Within the framework of deist thought, how would you account for random events like particle decay?

Question

This isnt entirely a physics question, but i couldnt think of a better place to put it.
One of the natural consequences of believing in God or the Creator of the universe is that the world is determined to at least some extent. How then do random events fit into this framework? are they still random and "out of Gods control"? or do they just look random to us? Examples of random events: atomic decay of a single atom, localization of particles from a waveform, and single shot measurements on probablility distributions of all sorts.


will choose best answer

Answer 1

I suppose it depends on whether your flavor of deism involves a demiurge (a limited creator god) or something closer to a theistic omnipotent God. A demiurge need only be powerful enough to set things in motion and nothing else, so randomness isn't a problem. In fact, the demiurge may not even be powerful enough to fully determine events, with randomness being a result of his limitations.

Mind you, you don't even need any kind of god or God to have philosophical problems with randomness. Belief in cause and effect is enough. In other words, if cause must precede effect, and effects must have causes, how can you have a truly random event? Shouldn't every event have a complete cause? A random event would seem to, at least in part, come out of nowhere. Be an uncaused effect. And once you allow anything at all to happen without full causation, things get dicey. (This same argument makes it hard to have free will...is one's volition something that comes from outside cause and effect?)

Answer 2

There are really two schools of thought in operation here. On the one hand, there is God with an overarching interest in the outcome of an event which is then influenced through Divine Probabilty in favor a particular outcome (Essentially loaded dice as a metaphor).

The other school of thought espouses the viewpoint that these events are one of a multitude of evidence in direct contraindication of any Divine anything. Clearly if Heisenberg Uncertainty prevents information from being known, period, then how could God know it? The double slit experiment shows conclusively that the effect is real, there is information which CANNOT be known - yet, supposedly God knows all (being Omnipotent) - thus Paradox.

So either it's a nail in Gods coffin - or he uses loaded dice. Neither is particularly satisfying, The faith of millions of people should not be so easily disproven, yet the thought of a cheatin' Supreme Being is slightly discomfiting.

I tend to feel more strongly for the former rather than the latter, but that's just me.

Answer 3

My best answer to this question is: DON'T.

Religion and science do not mix well and it is always religion which suffers. Religion (at least in the sense of Western religions) is about the interaction of man with God, not nucleus with God.

But beyond the question of the theological implications of random events (which I don't believe to even exist in properly formulated theology) the way you seem to understand randomness is probably more of a remnant of 19th century philosophy and science rather than the deeper insights of modern physics. The naive aspects of randomness that people like to refer to do not exist in nature, especially not in quantum mechanics where nothing is random but many things are uncertain. Before you can talk about this with any credibility you absolutely need to understand the difference.

In effect, I believe, you are fighting an uphill battle on two fronts with your question: you apply a non-existing definition or randomness in nature to a particularly fruitless discussion of religious beliefs. The result can only be a loss. Mostly of time and intellect on your part which you could use to learn what real science has to say about uncertainty in nuclear (and other) processes and what real theology has to say about God and our relationship with him, her or it.

Answer 4

I hate answering a q. with a q.-but can there be random events at all in the deists' view? Doesn't that go against their omnipotent god beliefs?
If he/she isn't omnipotent then why the massive belief system?