[Questioner] Let's move to the second question.
Ok, so, does the multiverse theory take
care of the cosmic beginning arguments?
[Craig] The talk tonight was very limited in its
scope. I was addressing only the two
models that are featured in the movie
The Theory of Everything on the life of
Stephen Hawking and his wife Jane. I
didn't attempt to address other versions.
If you're interested in that you can
look at my lectures on the existence of
God and the beginning of the universe or
if you want to read something take a
look at the article in the Blackwell
Companion to Natural Theology which I
co-authored with the physicist James
Sinclair in which we go through the wide
range of cosmological models that are
available today which attempt to avert a
beginning of the universe and show why
these models that do not feature a
beginning are untenable. Now specifically
with regard to the multiverse models, so
long as the multiverse obeys what is
called the Borde-Guth-Vilenkin
Theorem, which says that any universe
which is in a state of cosmic expansion
on average throughout its history, than
even the multiverse itself, has only a
finite past and cannot be infinite. And
it's for that reason that the Vilenkin
Borde and Guth developed this theory
against past eternal inflationary models
of the universe which featured a
multiverse of worlds which are bubbles
of true vacuum in an expanding ocean of
false vacuum. And they showed that these,
this inflationary multiverse,
cannot be infinite in the past but must
itself have a beginning. In 2012
to draw this story back to Stephen
Hawking again, there was a celebration at
Cambridge University of Stephen Hawking's
70th birthday and at that conference
Alexander Vilenkin read a paper entitled
"Did the Universe Have A Beginning" in
which he surveys contemporary cosmology
and the various models. And he concludes
none of these scenarios can actually be
past eternal. And this lecture is
available on YouTube if you will look
for that conference and Vilenkin's name,
,title of this lecture: Did the Universe
Have A Beginning. And this is a very
accessible lecture which the lay person
can understand and will deal with some
of these other models to try to feature
multiverse scenerios.
