Quantum
HEALTH
Issue 11 April 2011
The Science of God
The March 2011 issue of Discover magazine includes a fascinating article, “The Physics of the Divine,” which examines if any science theories allow room for a God who is active in the workings of the physical world. It appears there is evidence in support of a Divine Creator or at the very least a Cosmic Intelligence. Physicist Bob Russell, for example, points to quantum mechanics–the science of atoms and subatomic particles and their interactions–as the most obvious place to look. He says that indeterminism, also called the Uncertainty Principle–which is a bedrock principle in most quantum theories and says that you can never be 100 percent certain of the outcome of any quantum experiment–is our first clue to some kind of “deeper determinism” fundamental to the world. Our world–the macroscopic world–is thought to be deterministic. If you know all the initial conditions of an event, you can predict with certainty the end result. That’s not true in quantum physics, however. In quantum, there is always the possibility–no matter how slight–that the result may change. Even if the experiment has been replicated a thousand, or a million, times, there remains the possibility that the next time it is carried out the result will be different. This split between the indeterminancy of the microworld and the apparent determinancy of the macroworld has raised profound questions about the true nature of reality, for there should be only one set of laws, not two, to describe all of reality.
Chaos theory is also invoked in the search for transcendental truth. In this theory, tiny shifts in initial conditions can add up to enormous changes in a system over time, changes that could not have been predicted. The popular expression of chaos theory is one or more variations of “if a butterfly in Bejing flaps its wings, the weather in Los Angeles changes.” Connected to chaos theory is the principle of emergence, which says from simple patterns, enormous complexity can arise. We are all examples of the principle of emergence–our consciousness is an emergent condition of our brain. From the fundamental networking of matter–cells, chemicals, etc.– consciousness and self-awareness arise. There is nothing inherent in brain cells that could ever predict the emergence of consciousness, which is why it is such a mystery. The greatest mystery of emergence, however, is life itself. From the supposedly accidental aggregation of diverse inorganic molecules, life eventually arose.
Some physicists and philosophers who are grappling with the question of if there is an organising intelligence behind reality think that quantum entanglement provides compelling evidence. Entanglement has been verified beyond a doubt in the subatomic world, and evidence is quickly amassing for it being a fundamental aspect of the macroworld. Quantum entanglement is the condition where everything is connected: if two entities–electrons,
18 Quantum Health
www.quantumhealthmagazine.com
Science in the News
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