(May 25, 2014 at 1:55 am)topher Wrote:(May 25, 2014 at 1:25 am)Lek Wrote: It depends on the meaning of "universe". If it means every material thing that exists, then there is only one material universe. If it means something more limited, then I believe there could be more.
The only reason I ask is so I can put this in context.
Before the discovery that the Earth was indeed a planet, floating in space, it was believed the Earth was the only place you could really "be". It only made sense to say that the Earth is everything in "our world", most likely due to the spread of religion. A God or Gods, in the imperceptible Heavens, looking down upon the Earth. Pretty standard stuff for theism. Then, with the invention and improvement of the telescope, we were able to determine there are other worlds out there, orbiting our sun. Then, we found out that the Sun is just a star, and there are countless other solar systems out there. And then, we learned that all these billions stars form a galaxy. Then, we even learned that that there are as many galaxies in the universe as there are stars in a galaxy!
And throughout all of this discovery, the religious side's reaction was always:
"Okay, so maybe there are other planets, but there aren't other solar systems! Why would God do that?"
"Okay, so maybe there are other solar systems, but there aren't other galaxies! Why would God do that?"
And now we have "Okay, so maybe there are other galaxies, but there aren't other universes! Why would God do that?"
It is clear that these beliefs were created using the knowledge of the time, and that as more and more information comes our way, religious people will need to do more and more mental gymnastics in order to comply with popular science, just as they have done for the last 2000 years.
Moving on to the possibility of more of God's creations throughout the cosmos.
Were they created before or after us? What happens if they sin/fall from grace? Are they damned for all eternity the same as we were? Would/could God deliver his son/another son to their world to pay for their sins, even though the Bible says Jesus was his only son?
Questions like this are why outlandish speculations like these usually have no general consensus amongst Christians.
Reasonable questions, but that's a lot of stuff to answer. I'll have to get back to you tomorrow.
