Adapted from Creation Answer Book by Hank Hanegraaff 

Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking is infamous for supposing that the existence of a vast number of universes—a multiverse—explains the fine-tuning of our universe. In other words, Hawking asserts that, given a sufficient number of random universes, one of them is bound to have the necessary conditions to support not only intelligent life but also the proposition that blind chance can account for fine-tuning. In reality, the multiverse proposition is an utterly desperate attempt to account for an unfathomably fine-tuned universe.

First, we should note that there is not a shred of evidence to support the existence of a physical universe other than our own, much less a virtually infinite number of such universes. Hawking’s hope—and the hope of multitudes who share such fanciful presuppositions—is based on theological and theoretical pining rather than scientific discovery.

Furthermore, in addition to undermining science, the multiverse hypothesis throws plain old common sense under the bus. Imagine trying to convict a murderer in a multiverse where material evidence has been sacrificed on the altar of philosophically improbable propositions. In such a multiverse, stories of revolvers materializing out of thin air might well be as credible as eyewitness testimony.

Finally, eminent theoretical physicist—and Hawking colleague—Roger Penrose, though himself agnostic, has rightly concluded that the multiple universe hypothesis is both “impotent” and “misconceived.” The Big Bang turns out to be an event of almost infinitesimal probability, and the probabilistic resources provided by a multiverse turn out to be insufficiently rich. As such, the most plausible explanation for the fine-tuning of our universe is yet, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”


Source (and for further study), see William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics, 3rd ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008).