Digging through DISCOVER magazine last month (March/April 2023), I ran across an article titled “Mapping the Multiverse,” by Dan Falk. I enjoy reading well-written, thoughtfully-structured, informative discourses on space theory, with cool graphics. In the article, Dan enumerates current scientific community theories on what the multiverse looks like. READ THE ARTICLE HERE.
One paragraph suggests some scientists (physicists) prefer to limit multiverse theory to what we can actually see—no multiverse at all. Dan writes:
“As scientists struggle to choose between competing explanations for what they observe, a ghost often appears in the battlements — not the ghost of King Hamlet, in this case, but that of William of Ockham. The 14th-century English churchman and philosopher is best known for Ockham’s Razor, which suggests that simple explanations are better than more complicated ones. Taken at face value, Ockham’s approach might appear to argue against the multiverse on the grounds that it carries excessive baggage (all of those unseen universes) when we just experience a single universe. For many physicists, the argument ends there. If simpler is better, why not stick with the universe we actually see?” (DISCOVER, Falk, Dan, p. 41)
I’m not a big fan of this conclusion. The assumption of a universe we can only physically view excludes the potential of the existence of “things not seen” (Heb. 11:1, 1 Cor. 2:9, Alma 32:21, Ether 12:6)—wind, heat, cold, kindness, love, pain, peace, fear, time, gravity, acceleration, etc.
The MULTIVERSE IS REAL. Just because we can’t see a vast array of elements and matter, because of our current spectrally-restricted ultraviolet blue blindness, doesn’t mean “stuff” doesn’t exist outside of our limited capacity to see it. (I know, so many double negatives.) Joseph Smith taught, “There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes. We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter.” (Doctrine & Covenants 131:7-8)
My personal, speculative deductions are partially based on my belief we shouldn’t separate science and religion—both disciplines are based on the pursuit of truth.
If you believe God is the greatest scientist of all—He being perfect in the acquisition of all scientific knowledge, which is one of the primary attributes (omniscient) that makes Him a God—then the existence of an unseeable Spirit World would “prove” the existence of a multiverse. The Spirit World is a vital component of God’s Eternal Plan of Happiness. It’s a REAL place. We can’t see it, but people exist/live there in a disembodied state. (John 5:25, Luke 23:43 [paradise is in the multiverse], 1 Peter 3:18-20; 4:6, Alma 40, Doctrine and Covenants 138)
There are millions, maybe even billions, of habitable worlds encapsulated by multiverse-like Spirit Worlds, scattered throughout God’s Kingdom. And, based on the Perpetual Plan of Happiness, there are multi-generational Kingdoms throughout the uni/multiverse.