Christian Quantum Physics

[Glenda]

Hi..

God is renewing my interest in Quantum Physics, & I need an idea of where I can find books, websites & stuff on Quantum Physics with a Christian Perspective..

Any help would be most appreciated..

 

[Hespera]

here is a good start.

Amazon.com: Alice in Quantumland: An Allegory of Quantum Physics (9780387914954): Robert Gilmore: Books

I cant even imagine what a 'Christian perspective' would be, tho.

 

[Cabal]

I cant even imagine what a 'Christian perspective' would be, tho.

Yeah, same.

My "quantum-uncertainty-being-hijacked-for-dubious-proof-of-x" sense is tingling.

Glenda: the actual description of a theory, any theory, should be the same no matter who puts it across to you. I recommend anything by John Gribbin for a popscience intro to the basics. Perspective should come after the theory and its evidences have been put forward.

 

[Raithie]

Don't look for a "Christian perspective"....

Look for science.

 

[Satt]

I hated that class in college. I just barely passed.

 

[gipsy]

I really loved the books of Anton Zeilinger (maybe, because he's Austrian ).
He writes really understandable ... just search for him on Amazon, but I'm not sure which of his books are already translated ?!

btw. what could be a christian view on quantum physics?

 

[Chesterton]

Lots of interpretations though:

5.1 Properties of interpretations
5.2 The Copenhagen interpretation
5.3 Many worlds
5.4 Consistent histories
5.5 Ensemble interpretation, or statistical interpretation
5.6 de Broglie–Bohm theory
5.7 Relational quantum mechanics
5.8 Transactional interpretation
5.9 Stochastic mechanics
5.10 Objective collapse theories
5.11 The decoherence approach
5.12 von Neumann/Wigner interpretation: consciousness causes the collapse
5.13 Many minds
5.14 Quantum logic
5.15 Modal interpretations of quantum theory
5.16 Other interpretations

 

[Glenda]

Thanks for all the suggestions.. I'll start looking at them tonight..

I used to be very interested in science.. philosophy.. math.. when was in college.. I'm very "left-brained.."

Over the years, I've sort of left it slide.. but evidently God thinks it is time for me to do some exploration.. He keeps throwing Quantum stuff my way..

I've "found" the Joanne McFatter conference cd's on Quantum Physics that I purchased years ago & never listened to.. then the promos for the Science Channels "Through the Wormhole" kept showing up all the time..

This is my first venture to this area, & I'm not sure why science & Christianity should be thought to be mutually exclusive.. I don't remember chucking my brain away when I accepted Christ.. *smile*

A few years ago, I met a Christian speaker who told about the time he was late to speak somewhere.. he got on the toll road & a few minutes later, he got off the road.. thing is.. he had gone hundreds of miles in 4 minutes & had the toll tickets to prove it..

Now that fascinated me.. cause I am ALWAYS running late for work.. and we go about 500 miles to visit our daughter.. can you imagine going that distance in just a few minutes??? I want God to show me that wormhole! But God has His own timing.. not mine..

 

[Cabal]

I've "found" the Joanne McFatter conference cd's on Quantum Physics that I purchased years ago & never listened to.. then the promos for the Science Channels "Through the Wormhole" kept showing up all the time..

I'd be curious to see what points she makes on quantum physics.

This is my first venture to this area, & I'm not sure why you think that science & Christianity are mutually exclusive.. I don't remember chucking my brain away when I accepted Christ.. *smile*

No-one's saying they are - just that for the most part all perspectives on a scientific theory should be similar (at least similar in the context of the religion of the one explaining the theory) as theories are naturalistic. And quantum physics is pretty notorious for being used fairly preposterously to back up all sorts of quasi-religious ideas.

 

[peadar87]

Don't look for a "Christian perspective"....

Look for science.

You're new here, aren't you buddy?!

 

[Cabal]

I like how this board is considerably more Irish than previously.

 

[Glenda]

I'd be curious to see what points she makes on quantum physics.



No-one's saying they are - just that for the most part all perspectives on a scientific theory should be similar (at least similar in the context of the religion of the one explaining the theory) as theories are naturalistic. And quantum physics is pretty notorious for being used fairly preposterously to back up all sorts of quasi-religious ideas.

Kewl.. Like I said, I am very new to this whole thing.. God just put this on my heart & I'm not sure where we're going with it.. & I don't know much about how it's been used to back up some's ideas..

Some of Joanne writings are on White Dove Ministries (Paul Keith Davis) website.. I haven't read them all yet, but some are on Quantum.

 

[Glenda]

I like how this board is considerably more Irish than previously.

I have a smidgen of Irish in me.. my Mom was Irish, Dutch & English...

So I should fit right in...

 

[Raithie]

You're new here, aren't you buddy?!

Yup But even a Christian should realise that you should study science without tarnishing it wish theistic assumptions...

If you're going to study it, study it scientifically through naturalistics. There's no point in hazing it with religion.

