God's Action in the World: The Relevance of Quantum Mechanics

It has been suggested that God can act on the world by operating within the limits set by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle (HUP) without violating the laws of nature. This requires nature to be intrinsically indeterministic. However, according to the statistical interpretation the quantum mec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Zygon
Main Author: Hodgson, Peter E. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2000
In: Zygon
Further subjects:B Heisenberg uncertainty principle
B God's action
B statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics
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Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:It has been suggested that God can act on the world by operating within the limits set by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle (HUP) without violating the laws of nature. This requires nature to be intrinsically indeterministic. However, according to the statistical interpretation the quantum mechanical wavefunction represents the average behavior of an ensemble of similar systems and not that of a single system. The HUP thus refers to a relation between the spreads of possible values of position and momentum and so is consistent with a fully deterministic world. This statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics is supported by reference to actual measurements, resolves the quantum paradoxes, and stimulates further research. If this interpretation is accepted, quantum mechanics is irrelevant to the question of God's action in the world.
ISSN:1467-9744
Contains:Enthalten in: Zygon
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/0591-2385.00294