Brain Fertilizer

I love this passage:

One of the major interpretations of quantum physics, the propensity interpretation, suggests that quantum reality consists of two kinds of reality, actual and potential. The actual is what we get when we see or measure a quantum entity; the potential is the state in which the entity exists before it is measured. The Schrodinger wave function describes an infinite spread of things we might see if we measure the entity at any given time, or in any particular context. Though they are "only" possibilities, these states have an effect on each other and on the real world. They can evolve and interfere with each other; their interactions can give rise to actualities; they can initiate real processes.

Until an act of measurement causes collapse of the wave function and converts all these possibilities into a single actuality, like Schrodinger's cat becoming alive or dead, the possibilities extend through time and space. Experiments on nonlocality show that potentialities can travel faster than the speed of light, giving rise to instantaneous correlations. Special Relativity demonstrates that actualities cannot do so, but potentialities, being a different kind of reality, can.

I used to believe in prayer as I was taught as a child: ask for what you want, and God will bring it about. He can cause you to get a bicycle; He has the power to raise someone from the dead. Ask for it in prayer with enough faith, and God will make it happen for you. Well, some prayers weren't answered for me. I got in a car accident that was my fault; people were injured, and my car was wrecked. I was uninsured: I paid $12,000 in various fines and damages. I prayed mightily that God could make the accident not happen. But I still had the debt.
Years later, I considered. Do I believe God has the power to change anything? Yes. So why doesn't He "make things didn't happen"...? After puzzling it out for a while, I decided that maybe He did...maybe in that accident, someone died, and in anguish I prayed that I would pay anything if the death hadn't happened. Or maybe I was dying, and my last breath contained a prayer that I live...who knows? Or an even better question, how would I even know my prayer was answered if that was how it happenend? At that point, I decided that the effect of prayer was largely in people's hearts. That God probably wouldn't make your child not die, but would help your heart heal from the pain. That God wouldn't make your spouse not leave you, but would send you a better spouse, or help you find happiness in being single.

The difficult part with prayer and answers is that we only have one viewpoint, and we only have one life, and no matter how bad an event is, we have no idea how much worse it could actually have been. Or if our sorrow later becomes joy, we have no idea if there wasn't actually a better way to reach that same joy. And so I've seen life as a learning experience, and tried to adopt an attitude of patience and acceptence and peace for all occurrences in my life. (side note: I've had varying levels of success with that...)

But consider Prayer in light of the above paragraphs. What if, to God, all potentialities are as clear to Him as actualities? Since Quantum Theory says that the observer affects the process by the very act of observing, can't that also mean that the very act of praying can affect the potentialities, collapsing the wave function onto one of the more desired actualities? Athiests will also affect the actuality with their doubt, then, too, wouldn't they? And whither viewpoint in this situation? The Quantum Theory viewpoint seems to imply that any given result could simultaneously be the result of God's Grace as well as the playing out of clockwork Newtonian forces. Thus, Andy might be both correct and wrong at the same time. (sorry, Andy, for dragging you into this...you just have more examples of Newtonian, Deterministic thinking on your site than anywhere else I can think of).

Mind you, I'm in the extremely early stages of trying to apply Quantum Thought to theology. I'm only on page 57 of the book...

Right now I'm working on a theory of God Himself as the framework within which we operate. It's a staple of Christian thought and theology, so it's nothing new, but I'm working to comprehend it for myself. I guess I feel like it's something that's often said without really being understood...although maybe I'm the only one who didn't get it. From the viewpoint of Quantum Theory, Andy's mistake in the above linked example is that he separated God from the process entirely. To Andy, the fact that wind, solar energy, and geophysics will combine to move the hurricane out to sea is proof God isn't a part of it and Pat Robertson's prayer is a waste of time. To a Quantum Theorist, the wind, solar energy, and geophysics are evidence of a force/framework greater than Newtonian mechanics. To a Quantum Theorist, there may very well be a connection between the prayers of thousands and the motion of the hurricane, it's just that the connection is difficult to demonstrate under Newtonian principles (which, if you remember, have been pretty much demonstrated in Quantum Theory to be a comfortable but useful illusion within a larger framework). While Quantum Theory doesn't demand a "God" to be the framework, it does raise the question of consciousness, will, awareness, intent, etc...if the interactions of neurons firing cannot directly describe our awareness, then can the interactions of physics within the universe also give rise to a currently-unfathomed Universal Consciousness? If it could, that consciousness would be God. As I said before, perhaps not the "Christian" God...but the actuality of a conscious force above the "laws" of Newtonian Physics wouldn't have to nullify Christ, either, but the Christ we know could be confirmed within a larger framework of what God actually is.

At this early stage, Quantum Theory is already beginning to answer some problems I had with the nature of becoming Holy and gaining our Eternal, Perfected bodies.

Think of it: our Will and Consciousness arises from the mechanistic firing of our neurons, but can grow beyond the constraints of flesh. But the only way to do so is to align yourself with forces beyond the laws of physics, to tap into the deeper, broader, energy that forms the basis of the universe. It begins with trust and continues through the exercising of faith (which is the attempt to manipulate potientialities into actualities through will). Jesus told us to be holy as He is Holy; to be one, as He and the Father are One. These are nonsense words in a mechanistic, deterministic, Newtonian view, obviously. But Newtonian "Laws" of physics cannot explain love or will or intent, either. Is "love" an energy field?

I have much to consider in relation to this. If I'm at the beginning of wisdom, then to be perfected in God's Love is to discipline the mind and train the heart to create/join a field of "Love" that attempts to bring about actualities that meet the preferences of others, giving them the example to do the same thing. In my mind, this doesn't diminish God. It can only "diminish" God if you think His Person being literally Greater than the universe is somehow a diminishment of the God you think you know. The thing I'm keeping in mind as I consider is that God can be both greater and yet more personal than I've ever imagined before. Heady stuff, I think. And just the very crude beginning sketches of a rich tapestry.

I'll share more as I start to hammer stuff down, k?