Worlds Without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse

"Multiverse" cosmologies imagine our universe as just one of a vast number of others. Beginning with ancient Atomist and Stoic philosophies, Mary-Jane Rubenstein links contemporary models of the multiverse to their forerunners and explores the reasons for their recent appearance. The allure of the multiverse is that it can account for the origin and nature of the universe without appealing to a creator. Ironically, however, the multiverse replaces God with an equally baffling article of faith: the existence of universes beyond, before, or after our own. In their very efforts to sidestep metaphysics, Rubenstein argues, multiverse scenarios collide with it, even producing counter-theological narratives. Far from invalidating multiverse hypotheses, however, this collision secures their scientific viability. In the modern turn to the multiverse, we may be witnessing a radical reconfiguration of physics, philosophy, and religion.

An exciting look at contemporary scientific cosmologies and their relationship to philosophy and religion.