Multiversal Madness!

From Scott's new book, Faith on Film:

The key plot devise of both Spider-man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness is the existence of alternate realities. In No Way Home, When Doctor Strange’s spell goes sideways, villains from across the multiverse (and previous Spider-Man films) begin appearing all over New York. Doctor Octopus and Green Goblin attack an unsuspecting Spidey on the Alexander Hamilton Bridge. Doctor Strange tracks the Lizard through the city sewers. Spider-Man captures Electro, with the help of Sandman, after a fight in a forest outside New York. Back in Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, Strange explains, “That little spell that you botched where you wanted everyone to forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, it started pulling in everyone who knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man from every universe into this one.”

“Every universe?” Peter repeats.

“Frankly,” Strange continues, “the Multiverse is a concept about which we know frighteningly little.” 

Wide-eyed, Peter replies, “The multiverse is real?”

Indeed, the multiverse is the driving plot devise of multiple movies in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not to mention the 2018 animated adventure, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, in which multiple versions of Spider-Man from alternate realities team up to do battle with the nefarious Kingpin. The multiverse, or “Spider-Verse,” promises infinite possibilities, infinite Spider-Men and Spider-Women, infinite New Yorks, infinite Earths, infinite bad guys, and infinite storylines to be explored. But is the concept of alternate realities consistent with a biblical worldview? Is there any truth to the notion?

Scientifically speaking, Doctor Strange is right; the multiverse is a concept about which we know very little. This is because there’s no evidence that a multiverse actually exists. Other universes, if they do exist, are completely undetectable to us—and will probably remain so, regardless of technological breakthroughs and scientific discoveries. Alternate realities are relegated to the realm of science-fiction, not science-fact.

Often, the driving motivation behind multiversal theories is an attempt to explain away the “fine-tuning” of our universe, which is one of the most compelling evidences for the existence of God. Without getting too technical, astronomers and physicists have been stunned by the inescapable fact that our universe has laws and physical properties that are supremely suited to our human existence. These precisely balanced constants and quantities are known as the “fine-tuning” of the universe. In his book, The Grand Design, Stephen Hawking writes, “The discovery relatively recently of the extreme fine-tuning of so many of the laws of nature could lead at least some of us back to the old idea that this grand design is the work of some grand designer.” Likewise, the ardent atheist Fredrick Hoyle, the mathematician who actually coined the term Big-Bang, admitted, “a common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics.” 

In order to avoid the obvious implication of divine design, some scientists have posited the notion that a multiplicity of universes exists out there somewhere, each of them with totally random physical constants and laws of nature. However, from a scientific perspective, we really have no idea whether other universes exist, and we’ll likely never know, since those parallel universes will remain forever beyond our reach. 

In any case, Christians needn’t fear the notion of alternate realities. As Hawking’s fellow Oxford professor John Lennox points out, “God could create as many universes as he pleases. The multiverse concept of itself does not and cannot rule God out.” 

In the book of Revelation, the heavenly hosts proclaim, “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased” (Revelation 4:11 NLT). If multiple universes do exist, then God created them for his pleasure and glory just as he created ours. Perhaps one universe is simply not enough to fully glorify God. A suitable display of God’s glory just might require a multiverse. And, who knows? Maybe one of those universes is home to a real-life Spider-Man!