Quantum Theology

IMAO, the biggest philosophical problem of Quantum Mechanics is the “measurement problem”.  According to Quantum Mechanics, “measurement”, or “observation”, collapses the wavefunction of a particle.  Particles behave one way when we are looking, and a very different way as soon as we divert our gaze.

(For more background on the quantum measurement problem, see my blog post  http://mccomplete.blogspot.de/2012/07/decoherence-and-flying-fish.html .)

It’s almost as if there are two worlds: the visible world and the hidden world.

I want to call attention to two differences between the visible world and the hidden world:

In the visible world, any given particle at any given time is in one, and only one, place.  But in the hidden world, at any given time, any given particle can be in more than one place.

The behavior of the hidden world is almost absurd.  If a particle is in two places at the same time, it shouldn’t be one particle anymore.  It should be two particles.  But it isn’t, it’s still only one.

In my arrogant opinion, this is a kind of miracle.  In conventional miracles, isolated events defy the laws of nature.  But in the quantum miracle, the laws of nature defy the laws of logic.

The hidden world is absurd and miraculous.  The visible world, on the other hand, is coherent.

There are miracles happening constantly all around us, but we can’t see them.  They’re hidden from us.

Now for the second difference between the visible world and the hidden world:

The hidden world is deterministic and the visible world is nondeterministic.  The hidden world is entirely governed by natural law; the visible world is influenced probabilitsically by natural law, but it is, in a sense, chaotic, lawless.  So the world behaves lawfully, but the lawfulness is hidden from us.  When we look, all we see is lawlessness.

Maybe Divine Providence is like this.  Maybe the world is lawful and just, but the lawfulness is hidden.  Maybe behind the veil of coherence, good things happen to good people, but when we look, all we see is lawlessness, chance, indifference.