QM tells us that there are things that we cannot, even in principle, know. An example would be when a particular atom will undergo radioactive decay. And yet atoms do decay. So reality behaves in ways that we cannot even in principle explain or predict scientifically (other than in probabilistic terms). Does this situation affect the likelihood of God’s existence, in your view?
To phrase the question another way, would God’s existence be more or less likely if there were no such impossible to know, even in principle, events or behaviors?
Mike:
I think quantum physics makes the “how” of God’s existence (potentially) more available to us. Not alone, but in combination with other thought, such as the thought of Fr. de Chardin, David Bohm, and Scripture. Within the threads of these fora exist theories such as Yppop’s and Greylorn’s, that are attempts to explain how the physical and spiritual co-exist.
It’s funny, in a respectful way, that I am reading more about the “God of the gaps,” in these threads. If Yppop is correct - and thus far I like his theory best - God operates, i.e., creates, causes, sustains, etc. - at the
implicate level, while we see and science operates at the
explicate level. His theory is that “space” is essentially all there is. There are two sorts of “space” corresponding to the levels which we are able to view or not.
At the Big Bang, a huge, but finite, number of particles was stacked. In so doing, point particles would not extend into any sort of dimensionality. Whether there is one, or are many, when stacked, they produce no dimension (so, no displacement of God). At God’s Command, these stacked point particles started to move away from the main stack and each other. As they did, because of their charges, they formed what appears to be a lattice, with each point particle being equidistant from all of its neighbors. In between this (3-D) lattice of particles is Space - but a Space very different from a “soup” or a “foam.”
Today’s Physics defines “space” as merely “extension.” Yesterday’s physics defined “space” as the “internal extension of a body.” - (
Com. on the Phys., Bk. IV, les. 7, n. 909; les. 10, nn. 970-971) and Newton seems to have defined the space of the world as “the sum of the extensions of all bodies in the world.” - (
The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, transl. A. Motte, rev. F. Cajori (Berkeley, 1947), p. 6). Whatever, it seems that we have a contradiction. Not between the two definitions, but between how “space” was defined then, and how it is currently thought of.
Currently, “space” seems to be thought of as that extension that exists between two (or more) bodies - or even no secondary body at all… Very interesting. In other words, that "extension that exists between two or more bodies is sort of what? Air? Well, it can’t be “air!” Air is its own bodies. And, they are also separated. Also, as molecules, they are much larger than quantum particles. So, we’ll postulate a “soup” of quantum particles. And that’s fine. But, it does not explain what is in between the ingredients of the soup, so to speak. It’s not more, yet smaller particles. Bosons and fermions (quarks) are already considered to be the smallest particles. Right? (Please correct me if I’m wrong. I don’t keep up with this stuff moment by moment.
)
So, what we have here is “gaps” - actually, an infinity of “gaps.” (And, we haven’t even left our Universe yet.) The closest I have been able to conceive of these “gap areas,” formed by the expansion of primordial particles, is that they consist of “nothingness.” “Infinite Nothingness.” Now, we know that “spiritual” is distinct from “physical.” We know that God is infinite and, as such, cannot be displaced by anything. So, the physical cannot displace the spiritual. But, do they co-exist side-by-side? Or, is the “Stuff of the Gaps” God? (BTW, we are not entertaining Pantheism or Panentheism.)
Enough, for now.
