I’m a science fiction fan and I like watching the occasional documentary on quantum physics, cosmology, and the nature of reality. I have a shelf of half read books on those same subjects. For some reason, usually around page 150, the explanation for the laity ends and the sentence “This is the paper I submitted to the Nobel Committee.” rears its ugly head. It’s all equations with Greek letters and horrid nightmares of high school Calculus come rushing back.

I’m no mathematician. I accept that. I do find that stuff interesting though.

One of the most interesting is the theory that each choice you make spawns one or many alternate universes. Every possibility must happen. If I turn left there is a universe where I turn right. There’s also one were I hit a tree, stall out, have a heart attack, just sit there for no reason until I starve to death, etc. They all happen.

If you think about it seriously it hurts your head. It’s not just me or those around me. It’s everything. A fly pauses from it’s meal and it doesn’t. An amoeba splits and it doesn’t, an atom of gas attracts another that will eventually attract more and form a star and it doesn’t – and all things in between. Infinity is an amazing concept.

Where does that leave us? What are we. Am I the concept know as me across the multiverse or am I only the me that travels along one particular path with every offshoot a new and discrete creature?

What does either mean for the concept of sin?

If I am all my possibilities then I am a neutral soul. The graces are countered by the stains. I didn’t do wrong or right as I am incapable of choosing anything. I must do everything.

If I am only me as I perceive myself right now and each offshoot is a separate person in full, then sin is foisted upon someone. I choose not to suddenly stab and kill the person next to me but since it is a possibility it must be that one offshoot does so. How can he be held culpable?

These are the things I think about late at night.