Do random events require God?

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Modern physics has identified events which are truly random in that they are not caused by any physical thing. They obey statistical laws, but those laws are such that they allow just about anything to happen, albeit infrequently.

Am I way off base in thinking that a random event is proof that God exists, because every event requires a cause? Do you think that God is the author of how those random events come out? If not God, then who or what determines them?
 
Modern physics has identified events which are truly random in that they are not caused by any physical thing. They obey statistical laws, but those laws are such that they allow just about anything to happen, albeit infrequently.

Am I way off base in thinking that a random event is proof that God exists, because every event requires a cause? Do you think that God is the author of how those random events come out? If not God, then who or what determines them?
It would be extremely help if could identify an event that you believe has no cause. I have a fair amount of experience in applying statistics to solve manufacturing problems. We often catagorize events a “random”, not because they have no cause, but because that cause is inherent in the system in which they occur.
 
It would be extremely help if could identify an event that you believe has no cause. I have a fair amount of experience in applying statistics to solve manufacturing problems. We often catagorize events a “random”, not because they have no cause, but because that cause is inherent in the system in which they occur.
I’m thinking of quantum events like the double-slit experiment, where a photon of light will go through either one slit or the other, randomly.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment
 
Why do you assume there is no cause for the different path?
This is something that I’ve read. That scientists believe that these events are random. I’m not qualified or ready to support that, although if I have time I could go get some quotes I suppose…
 
This is something that I’ve read. That scientists believe that these events are random. I’m not qualified or ready to support that, although if I have time I could go get some quotes I suppose…
“Random” means unpreditable, not uncaused.
 
“Random” means unpreditable, not uncaused.
Well, if the individual outcomes are not predictable, then their outcomes were not caused by anything. If something caused one outcome or the other, we could look at that something to predict the outcome, no?
 
Modern physics has identified events which are truly random in that they are not caused by any physical thing. They obey statistical laws, but those laws are such that they allow just about anything to happen, albeit infrequently.
Not all things associated with probabilities are “truly random”

It is physical laws that often dictate the probability of an event occurring.
Am I way off base in thinking that a random event is proof that God exists, because every event requires a cause? Do you think that God is the author of how those random events come out? If not God, then who or what determines them?
It depends upon the situation
Many things that are labeled as random have deterministic features to them. e.g. if you rolled a die you could get a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. You won’t be able to get a 7 or a 3.5
The system will determine the possible outcomes.

Some things such as the weather are less structured than rolling a die but you are still constrained to a range of possibilities.

Random doesn’t mean that anything could happen

I believe that God is the author of a system in which probabilistic events occur.

How often He has His “thumb on the scales” so to speak… I don’t know. 🤷

As for everything requiring a cause… there are some things in quantum mechanics that have strange implications for causality. :eek:
 
I see what you are getting at. The copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics is interestingly compatible in regards to the Christian faith (note I did not say “religion”, because not all religions are equally compatible with it). It basically says there are only probabilities in nature, but at some point, the concrete decision needs to come out.

The question is, where does this concrete decision come from? It is not ‘inherent in the system’ as another poster mentioned (as a definition for randomness).

According to the Copenhagen Interpretation… concrete outcomes do not arise from the physical world itself. So yes Neil, I’ve read Christian physicists point just to this and say “here is God’s work!”. Good on you for noticing that one too.

However, there are alternative explanations. Many-worlds is one way out of the pickle. Infinite many worlds (hard version) is actually scarily irrational. It’s lighter version, finite many worlds, is tamer and basically says that outcome happened because another outcome happened in another universe.

Finally there is the “hidden variables” hypothesis that says that newtonian physics still applies, but we just haven’t figured out how yet. There are aspects to quantum outcomes which will eventually be able to be solved (not just put down to probabilities) but we just have not gotten that far yet.

🙂
 
Well, if the individual outcomes are not predictable, then their outcomes were not caused by anything. If something caused one outcome or the other, we could look at that something to predict the outcome, no?
No. What part of " unpredictable does not mean uncaused" is unclear. Unpredictable only means that it is not known what factors or combinations of factors are involved in the cause.

