Does quantum mechanics logically imply God's existence?

Question

My grounding in the field is shaky, but by my understanding of "Schrodinger's Cat" is that nothing exists except as a cloud of probabilities until it is observed. Then, wouldn't the existence of the universe imply that there was some original observer that predated the cosmos. Who's observation collapsed the probability fields and caused the cosmos to actually exist?
I can see soo many ways that I am wrong with this, I would appreciate someone knowledgable's input.

Answer 1

No. As a working quantum physicist and a Christian, I do not think that it comes down on either side of the debate. It simply describes the way things are.

You have hit on one of the biggest conceptual problems in quantum mechanics - the measurement problem. Who makes an observation which causes a wavefunction to collapse, and why are the dynamics for measurement so different from evolution when there is no measurement? The answer to this question depends on your interpretation of the mathematics. The traditional interpretation is the Copenhagen Interpretation, which is the one taught in undergrad courses, and the one you have probably read about. But there are others too, which I think make a more modern view of things. I've added some references.

One of these, due to Zurek, paints a picture where wavefunction collapse is driven by decoherence. No quantum system is really closed. In reality almost quantum system interacts with others around it. When we look at only one of the systems, and ignore all the others that it has interacted with, we see this wavefunction collapse. So, at least in my opinion, we doesn't necessarily need an observer or any special role for consciousness - or in this case God.

Quantum mechanics does not imply atheism either. Someone suggested that it did, which is quite misleading. Statements like "Existence must exist" are circular, based purely on philosophy and are not adequately justified. The Cashmir effect and Lamb shift in no way imply that "Existence must exist". The writer clearly assumed atheism before he even starts.

In my case, I believe in God, the creator of the universe. I have not found it to be in conflict with quantum mechanics.

Answer 2

Quantum mechanics really makes very little sense in a common sense world. One of the problems with trying to make sense of it is just that. The logic is in the math, the rest is an attempt to interpret that math into day to day ideas. Quantum mechanics by itself does not logicaly imply Gods or Cats. It does give us some equations that let us calculate the effects if we do some things. These equations let us figure out how to combine chemicals, make computer chips and many other good things. In your search for God you are still verry much without assistance from Schroedinger. The cat is famous. IT is one of the examples used and does show well the non common sense side of the wave equations.
The observer problem is also like this. If your measurement is for one type of behaviour on the quantum level the phenomina will give that behaviour. So an observer becomes part of the conditions of the experiment. For a while they tried to define what qualified as an observer. The suggestions ranged from the total universe to the smallest subparticle. This doesn't matter except that the observer effect must be considered in the design of the experiment. It is another case where the math doesn't give a common sense answer. but it does not really imply a first observer either.
If you consider vacumn forces you find that there must be virtual particles being created out of nothing all the time. and the math is right there must be more energy in 1 cc. of absolute nothing than there is in the observed universe. measurable experimentaly proven nonsense. where does this extra matter come from? it can only exist for a very brief time in our world. But it might have existed forever in its world and time/place or whatever it is. but it is measurable and that is the truth.
What it means is whatever story we make up to explain it.
When those goatherders in the desert asked where the stars and everything came from they gave the only answer that made sense to them. Somebody made it! nonsense, but what else could they think.

Edit; I just read over David S. answer, it is brilliant!

Answer 3

Before modern science, atheists and god-believers were at parity in regard to First Causes, except that the atheists could smugly say that their way of explaining the existence of the universe was simpler than the religious explanation by one entity and by one logical step before the shoulder shrugging started.

The religious demanded to know what caused the universe and answered: "GOD." The atheists wanted the religious to explain the cause of God, and the religious could only stand there and sputter. Every justification for the existence of God, which the religious could bring forth, the atheist could use to justify the existence of the universe, without resort to God.

Then along came quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics is the branch of physics that breaks the ancient impasse between atheists and the religious, and it does so in the atheists' favor. Quantum mechanics removes the First Cause argument from the god-believers' debate arsenal by removing the requirement of cause from existence.

To understand why, the first thing to know is that there is only one meaningful tautology, and that is "Existence exists." It exists because the only alternative is nothing, which is the same thing as saying that there exists no alternative to existence. Nothing isn't merely empty space. It's nothing. Not even space. Nothing has no properties. It can't become the object of a conception. Whatever it is you think nothing is, you're wrong. The very phrase "nothing is" is an oxymoron.

Existence must exist. And what is existence, in other words? It's energy. And what is the form of that energy? Chaos.

