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The multiverse as portrayed in Marvel Comics

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From Sarah Lewin at LiveScience:

Space.com talked with Adam Frank, an astrophysicist at the University of Rochester in New York who consulted on “Doctor Strange,” about how the movie’s magic of the mind fits in with the more science-grounded (comparatively!) worlds introduced previously, the concept of the multiverse and what science philosophy has to do with superheroes.

…

In general, the multiverse idea is very much built into the Marvel comics; Marvel has Earth 226A, Earth 213B … You can expect it to show up in different places. What’s interesting about the Marvel universe is, they would have these characters which would be the embodiment of impersonal forces. There’s a character who’s like, “I’m Eternity,” and he’s represented as this outline. Marvel has no problem with taking broad, sweeping philosophical abstractions and somehow storifying them, which is awesome. And in some sense, that’s also what’s happening here: You’re taking this idea of [the] mind. “Mind” is a thing in the universe — not just a derivative of other things in the universe, but somehow, mind is being an essential player in the universe, and they’re storifying it. They’re making it an actor. More.

Multiverse plus New Age? A long as it all stays in the common room and doesn’t end up in the lecture room, it should be tremendous fun.

See also: Forbes regrets to inform us that there is no evidence for a multiverse yet. But everyone is working on it. Otherwise, fine tuning is the only explanation.

Rob Sheldon: The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Or IS it? One gets the sense that Prof Sarkar is trying not to step on toes as he explains why the Nobel should never have been awarded for dark energy.

and

Multiverse cosmology at your fingertips

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2 Replies to “The multiverse as portrayed in Marvel Comics”

  1. 1
    bornagain77 says:
    November 6, 2016 at 8:01 pm

    So their proof for the multiverse is SpiderMan comics? How fitting. Imaginary characters providing imaginary proof for an imaginary hypothesis. Bet it gets peer reviewed in no time flat! 🙂 I wonder if in the next issue of Marvel comics SpiderMan and his fellow Marvel comic superheros are going to war against an army of theists riding on the horns of a great pink beast known to his tribesman as “The Saddlehorn Dilemma”.

    Why Most Atheists Believe in Pink Unicorns – May 2014
    Excerpt: Given an infinite amount of time, anything that is logically possible(11) will eventually happen. So, given an infinite number of universes being created in (presumably) an infinite amount of time, you are not only guaranteed to get your universe but every other possible universe. This means that every conceivable universe exists, from ones that consist of nothing but a giant black hole, to ones that are just like ours and where someone just like you is reading a blog post just like this, except it’s titled: “Why most atheists believe in blue unicorns.”
    By now I’m sure you know where I’m going with this, but I’ll say it anyway. Since we know that horses are possible, and that pink animals are possible, and that horned animals are possible, then there is no logical reason why pink unicorns are not possible entities. Ergo, if infinite universes exist, then pink unicorns must necessarily exist. For an atheist to appeal to multiverse theory to deny the need of a designer infers that he believes in that theory more than a theistically suggestive single universe. And to believe in the multiverse means that one is saddled with everything that goes with it, like pink unicorns. In fact, they not only believe in pink unicorns, but that someone just like them is riding on one at this very moment, and who believes that elephants, giraffes, and zebra are merely childish fairytales.
    Postscript
    While it may be amusing to imagine atheists riding pink unicorns, it should be noted that the belief in them does not logically invalidate atheism. There theoretically could be multiple universes and there theoretically could be pink unicorns. However, there is a more substantial problem for the atheist if he wants to believe in them and he wants to remain an atheist. Since, as I said, anything can happen in the realm of infinities, one of those possibilities is the production of a being of vast intelligence and power. Such a being would be as a god to those like us, and could perhaps breach the boundaries of the multiverse to, in fact, be a “god” to this universe. This being might even have the means to create its own universe and embody the very description of the God of Christianity (or any other religion that the atheist otherwise rejects). It seems the atheist, in affirming the multiverse in order to avoid the problem of fine-tuning, finds himself on the horns of a dilemma. The further irony is that somewhere, in the great wide world of infinities, the atheist’s doppelganger is going to war against an army of theists riding on the horns of a great pink beast known to his tribesman as “The Saddlehorn Dilemma.”
    https://pspruett.wordpress.com/2014/05/12/why-most-atheists-believe-in-pink-unicorns/

    The Multiverse confirms the Ontological Argument for God – video
    https://youtu.be/MgDn_k11ups

    Does a Multiverse Explain the Fine Tuning of the Universe? – Dr. Craig (observer selection effect vs. Boltzmann Brains) – video
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb9aXduPfuA

    Verse:

    2 Corinthians 10:5
    Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

    1 Corinthians 2:9-10
    However, as it is written:
    “What no eye has seen,
    what no ear has heard,
    and what no human mind has conceived” —
    the things God has prepared for those who love him—
    these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

  2. 2
    221b_baker_st says:
    June 10, 2017 at 11:53 am

    I’m obviously late to this discussion, but unfortunately I’m afraid many people miss the point and the real danger here. It’s easy to mock the idea of “proof through Marvel” but the fact is that movies like Dr. Strange are pouring the essence of an atheistic approach to cosmology and a very specific, pro-atheistic version of the multiverse into people’s skulls. Worse, it helps them emotionally by-pass the logical conclusion of atheism by presenting a shallow naturalism as heroic and engaging, provoking a semblance of religious awe.

    People don’t turn off their imaginations when moving from the common room into the lecture hall. We’ve got to recognize the danger and engage them on that field too. Otherwise, we’ve ceded at least half the battle for the mind. You’re not going to effectively combat that with facts alone–and you certainly won’t win by relying on scorn. The best way to respond is with better stories containing more truth.

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