 

[Cabal]

Kewl.. Like I said, I am very new to this whole thing.. God just put this on my heart & I'm not sure where we're going with it.. & I don't know much about how it's been used to back up some's ideas..

Quantum mechanics is quite counterintuitive - a lot of its effects sound quite bizarre when analogised to everyday experiences. A lot of this is due to the fact that there are very few quantum mechanical effects visible at the kind of scales we experience everyday - it's really only meaningful among small numbers of atom-sized objects.

So right off the bat, that's a fairly big obstacle right there to correct understanding of the theory. The next problem is that according to quantum mechanics, there is an inherent level of uncertainty present when measuring certain properties of an object at the same time - the classic case is that you can't determine simultaneously the position and the momentum of a particle to an arbitrary level of accuracy.

The mere fact that this uncertainty exists (among other quantum quirks) has been used to introduce any number of fudges to "explain" different philosophies. A classic case would be the attempt to use quantum mechanics to justify Eastern mysticism by Fritjof Capra (book is called The Tao of Physics). None of these attempts have any real scientific merit behind them, however.

Some of Joanne writings are on White Dove Ministries (Paul Keith Davis) website.. I haven't read them all yet, but some are on Quantum.

Which brings me onto Joanne McFatter - I managed to find a link to some of her lectures on frequency, and...yeah. I have to say, I'm not impressed.

I'm not sure what sort of response you were hoping to get here, but I am an atomic physicist, I deal with quantum mechanical stuff every day. So as a scientist and a brother in Christ, I'll be honest with you - what she is talking about is not scientific. It is little more than assertion dressed up with slightly technical sounding words, with no actual merit to them. Despite her insistent claims that her ideas are not New Age, they have about the same level of validity as New Age notions of "frequencies".

It might seem scientific, but you have to understand that when some asserts that a particular claim is scientific, whether inadvertantly or not, that makes the claim subject to a fairly specific set of conditions about how the claim can be legitimately supported. Specifically, that it is supported by empirical evidence obtained via a means that is consistently repeatable and is not subject to any other known confounding factors (i.e. possible alternative explanations).

 

[ArnautDaniel]

I really loved the books of Anton Zeilinger (maybe, because he's Austrian ).
He writes really understandable ... just search for him on Amazon, but I'm not sure which of his books are already translated ?!

btw. what could be a christian view on quantum physics?

Zeilinger is the guy who keeps exhibiting the interference effect of the double slit experiment with increasingly large objects.

His goal is to do it with a bacterium.

I like him.

 

[gipsy]

Zeilinger is the guy who keeps exhibiting the interference effect of the double slit experiment with increasingly large objects.

His goal is to do it with a bacterium.

I like him.

Yep, and he's also the first guy who "beamed" a photon

Beam me up Scotty !!!

 

[sfs]

Another physicist here (ex-particle physicist, actually), with a similar comment. JoAnn McFatter seems to be a wildly unreliable guide to genuine physics; much of what she talks about is just nonsense.

 

[Glenda]

I'm not sure what sort of response you were hoping to get here, but I am an atomic physicist, I deal with quantum mechanical stuff every day.

The response I am looking for is the one I've been getting..

I am looking to learn about quantum physics & did not have a clue where to start.. so I thought I'd ask here because I knew there would be people here who could help..

And everyone's been very helpful & I thank you..

There is something that God wants me to know through this & I figure He'll reveal it to me as I do.

Maybe it will deal with the unseen being more real than the seen.. or

Maybe it will be how to work that wormhole - I wish!

 

[Wiccan_Child]

The response I am looking for is the one I've been getting..

I am looking to learn about quantum physics & did not have a clue where to start.. so I thought I'd ask here because I knew there would be people here who could help..

And everyone's been very helpful & I thank you..

There is something that God wants me to know through this & I figure He'll reveal it to me as I do.

Maybe it will deal with the unseen being more real than the seen.. or

Maybe it will be how to work that wormhole - I wish!

We'll be happy to help if you have any question. I have a spiffy thread here (shameless plug ) devoted to asking questions about physics and science in general, or there are plenty of scientists around the place.

A good place to start learning about quantum mechanics outside of a university degree isn't going to be a textbook, not unless you want to understand the underlying mathematics. If you just want a summary of what it's all about, its key conclusions and principles and whatnot, I recommend Stephen Hawking's Universe in a Nutshell. It was published about eight years ago, and covers all theoretical physics - not just quantum mechanics - but it's a good primer for getting to grips with quantum weirdness.

But a word of warning: if you go out specifically looking for a 'Christian' spin on quantum mechanics, you'll inevitably find something that's decidedly not based on the science. I agree with you that there needn't be a contradiction between science and religion, but some people feel the need to force science into religion, and this can take the guise of 'quantum mysticism'. So if a book starts talking about the vibrational frequency of the universe, how quantum observer hoohah causes conciousness, how we can collapse our wavefunctions to attract a better life... it's a bad book.

But as I said, if you have any questions, there are loads of people to ask. Myself included