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Cosmologists have reasons to believe that the vast universe in which we live is just one of an endless number of other universes within a multiverse – a mind-boggling array that may extend indefinitely in space and endlessly in both the past and the future. Victor Stenger reviews the key developments in the history of science that led to the current consensus view of astrophysicists, taking pains to explain essential concepts and discoveries in accessible terminology. The author shows that science's emerging understanding of the multiverse – consisting of trillions upon trillions of galaxies – is fully explicable in naturalistic terms with no need for supernatural forces to explain its origin or ongoing existence.
How can conceptions of God, traditional or otherwise, be squared with this new worldview? The author shows how long-held beliefs will need to undergo major revision or otherwise face eventual extinction.
"The multiverse is one of the most exciting and controversial ideas in all of science today, with implications for both cosmology and theology, and there is no one writing on these topics better than Victor Stenger. His exposition of difficult topics in physics is brilliantly lucid; and his treatment of theologians and their religious beliefs, unfailingly fair. With this book you are in the hands of a masterful thinker and writer. If you are going to read just one book on science and religion, this is that work."
– Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist for Scientific American, and author of The Moral Arc, Why Darwin Matters, and The Believing Brain
"Victor J. Stenger provides a methodical, comprehensive review of the scientific developments necessary to grasp the fundamental problems and current ideas in cosmology, the origin of the universe, and the notions of god that emerge from these. An informative read, indispensable for audiences interested in these and similar issues."
– Demos Kazanas, NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center
"With insight and sometimes with personal stories, Victor Stenger takes us in eminently readable fashion through the history of the universe and of our understanding of it. He is a friendly guide, and both historically minded readers and those searching for the latest about the Higgs boson, dark matter, inflation, and gravity waves are accommodated. He evaluates the relevance of religion at many points, as a theme, but the book can be happily read with or without that interest."
– Jay M. Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College and chair of the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society
"First and foremost, this book is a masterful lesson on cutting-edge cosmology. It also presents a broad and penetrating rebuttal to claims that science offers anything approaching proof of the existence of supernatural gods. When people say that Earth was intelligently fine-tuned for life or that the universe reveals itself to be a magical creation, this is the perfect book to place in their hands. Light on speculations and heavy with evidence-based conclusions, God and the Multiverse is a remarkable tour through reality that is sure to deepen anyone's understanding of the cosmos."
– Guy P. Harrison, author of Think: Why You Should Question Everything and 50 Simple Questions for Every Christian
"In this fascinating and provocative book, Victor J. Stenger takes us on an eye-opening journey down the road of scientific progress from the earliest of creation myths and cosmologies to the frontiers of modern science – including the growing consensus that our universe is part of a much vaster, perhaps infinite, multiverse. Along the way we find the roadside littered with failed cosmologies, discarded creator gods, and antiquated ways of thinking about the cosmos and our place in it. This book is truly a must-read for anyone interested in the development of scientific cosmology and the various ways it clashes with the religions of yesterday and today!"
– Gregg D. Caruso, author of Free Will and Consciousness, editor in chief of Science, Religion & Culture