The energy of existence can be observed in its raw state in certain effects, such as the Lamb shift (a slight broadening of spectral lines in starlight) and the Casimir effect (the tendency of closely spaced parallel conductive plates to move toward each other). This energy has been called the zero point energy of space, which manifests as vacuum fluctuations of electric and magnetic fields, and, for all I know, also fluctuations of gravity, weak, and strong nuclear force too.

The zero point energy doesn't account for the existence of the universe, however. It only accounts for existence itself. The universe requires some additional explanation.

Imagine that you are in a closed room. Just you, the four walls, the ceiling, the floor, and the air. The air molecules move around randomly. They number so many that there's always some of them in every part of the room, and the pressure on every surface in the room is about the same as the pressure everywhere else. Most of the time.

You could wait millions of years and never notice anything strange about the distribution of air in the room. But let's suppose that you were immortal and infinitely patient. Eventually, though it might take many trillions of eons, you'd see a spectacular event. All of the air molecules in the room would just happen to be moving toward one corner of the room at various speeds such that they all arrived there at the same moment.

But this extremely improbable situation wouldn't last long. In the next blink of an eye, all that air would come blasting back out of the corner again to resume the much more probable distribution of nearly constant density throughout the room. The blast of air from the corner would resemble an explosion, and it would make a big bang.

That's the sort of thing that creates universes, too, except that instead of air molecules migrating into a corner of a room, a universe originates when random fluctuations of vacuum energy pile up so much energy at the same time in a small place that an event horizon forms around it, and a normal thermodynamic dispersal of that energy is denied to the energy pile.

The event horizon in our universe is the beginning of time. Once the energy that created our universe had fallen into its own black hole, it was stuck here. It could not go back out again. But the energy was in a tightly wound up state, and it was bound to find some way to relax.

Several things happened. First, some of the energy became particles of matter, including quarks and leptons, by a physical process called pair production. At the same time that mass and motion were making an appearance, an equal amount of the primordial energy became the potential energy between the particles. Space is how we perceive this potential energy. Time is how we perceive changes in the distribution of energy. So while we were getting quarks and leptons, we were also getting the inflationary era of the early universe.

Anyway, quantum mechanics forever destroys the argument of the god-believers. They are not at parity with atheists anymore because the zero point energy of space has observable effects, but there are no observables that support the idea of God.

Answer 4

No, it probably does not. And it does not rule it out either. As a joke, one could say that no one has observed god, so one can argue he both exists and does not at the same time, doesn't it?

Schrodinger's paradox was used as a way to illustrate the incapacity of the quatum physics to properly address macroscopic events. If quantum physics allows both states to co-exists until observation, no one doubt the the cat is either dead or alive as such, irrespective of the fact it was observed, and not both alive and dead until observation takes place.

You admit that you are on shaky ground? Well, you are in good company. Everyone is. Read the Wikipedia page about it (link below), especially the last bit: "A final consensus on this point among physicists seems still to be out of reach".

Answer 5

that's remarkable reasoning, yet no. The universe develop right into a particle, no longer a wave. also, because even as does collapsing a wave function make a particle explode into an infinitely increasing mass of what we now call the universe? extra importantly, physicists do not fairly understand ways such issues paintings. have you ever heard of String idea? that would want to correctly be the reason of the abnormal habit of small debris. Strings are suggested to vibrate in the 10th length, it quite is component to the ordinary universe. Your idea of the universe as a particle performing as a wave function might want to in elementary words be precise if there develop into some thing even more suitable than the strings contained interior it, performing as strings in a length more suitable than this complete universe. the starting up of the ordinary universe is contained in the first 5 dimensions. Strings on the 10th length might want to have given beginning to this universe, yet some being more suitable than the first dimensions could were present day on the time of the large bang!

Answer 6

No, I don´t think that quantum mechanics logically implies God's existence. I´m a Physicist and an Atheist.

Answer 7

I am not an expert in this field either, but I believe you are taking the idea out of context. There were no probability fields "before the bang" to my knowledge - they came into existence with the universe itself, and even if the universe were so that no life could ever exist anywhere, the universe itself would still exist, wouldn't it?

Answer 8

Well,I think that quantum mechanics actually logically implies God's non-existance.

Answer 9

I would hope you will be able to speak with someone in your
area that has knowledge in this area, and get some assistance.

Sorry, I'm not all that familiar.

good luck

Answer 10

Can "ANYONE" tell me about the "Universal Pressure" that dictates that there "MUST" be a God?


Ummmm......... I didn't think so ;-)

Let us surmise................ there is no "NEED" for a God, and therefore there is no God, Period.

Yeah I know............. "Biblical Babble" says otherwise.............. that's why it's Biblical Babble LOL 8-)