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A Survey of Interpretations of Quantum Theory : A Panentheistic Approach to Quantum Divine Action

Mara Block

Published Jan 1, 2006• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

This paper attempts to review the theories of quantum divine action and to construct a panentheistic approach to noninterventionist divine action. After reviewing various interpretations of quantum mechanics, I have suggested how the Copenhagen Interpretation is the most fruitful place to focus this discussion because of the ontological openness it incorporates. In order to elucidate the relationship between divine action and quantum theory, it is necessary to consider the different understandings of God that have been presupposed by these discussions. I have examined the arguments of four of the major proponents of quantum divine action. I have argued that the panentheistic understanding of God and God's relationship to the universe offers the most promising avenue to a noninterventionist account of God's direct action at the quantum level. After assessing and responding to some of the problems associated with quantum divine action, I have shown that quantum chaos is an attractive prospect since with this proposal it is not necessary for God's action at the quantum level to have macroscopic effects.

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This paper attempts to review the theories of quantum divine action and to construct a panentheistic approach to noninterventionist divine action. After reviewing various interpretations of quantum mechanics, I have suggested how the Copenhagen Interpretation is the most fruitful place to focus this discussion because of the ontological openness it incorporates. In order to elucidate the relationship between divine action and quantum theory, it is necessary to consider the different understandings of God that have been presupposed by these discussions. I have examined the arguments of four of the major proponents of quantum divine action. I have argued that the panentheistic understanding of God and God's relationship to the universe offers the most promising avenue to a noninterventionist account of God's direct action at the quantum level. After assessing and responding to some of the problems associated with quantum divine action, I have shown that quantum chaos is an attractive prospect since with this proposal it is not necessary for God's action at the quantum level to have macroscopic effects.
The common understanding of Copenhagen interpretation of the uncertainty principle and indeterminism in quantum physics is that it is a negation of causal relationships. Having the relationship between the existence of God and causality in mind, some advocates of ontological naturalism assert that by negating causality in modern physics, there remains no room for belief in God as the necessary cause of the world and His actions in it. To examine this claim, I will explain briefly the quantum theory, Copenhagen interpretation of uncertainty principle, and its epistemological position. Next, I will investigate its relationship with causality and divine actions. The article concludes that not only is there no conflict between Copenhagen interpretation and causality, but the former is based on the latter and has complete coherence with the belief in God and His actions in the world. Compared to classical physics, its consistency with direct and special divine actions in the world is more.
The model of special divine action based on quantum randomness tends to get more attention than the rest. In the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics, some events are not merely unpredictable but also truly indeterministic. This would allow God to work within such ontologically random events without violating any laws of nature. An unappreciated weakness of the model is that quantum fluctuations are not readily amplified into the macroscopic realm. Dynamical systems theory, continuum mechanics, and condensed matter physics show that such fluctuations are prevented from bubbling up within macroscopic systems. While some look to chaos theory for help, chaotic systems are not nearly as prevalent as the popular literature indicates. Once all the relevant physics is considered, models of divine action based on quantum randomness and chaos are far more limited than they are generally assumed to be. Unless some sort of new physical mechanism is discovered, the amplification problem cannot be solved. This means that there is little that God can accomplish by way of quantum randomness.
This chapter explores about action and quantum whose roots trace back four decades in the field of theology and science. It first discusses methodological issues, including the warrant for a bottom-up approach to action and the problems of the multiple interpretability of quantum and historical relativism. Next it turns to two philosophical issues: the phenomenological domain of the measurement problem and its relation to the indeterministic form of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics. The chapter proposes that a trinitarian doctrine of God is the most suitable context for locating the divine action and quantum mechanics thesis. It finally lays out directions for future research on the philosophical implications of quantum and their relevance for action, including a proposed architecture of philosophical issues, an exploration of implications of Bell's theorem, and a comparison of nonlocality and (in)determinism in Bohm's formulation and the Copenhagen interpretation. Keywords: Copenhagen interpretation; action; quantum
Recent articles by Nicholas Saunders, Carl Helrich, and Jeffrey Koperski raise important questions about attempts to make use of quantum mechanics in giving an account of particular divine action in the world. In response, I make two principal points. First, some of the most pointed theological criticisms lose their force if we attend with sufficient care to the limited aims of proposals about divine action at points of quantum indetermination. Second, given the current state of knowledge, it remains an open option to make theological use of an indeterministic interpretation of quantum mechanics. Any such proposal, however, will be an exploratory hypothesis offered in the face of deep uncertainties regarding the measurement problem and the presence in natural systems of amplifiers for quantum effects.
I present results of recent work in the field of quantum optics and relate this work to discussions about the theory of quantum mechanics and God's divine action in the world. Experiments involving atomic decay, relevant to event uncertainty in quantum mechanics, as well as experiments aimed at elucidating the so–called Schrödinger’s–cat paradox, help clarify apparent ambiguities or paradoxes that I believe are at the heart of renewed attempts to locate God within our constructed physical theories and tend to narrow the gaps proposed as an opening for divine action. Some problems arise because of imprecise use of nonmathematical language to force quantum mechanics into an intuitive “classical” framework.
Up to this point we have been dealing almost exclusively with the theoretical concepts of indeterminism, the laws of nature and various theological approaches to SDA. The next three chapters of this book consider in detail the two areas of modern science that are most commonly claimed to be consonant with SDA, namely quantum theory and chaos theory. In the discussion that follows it is presumed that the reader is reasonably conversant with the historical background to the discovery of both theories and the principal philosophical consequences of the different interpretations of quantum theory. It may seem from a cursory reading of current scholarship on the potential relationship between SDA and quantum theory that the proposition that God determines quantum processes is relatively recent. It is clear, however, that this assertion has been a consistent element of the philosophical wrangling over the interpretation of quantum theory for at least the past sixty years. Indeed, while William Pollard's famous work Chance and Providence set the agenda for contemporary debates (Pollard 1958), it is erroneous to view this work as the sole origin of the proposal that God is active in quantum events. As we shall see, it is clear that Pollard was himself influenced by Karl Heim and adopted a very similar notion of God's interaction with quantum theory to that proposed by Heim.