Sterling's Truths for Life #36

Explanation

We learn physics as a set of mathematics that tell us how the world behaves. It is easy for someone to get confused and think that these mathematics define that behavior. No. The mathematics were worked out in reverse by observing behavior and using math to put together a useful way of explaining, categorizing, and predicting observations. It’s no different from getting any other designed gadget, taking it apart, and trying to figure out how it works.

It is always possible that the math is wrong. Often we find that learning one thing about the universe implies something else when we work out the math. Often we also discover that our math is broken when we devise an experiment to test the math and the universe behaves in a way that no longer fits.

Deconstructing reality this way tells us how reality behaves, but it does not tell us why. If you want to know the why, you have to leave physics behind and enter the realm of metaphysics and religion.

Of course, even to do science itself, you must have some basis in metaphysics and religion, even if you don’t realize that’s needed. Science originated in the West as a yearning to understand God through his creation. Many theological positions are embedded deep within the foundations of modern science and are accepted implicitly without realizing their origins.

For example, physics assumes space-time translation symmetry. If you perform an experiment in London, we assume the same experiment will work on Olympus Mons on Mars or in the space around Alpha Centauri light years away or even in distant galaxies. Furthermore, we assume this holds true for all of time. The behavior of creation is the same today as it was at the beginning. This symmetry, though, originates from the unchanging nature of the Christian God. God does not change, so we assume the universe will not change. It is not a principle that many religions hold.

Yes, this principle is necessary for assumptions of physics to apply to cosmology (the science of how physics apply to the operation of the universe as a whole everywhere and for all time). But there’s no particular reason we should assume that a chemical process that works in London should also work in Los Angeles. If you’ve ever done a chemistry experiment, you’ll know how finicky they can be. There’s no particular reason to assume this finicky behavior is not related to when and where the experiment is performed or who performs the experiment.

When we get down into the details of quantum mechanics, you will learn some facts that are not intuitive when you do not assume a Christian worldview. Quantum physicists have long struggled to understand why the presence of an observer changes the outcome of an experiment.¹ Photons of light, for example, literally behave differently based on whether you are watching for them or not. For a Christian, this creates no problem.

For by [Jesus] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:16-17 (ESV)

And:

I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

Isaiah 46:9b-10 (ESV)

As the One operating the universe, God has determined all things that will happen and so the photons of light reacting to what will happen is no surprise.

Modern quantum physicists, though, grounded in classical symmetries, but without grounding in theology, must struggle here. Most humans, even most physicists, dislike the idea of determinism. That all of reality is predetermined based upon the motions of masses and distribution of energy that follows strict Newtonian rules. As such, they found the uncertainty in quantum physics to be an escape hatch that lets them believe in free will again.

However, this escape hatch has a flaw: particles seem to know the future. That is, measurements change the behavior of particles, but you can decide to take a measurement after the particle is emitted, but the particle’s state will collapse before that measurement is made, which clearly (to me) suggests the outcome is still deterministic (i.e., the particle seemed to know before it got to where it was going that it was going to be measured in a particular way). Worse, particles can even communicate certain properties faster than light over long distances in ways that cannot be explained without either invisible faster than light signaling or some form of determinism.

Physicists save themselves part way by invoking multiverse theory (see STFL #110). If you follow their logic, this just takes determinism to a new level. You “freely choose” to follow this path, but some other you in a neighboring universe chose to take a different path forward. You split into two versions of yourself, each making a slightly different decision at the decision point. Yet there’s no particular reason why you should be this universe’s you rather than the other. I say this is no better than classical determinism, it’s just multi-determinism.

If, as Christians believe, we are both responsible for our part in what happens and God knows what will happen (something that would be impossible to understand if God existed inside of creation or were limited by the finite confines of creation), this is no problem. We can have real will and agency within our circumstances while God also has total freedom. Without the Christian God, you are left with not just determinism, but fatalism: I am trapped by an uncaring fate that will send me where it is programmed to go and any free will I sense is merely an illusion.

Anyway, the universe is more complicated than simply tracking the application of forces using math and measurements. It is even more complicated and many-layered than tracking probabilities and understanding possible outcomes and forcing those outcomes to resolve through the application of observation. These scientific processes are just a reduction of the universe to some useful rules and predictions.

The universe is far more. It is a vast, complex, designed machine, created and sustained by an even more vast and perfect God. We are but a small, but important part and science is only one means of understanding what God has done for us.

Cheers.