THIS IS COOL: So in response to my post the other day on Greg Benford’s Rewrite, I got this email from famous physicist Frank Tipler:

Hi Glenn,

I pointed out in my book THE PHYSICS OF CHRISTIANITY (Doubleday, 2007), a copy of which I sent you, that Many-Worlds quantum mechanics resolves the Problem of Evil, in exactly the way you suggested. I also pointed out that Many-Worlds also resolves the free will problem. See Chapter 11, pages 257-265.

I had earlier published this solution to the Problem of Evil in THE PHYSICS OF IMMORTALITY (Doubleday, 1994), page 259.

The idea that God is morally required to create all possibilities goes back to Plato. See Arthur O. Lovejoy’s THE GREAT CHAIN OF BEING (Harvard University Press, 1936).

The only difference between us and the ancients is that we can PROVE the other worlds exist. As Stephen Hawking once told me, “the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is trivially true.” That is, only an idiot does not accept Many-Worlds.

As regards each of us dying horribly in at least one other universe, OF COURSE this occurs. BUT — we all will have a second chance when we are resurrected in the far future as computer uploads. See both of my books for details of how this works.

Best,

Frank

Oh, right, I remember that book. My “original thought” was probably just a vague memory of it after twelve years. So much for originality on my part, in either physics or theology. Though my father did once tell me that I had come up with a strikingly original heresy based on the Old Testament, so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.