Using conceptual physics to support religon?

Question

My beliefs are pretty much a mix of methodism/deism/quantum physics, and i believe that your perception of the world, its gods, and your ideas about the afterlife and the state of the universe will determine what you percieve as your afterlife. In quantum physics, time does not exist. Also, in order to exist, something must be observed. As time does not exist, and the perception of time is simply our minds viewing the different probabilities the world may exist in. Therefore, all people are both alive and dead. In order to observe ourselves and observe others, we must exist. As something cannot both exist and not exist, only change form or be transfered between dimensions, the sentience that inhabits our bodies must persist after death for us to observe our lives, as both life and death occur simultaniously according to this worldview.

Therefore, there must be something beyond death.

Your thoughts?

Answer 1

Nice ideas, but do they keep you up at night? I prefere to think of life as something that may not last, so I go ahead and enjoy it as much as possible. If there is an afterlife, yippee. If not, then I've spent the time I had well. I sleep well at night.

Answer 2

To quote Terry Gilliam in Monty python and the Holy Grail: "It's only a model" :-)

Quantum theory is just that; a theory. It is simply a way of describing what we appear to see, and so saying that a particle can exist in several states at once really means that we can't tell what its doing; like the fabled schroedingers' cat thought experiment, the particle / cat must be both alive and dead at the same time as we do not know which is the true state. This does not mean that the cat really is both alive and dead; schroedinger was giving a very succinct analogy to summarise what was wrong with the thoery he had developed, and not trying to make any philosophal statements!

The reality is that the world is a fantastically weird and wonderful place, and our poor little brains are probably too dimensionally challenged (try imagining a 6 dimensional phase space, like in thermodynamics, the basis of quantum theory) to comprehend how the world works. If it makes you feel better about your life, then believe that there is an afterlife, but personally I don't - for me, what I know about the world does not leave a gap for "god" or some other vaguely conceived concept - I feel that humans need belief in general, but not that it neccesarily makes any difference!

I think that the majority of my fellow physicists would hold the same view, but I have heard people describe what they know of the world from the physicist point of view, as evidence of god's existence.

My personal opinion? Go read (if you haven't already) Alistair M Rae's Quantum Mechanics- It'll give you a good idea about the current state of knowledge. If that's too mathsy, then check out "the new quantum universe" - i forget the authors- and get some information from the people who really know about quantum mechanics, and not some half baked new age idea that uses the bits they like from the theory, and misses the bits that don't suit thier point of view.

Answer 3

You appear to understand none of the three fields claimed as the source of your beliefs. I have a rather throrough understanding of physics and of God as revealed in the Bible. I have found no conflicts. They deal with very different realms of understanding. Neither can prove the other. The Bible has withstood the tests of historical accuracy, prophetic reliability, and consistency. Physics has never completely done so. Newton was correct as far as he went. Einstein was correct on nearly everything, as far as he went. Quantum mechanics is correct in its own domain. Physicists are now trying to put it all together in superstring theory, quantum gravity, and related theoretical efforts.

Spiritual truth is not subject to controlled experiments. I trust the authenticity of the Bible with my eternal destiny. I can't prove or disprove it with physics. If I'm wrong, I won't know until after I die. If there is no afterlife, then the only benefit from my faith is a better life here and a better way for human society to work. If there is an afterlife and it's not as described in the Bible, I'll be exceedingly surprised. How could so much evidence be wrong?

Answer 4

Yes, time DOES exist in quantum mechanics. Look up the time evolution operator and the Schroedinger/Heisenberg pictures.

People are not both alive and dead simultaneously. I think you're taking a methaphysical idea WAY too far. Quantum mechanics very rarely applies to you as a person, since it has to do with very small things, and you are not very small.

I don't think there's anything beyond death. Physics has nothing to say about a god, since the god would be supernatural, and physics deals with the natural only.

Answer 5

Your right, the spirit will live forever, the physical body only appears to be alive. The physical body rolls because of fuel and evolution rolls because of fuel. Your thoughts and spirit spiral because of your Creator.

Answer 6

You're on the right track. Let me add my most current evolution of thought on the matter: Love is the only reality. Physics is itself an invention, created as part off an experiment that boils down to the question, "What if less love?" The result of the experiment is, of course, the conclusion that the subtraction of love has undesirable consequences and the experiment closes with the addition of love balancing things back out. So, what survives beyond death is love. Hope that makes sense.

Answer 7

All that is true. So, you can add the fact that nothing "dies", just changes form. All the clumps of energy that our sentient observance classifies as humans, or animals, or stars or whatever just continue to change form as we moe our concious observation from one to another.

Since every possibility is happening at once, we can observe anything we wish, with the right point of view.

And, since there are a finite number of combinations of clumps of elements, eveything has to repeat intself in an infinite universe, so things get really interesting when you add duplicates of everything and everyone into the mix.

How cool is this?

Namaste!

Answer 8

You make totally unsubstantiated assertions...which is the nature of blind faith.

Answer 9

Thanks.