Mormons and the Multiverse

The physical plausibility of the Mormon conception of God appears to be inversely proportional to his necessity. Let me explain.

The Big Bang poses some problems for Mormon theology. Run the tape of time backwards and the universe reaches a point where it is so hot and dense that it is hard to see how God could exist within the universe, to say nothing of an infinite hierarchy of gods or eternal intelligences (whatever those are). Last year Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought published "Eternal Progression in a Multiverse: An Explorative Mormon Cosmology," (pdf link) by Kirk D. Hagen. The basic idea is that this universe is only a part of a larger multiverse, and this gives our theology a door out of this universe. (See also Clark's post on this topic at Mormon Metaphysics.)

Creationists of various stripes (including intelligent design) have argued that certain aspects of this universe (eg. fundamental constants) that are conducive to life on this planet have been designed--that the universe just happens, by chance, to have the features necessary to make our existence possible seems too improbable. Therefore it is likely that God designed the universe.

Some scientists have responded that--whatever the merit of that argument--the concept of a multiverse renders the argument irrelevant. Of all the universes that make up the multiverse, some will have the properties needed for life. We live in one of those universes. (For a recently published example of this kind of argument, see here.)

But Richard Sherlock doesn't like this argument at all. In his FARMS Review essay, "Mormonism and Intelligent Design", he writes:

What critics have resorted to is a wildly imaginary but inventive claim that there may be an infinite number of parallel universes. At one time it was suggested that the universe might go through an infinite number of expansions followed by contractions, a big bang and a big crunch, if you will. This idea, however, has been refuted by recent data. But no problem. The hypothesized infinite multiverses will do equally well. We might be simply the universe that was "organized" in the design-specific manner that it appears to be. The other universes or multiverses as they are called may be "organized" in much less inviting ways. Or maybe they started and failed, collapsing back on themselves or flying apart. The question is why would one want to multiply entities for which we have absolutely no evidence? The reason for the multiplication is not science, for the appeal to hidden entities or forces violates what scientists claim to seek above all else: explanation, not mystery. The reason is the deeply held faith in materialism and in the equally strong article of faith by some against God or divine design.

And so we come full circle. Do we insist on God's necessity and accept the problems of the Big Bang, or do we invoke the idea of a multiverse and give up cosmic improbability?

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Behe Picks Up Other End of Stick

Michael Behe, of Darwin's Black Box fame, has a new book out titled The Edge of Evolution. I have not seen it yet--and frankly, I doubt I will read it--but critical reviews have been coming in, which I will link to below. Apparently, the gist of the book is that, in addition to re-iterating 'irreducibly complexity', Behe calculates the probability of a malaria drug resistance gene arising and uses that as the standard by which one can declare a mutation to have been designed or not. Or something like that.

It has long been apparent that if the argument of design is to be taken seriously, then it must apply to pathogens and parasites as well. Behe apparently takes that step with this quote:

Here's something to ponder long and hard: Malaria was intentionally designed. The molecular machinery with which the parasite invades red blood cells is an exquisitely purposeful arrangement of parts. C-Eve's children died in her arms because an intelligent agent deliberately made malaria, or at least something very similar to it.

Well, at least he is consistent. (Of course, the designer of malaria need not be God; it could have been Satan. Take your pick. And welcome back to an age where diseases are caused by God's cursing or Satan's meddling.)

Anyway, here is some further reading:
Of cilia and silliness (more on Behe) - wherein Nick Matzke discovers the irony that malaria undercuts Behe's argument about the irreducible complexity of cilia.

Not for the faint of heart: the continuing dismemberment of Michael Behe - which contains links to a number of reviews.

See especially Sean Carroll's review in Science.

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Entropy

An article at PLoS Biology discusses research into thermodynamics and evolution. The article is interesting in its own right, but it contains a nice summary of the concept of entropy that I thought I would reproduce here.

Entropy is a powerful but slippery concept. One reason for both its power and its slipperiness is that several different branches of physics have been able to formulate the second law of thermodynamics independently. This has meant that other fields, such as computing and ecology, can use the concept of entropy, and so entropy takes rather different forms in different systems.

In thermodynamics, entropy is uselessness. An energy gradient, such as a difference in temperature, can be used to do work. But as the gradient levels out, the energy is transformed into useless heat in equilibrium with its surroundings. In statistical mechanics, a system's entropy is the number of possible arrangements of all its microscopic states that yield any particular macroscopic state. Maximum entropy is the most probable, and most disordered state. For example, for 1,000 flipped coins, the most likely, and also the most entropic state, is 500 heads and 500 tails. This form of entropy has also been called “mixedupness”: a far greater number of molecular arrangements yield a cup of white coffee than yield a black coffee with a layer of milk sitting on top of it.

In information theory, entropy is uncertainty. The most entropic systems are those in which one is least certain what is coming next. In a very orderly message, such as a string of identical letters, the next letter is predictable. Such a system has no entropy. A string of random letters is very noisy, carries no information, and has the maximum possible entropy. This formulation of entropy was devised by the mathematician Claude Shannon, who also gave his name to a measure of biodiversity, the Shannon index. This index expressed how evenly individuals are distributed within a number of categories. The more categories, and the more equal the number of individuals in each, the greater the biodiversity; this is mathematically equivalent to a measure of entropy. In the most diverse ecosystems, a naturalist has little or no idea what species she will find next.

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Whitfield J (2007) Survival of the Likeliest? PLoS Biol 5(5): e142

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BYU Instructor Featured in Science

This week's Science has a news story about BYU instructor Duane Merrell, who is grooming high school science teachers.

Merrell, who has received a presidential teaching award and numerous state teaching honors, teaches three courses that form the core of the physics education curriculum (along with more traditional education courses and student teaching). Students must complete all but three courses of what's needed for a traditional physics degree, and many students find a way to cram those additional courses into their schedule. Merrell's goal is to connect the pedagogy with the science so that these future teachers "will have multiple ways to engage their students." Despite a heavy teaching load, he tries to get off campus and into the schools as much as possible, checking on the progress of the students, offering tips on how to present a lesson or lab, and helping them prepare for the profession they have chosen. ...

So far, Merrell is making his presence felt. BYU's annual production of science teachers exceeds those for many states, let alone individual institutions, which suggests he's doing something right. [bolding added]

I guess it's about 15/year. I hope all of those teachers don't plan on staying in Utah.

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"BYU Takes Team Approach Led by a Master Teacher" [no link; subscription required]
Science 1 June 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5829, p. 1272

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