The road not taken

The parallel universe is a stock convention of the SF genre. A parallel universe represents an alternate history or alternate future. Counterfactual identity is a relative concept, ranging along a continuum of similarity and dissimilarity. There are degrees of counterfactual identity. Degrees of continuity between one world and a parallel universe.

So, in one SF scenario, a man lost his younger brother in a fatal accident. At a later date, he transports to a parallel universe where his brother never died.

It’s an awkward reunion at first, in the sense that it’s a reunion for the older brother, but not the younger brother.

Although SF writers often find the dramatic potential of this literary convention too interesting to resist, it’s difficult to ground a parallel universe in a secular ontology. Attempts to do so include the quantum megaverse and the modal realism of David Lewis.

Both of these mechanisms are quite controversial. And even if they were feasible, they don’t enable a person to transport from his own world to an alternate reality. Each possible world or parallel universe is self-contained.

Christian theology also has a concept of possible worlds. This is grounded in divine omnipotence. The actual, finite creation does not exhaust what God was capable of doing. Standard prooftexts include 1 Sam 23:8-14 and Mt 11:21-24. Indeed, the Bible contains a number of hypothetical statements.

These are often cited in connection with Molinism. However, as William Lane Craig admits, they merely prove counterfactual knowledge rather than middle knowledge.

Supralapsarian Calvinism is also predicated on the notion of possible worlds. The conjunction of divine omniscience and divine omnipotence generates various possible worlds. God chose to instantiate one of these possibilities to manifest the wisdom of his mercy and justice to the elect.

Let’s go back to 1 Sam 23:8-14 for a moment. This begins with a hypothetical question which David poses to God. David can imagine more than one possible outcome. But he wonders which possible outcome would eventuate if he took a particular course of action.

And God answers him. Incidentally, this means that, even counterfactually speaking, the future isn’t open-ended. Not all conceivable outcomes are equally possible. If fact, to judge by God’s answer, there’s just one outcome per scenario. The outcome varies with the scenario, but it doesn’t vary within the scenario.

Still, it’s interesting that David’s question is answerable. There’s an extramental truthmaker that corresponds to David’s imagination. Extramental in relation to David.

As such, our capacity to imagine alternate possibilities is not purely imaginative or imaginary. Such possibilities inhere in the mind and might of God.

Of course, not everything we imagine is coherent. As finite creatures we may imagine an event or set of events which is incompossible. We haven’t thought through all the consequences.

Given Christian metaphysics, let’s return to my previous example. Suppose you had a younger brother who died at the age of 14 in a terrible accident. There’s a possible world in which he didn’t die at the age of 14. A possible world in which he had a normal lifespan. A possible world in which you continued to know him.

Let’s take this a step further. Not every privation is a result of loss. Of losing something you had. A privation can also involve the absence of something you never had, as well as the absence of something you once had, but no longer have.

Suppose you’re an only child. That can also be a privation. You never had siblings.

There’s a possible world in which you had a younger brother or older brother.

Or suppose you’re an orphan. There’s a possible world in which you didn’t lose your parents.

Moreover, there are nested possible worlds. There’s a possible world in which you meet your possible parent or sibling. Get to know them.

That raises the question of whether, in heaven, God will allow us to experience the road not taken. The other fork in the road. Of course, we don’t know the answer to that question. Not yet. Not now.

My immediate point is simply that Christian theism makes this metaphysically feasible in a way that secular SF scenarios cannot. God can make it happen if he wants to. The only question is whether he wants to make it happen. We’ll find out.