For example, the path of a hurricane is unpredictable. Why? Because there are too many factors involved that change from what they were at the time one makes prediction until they actually influence the path.
 
No. What part of " unpredictable does not mean uncaused" is unclear. Unpredictable only means that it is not known what factors or combinations of factors are involved in the cause.

For example, the path of a hurricane is unpredictable. Why? Because there are too many factors involved that change from what they were at the time one makes prediction until they actually influence the path.
There are some systems that are just so complicated that we can’t possibly predict the outcome. However, with infinite computational power, and taking infinite measurements, it would be possible to predict the outcome. Those are not the systems I mean when I say unpredictable.

I’m talking about quantum events that in theory can never be predicted no matter how many measurements we take and how many calculations we perform. The outcome simply is not deterministically linked to the past.
 
This is an interesting discussion. The topic here is used as a debate to either prove or disprove God.

This is very problematic in terms of basic philosophical theories. These basic theories fall into one of two categories. Non-materialist or materialist. Materialist philosophers claim that creation was an accident or random event of some some sort. Basically that we are the product of Luck! Even so by the measures of Science the very things that would prove materialism would also prove God. Let’s say God created every thing and that when He did it wouldn’t matter what he created it would all interact in accordance with some type of Divine patterns, patterns much to complicated for mere Humans to measure, discern or even comprehend if they ever could get a perspective on what would basically be a Grand Template.
Basically the reasoning of this goes something like this.
In getting back to the basics of what everything is made of, substance or material such as matter, that has mass and momentum and other such measureable characteristics, the number of materials and the number of interactions of these material is numbered. Even so only God knows the Template and the patterns of interaction of quantifiable events or quanta such as quantum and quantum physics. Try to remember that quantum physics itself may be useful, even so it is still theoretical. It is very theoretical that there even is such a thing as quanta.

Simply This.

The fact that maybe there is or maybe there isn’t such a thing as Luck, or random occurances even at the sub-atomic level, if there is such a thing as a sub-atomic level, does not either Prove nor Refute God. It’s really a silly argument when it comes right down to it, you see!

So to finish up here, Luck or random events, particularly random quantum events are problematic to sound philosophical theory although not necessarily to sound physics theories.

The Agnostic Scientist can only argue the chain reaction theory of creation based on accident or on Luck, as you would say. Such a type of Luck would make the world as measured by physicists complete chaos and measurable only as chaos. A materialist such as an Agnostic Scientist depends on a predictable order to deny God and still requires Luck which is not predictable, for creation. Very, very problematic at a basic level.

Here’s what is problematic to a Theist who must refute the claims of the materialist Agnostic Scientist. The fact of a random factor of any sort does not by any reasoning either Prove or Refute God. So what do you do? They say an ordered physical universe as postulated from the measurements of physics, and enough of those measurements prove conclusively that there is some order to the physical universe, that it is indeed ordered in some way, they say that this refutes God. You the Theist have to say this. You can go on looking for some remnant of the original accident of Luck that moved one rock that then moved another and somehow created everything with a spark of life, because it’s not there! As a Theist your Faith tells you that since there is a God and he can do things far past the potential for Humans to understand, much less know of in any way, then they the materialists have had their minds tricke, in all probability or even all likelihood by satan himself.🤷

As a Theist the world is problematic, No Problem!🤓
 
Am I way off base in thinking that a random event is proof that God exists, because every event requires a cause? Do you think that God is the author of how those random events come out? If not God, then who or what determines them?
What are you saying, that uncaused events require an Uncaused Cause?😃

Actually every decent book on quantum physics that I’ve ever seen has explained that the “randomness” isn’t entirely random, in the sense of uncaused, so much as the events are no more likely to occur at one moment than another.

It might also be interpreted, though it’ll make most people’s ears bleed, that taking a measurement and collapsing the probability waveform so that some single result is recorded, could be seen as causative, in a sense.

Much more fun is faster-than-light motion, if it exists–it makes things happen before the events that caused them; and antimatter–which can be thought of as moving backward in time.

