one decision at some point in history and the other made another choice. Even though this interpretation is held by many prominent scientists, it is beyond ridiculous when we consider the implications. If the Many Worlds Interpretation (MWI) is true, then tomorrow morning at 8:46 AM, everyone is the world is going to simultaneously go outside, raise their voice to the heavens and sign Kum Ba Ya. When we are done, hundreds of reporters will call me to ask how I knew it was going to happen. If MWI is provable, there exist many universes in which scientists have proven beyond any doubt that MWI is false. If communication between alternate realities is possible, then there exist an infinite number of alternate realities that are communicating with our reality at this very moment.


This will have no meaning to many of the scientists who have considered MWI, but when we add the Bible to the mix, for MWI to be true, there will exist a branch of our own reality in which no one ever sins again, making God a liar, since he said “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” We know that God transcends the Universe. If there is more than one then he is over those too. God does not lie, but MWI would create a universe in which God has said something that isn’t true.


This presents the Christian Science Fiction writer with a problem if he wishes to use alternate realities as a way to explore possibilities. For God and MWI to co-exist, the alternate realities must be such that no realities exist in which something God has promised is not true. Furthermore, no reality can exist in which a person accepts Christ in one reality but doesn’t accept Christ in another. The Bible tells us that God has a book records everything there is to know about us before we are formed [1]. It tells of the names of the righteous having been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life since before the foundation of the world [2]. A character that comes to Christ in one reality must then come to Christ in all realities. Given what we know about God, there is almost no conceivable way to write a MWI story that remains true to the Bible.