I saw a meme the other day. It was a single image that showed a conversation between two people. It went like this –
Person1: So, you are an atheist?
Person 2: Yes
Person 1: Why don’t you believe in God?
Person 2: I don’t believe in silly magic
Person 1: So, who created the universe?
Person 2: It came from nothing
Person 1: ????
A theist believes that a God needs to exist for the universe to exist. That, God created the universe. Whereas, an Atheist/Agnostic tends to believe that the universe evolved from nothing, based on certain laws.
So, what is more plausible? A universe that needs no intelligent creator, or a Universe that was created by an intelligent being?
If a creator needs to exist first for our Universe to exist, then, using the same logic of causality, the follow up question becomes – Who created the creator?
Both of these theories are based on the assumption that there exists some sort of causality. One event leading to another. Existence of a creator for the existence of the universe. Or, a spontaneous creation, followed by the evolution of a universe, from nothing. One can be forgiven for not being able to imagine a universe without causality. Because, that is what we have experienced throughout our lives. We observe one event follow another for every moment of our lives here.
But, what if time and causality are just illusions?
Quantum Tunneling
Those familiar with electronics may have heard of a phenomenon called quantum tunneling. This is where an electron spontaneously appears (interacts with a quantum field) on the other side of a P-N junction. A P-N junction is designed to prevent the movement of an electron beyond the junction, when an appropriate voltage is applied. This “tunneling” happens because the P-N junctions in electronic chips these days are narrower than the extent of an electron wave function. The probability of this “tunneling” happening increases as the junction gets narrower. The quantum tunneling phenomenon is why we believe that we are very close to hitting the limits of electronic circuitry. Quantum tunneling is also the reason why stars like the Sun are able to fuse Hydrogen into Helium and beyond.
You may be wondering why I have gone into this tangent.
Probability is the fundamental feature of Quantum mechanics. Nothing is assured. An electron is an excitation in the electron field. It is represented by a wave function. The amplitude (the square of the amplitude to be exact) of a wave function signifies the probability of the excitation interacting with another excitation in a quantum field. The actual point of interaction is unpredictable. But, the chance of an interaction at a specific point is higher where the wave function has a higher amplitude. With the tunneling phenomenon, the P-N junction is so narrow that there is a statistically significant probability that the electron interacts with another excitation in a quantum field beyond the junction, even though the junction is designed to prevent exactly that.
But, what if the electron does interact with another quantum field at every point on its wave function, and, we are only entangled with one of those infinite possibilities, allowing us to experience just one interaction among the infinite number of interactions? Put in another way, imagine every excitation in this universe in all the quantum fields as waves. When all of them interact at every point in space and time, a universal interference pattern emerges. From all of those interactions, a much smaller set of locations in space emerges where those quantum waves interfere constructively, making the probability of us experiencing interactions in those points in space as most probable. Out of those most probable interactions, we are entangled with precisely one. Thus, we typically experience just one of those highly probable interactions (we can be entangled with highly improbable interactions too. But the chance of experiencing such an interaction is statistically low). As you can see, the universe that we experience just emerges from an interference pattern. Our experience, however, is skewed towards the most probable interactions. The order in which we experience those interactions also seems to be driven by entropy (the flow of time towards the future).
The Movie Analogy
Consider a movie. The entire story exists on a roll of film. However, when we watch it, we experience a singular frame at a time and remember every frame that came before it. We cannot remember anything that is on the roll that we have not yet viewed. What if existence is something similar? Except, there are an infinite number of films rolls that extends the story in different ways and our consciousness has a choice of staying on that same film roll or switching between film rolls at every moment. Some film rolls having a higher probability of being selected than others, depending upon the closeness of the events in the film (just like an electron wave function). What if every possibility exists, like those infinite number of film rolls, but, we are only capable of experiencing one of those possibilities, in a specific sequence, in one lifetime? Perhaps it’s a limitation of the universe that we currently inhabit. Perhaps the laws of this universe prevent a consciousness from experiencing multiple possibilities simultaneously.
NOTE:
“Experiencing” is just a simplified term. Under the covers, it’s just the ability of a consciousness to process and retrieve a sequence of events. We experience what we call our “past” and “present” only because this universe allows the retrieval and processing of a specific sequence of causally related events. Imagine a person in this universe who is incapable of retrieving any sequence of events? Does the “past” exist for that person? Imagine a person in this universe who is incapable of retrieving “past” events in any causally related sequence. Does causality have any meaning for that person? Imagine a similar universe as ours that allows the retrieval of a sequence of events from what we consider the future (film roll running backwards, for example)? Wouldn’t what we call the future become the past for the inhabitants of that universe? Now, imagine another universe that allows a consciousness to experience events in no specific order. What is “causality” for someone inhabiting that universe?
The Multiverse
Extending what we see in our own universe further — Suppose, every possible types of universes exist. If every possibility exists, then the probability of an event happening is exactly 1. Anything and everything can happen. Perhaps there are entire sets of probabilities where the universe is so chaotic that a consciousness cannot coalesce or exist within it. Perhaps there are an entire set of possibilities where the universes are so organized that nothing can happen within it. Perhaps there are an entire set of probabilities where consciousnesses can coalesce and experience all of its possibilities simultaneously.
As you can see, in such a multiverse, time and causality that we experience are just illusions. Both are artifacts created by limitations that only allow a consciousness within the bounds of a universe to experience and process a specific sequence of events. In such a multiverse, a God is not necessary. The multiverse just is. It’s an amalgamation of every possibility — Everything and every event exists, simultaneously. In such a multiverse, there could be an infinite number of universes created and maintained by one or more Gods, there could be infinite number of universes that begin with a big bang, and there could be infinite number of universes with unimaginable origins, features and conclusions. Thus, a theist’s universe and an atheist’s universe are just subsets of such a multiverse.
Or perhaps, the multiverse is God, and everything, including us, are subsets of that phenomenon.
We expect a beginning and an end, and progressions of events influenced by causality, only because that is the type of space-time that we experience. In a multiverse where everything and every event exists, a beginning and an end is unnecessary — The multiverse just is. And, we are experiencing a single specific sequence of events in one out of those infinite number of universes.
Note:
Even in our own universe, we have examples of non-existent time. Photons, for example, do not experience time or space. Yet, it seems like they experience both time and space from our perspective. A photon can neither experience its birth, nor can it experience its end. But, to us, it looks like a photon is emitted, travels at finite speeds, covering vast distances in space for possibly billions of years until it finally gets absorbed by another excitation in the quantum foam. But, for that photon, it is not traveling. It is a dimensionless point of energy, existing in a 2 dimensional, timeless universe. Billions of light years of an entire third dimension that we experience, along with time, is non-existent for the photon.
Put in another way, the photon experiences an entire third dimension that we experience (potentially, billions of light years) and every possible interactions that photon undergoes within those billions of light years as a single simultaneously occurring event within a single dimensionless point. If it could talk, would it be able to tell you the order of its interactions? Will causality have any meaning to it?
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