Freaky thing, the universe. God is, apparently, quite odd.

But then again, “essentially inconceivable” might have been a hint of that last part.
 
Modern physics has identified events which are truly random in that they are not caused by any physical thing. They obey statistical laws, but those laws are such that they allow just about anything to happen, albeit infrequently.

Am I way off base in thinking that a random event is proof that God exists, because every event requires a cause? Do you think that God is the author of how those random events come out? If not God, then who or what determines them?
Hmmm, I seldom venture into these threads. Even random events are consistent in their randomness. I believe that everything has a cause - action and inaction, occurrence and non-occurrence. Actually, things that don’t occur have as much cause as those that do, correct? Man cannot see the cause, and some things science has not and likely will not reveal.

One can say that all motion is derived from the origin, or big bang, or perpetual existence. However, I ponder the cause of the origin, big bang, or perpetual existence. Perfectly circular.
 
The thing that always puzzles me is, why did the big bang happen when it did and not 10 seconds before, and not 10 seconds afterwards? What said “now”?

🤷
 
What are you saying, that uncaused events require an Uncaused Cause?😃
I’m asking if God must actually decide how each random event happens (whether the photon goes through the left slit or the right slit, whether the event happens now or in 10picoseconds). If God doesn’t actually dictate how the random events occur, and if natural laws and physical laws do not determine how they occur, then what does determine it? Is it rational to think of a natural law that works by probabilities rather than strict determinism?

If God decides on how each individual quantum event comes out, then God is much more in control of our world than we might imagine in this scientific age.
Actually every decent book on quantum physics that I’ve ever seen has explained that the “randomness” isn’t entirely random, in the sense of uncaused, so much as the events are no more likely to occur at one moment than another.
Perhaps it’s just semantics. The physical laws cause a photon to go through one of the two slits, and to choose a slit based on a normal probability distribution. But what “causes” a single photon to go through the left slit or the right slit? In the sense I just used the word “causes”, I understand that it isn’t caused by anything. Unless we can say that it is caused by God. Or perhaps by the observer!
 
The thing that always puzzles me is, why did the big bang happen when it did and not 10 seconds before, and not 10 seconds afterwards? What said “now”?

🤷
We know that God caused it. This is where, to me, atheism is completely irrational. Not that I expect them to be convinced by anything I can say about it, but in my mind it’s truly insane to deny that there must have been a Creator. 🙂
 
The thing that always puzzles me is, why did the big bang happen when it did and not 10 seconds before, and not 10 seconds afterwards? What said “now”? 🤷
An all-powerful and ever living God, impossible for man to comprehend, is capable of controlling an infinite amount of universes, and everything in them, simultaneously. Since God is past, present and future continuously, all matter, space and time are within His control and direction. It is as if a loving, caring supercomputer were controlling all events - but even more, was capable of physically guiding all motion, nerve synapse activity and the direction of thought processes, all the while being preoccupied with better things. That is my concept, anyway.

Christ’s peace.
 
We know that God caused it. This is where, to me, atheism is completely irrational. Not that I expect them to be convinced by anything I can say about it, but in my mind it’s truly insane to deny that there must have been a Creator. 🙂
Hi, insane person here. 👋

So, what inspired God to say “now”?

Saying “God did it” is no better an explanation than saying “I don’t know.”
 
Hi, insane person here. 👋

So, what inspired God to say “now”?

Saying “God did it” is no better an explanation than saying “I don’t know.”
Yeah, there is some truth in that statement, I understand where you are coming from- you may not agree with us Christians but the reason why, to us, it’s not exactly the same, is because Christians believe that there are other forms of valid knowledge than those derivable through experiment and observation.

For a Christian, It’s kinda like two puzzle pieces. Both the Christian and the Atheist agree there has to be more pieces to the puzzle than the one we both hold in common. So the Christian “plugs in” his other puzzle piece, developed over 2000 years, and to him it fits. So to him, its not the same as saying “we don’t know”.

See what I mean?
 
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