{"id":12293,"date":"2012-08-08T05:30:39","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T09:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geneveith.com\/?p=12293"},"modified":"2012-08-08T05:30:39","modified_gmt":"2012-08-08T09:30:39","slug":"how-quantum-physics-refutes-materialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/08\/how-quantum-physics-refutes-materialism\/","title":{"rendered":"How Quantum Physics refutes materialism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Physics professor Stephen M. Barr explains how quantum physics makes the world view of materialism\u2013the assumption of most of today\u2019s atheists\u2013scientifically impossible.<\/p>\n

Materialism is an atheistic philosophy that says that all of reality is reducible to matter and its interactions. It has gained ground because many people think that it\u2019s supported by science. They think that physics has shown the material world to be a closed system of cause and effect, sealed off from the influence of any non-physical realities \u2014 if any there be. Since our minds and thoughts obviously do affect the physical world, it would follow that they are themselves merely physical phenomena. No room for a spiritual soul or free will: for materialists we are just \u201cmachines made of meat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quantum mechanics, however, throws a monkey wrench into this simple mechanical view of things.\u00a0 No less a figure than Eugene Wigner<\/a>, a Nobel Prize winner in physics, claimed that materialism \u2014 at least with regard to the human mind \u2014 is not \u201clogically consistent with present quantum mechanics.\u201d And on the basis of quantum mechanics, Sir Rudolf Peierls, another great 20th-century physicist, said, \u201cthe premise that you can describe in terms of physics the whole function of a human being \u2026 including [his] knowledge, and [his] consciousness, is untenable. There is still something missing.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Barr goes on to explain in a technical but pretty lucid manner why this is the case, going into the mathematics of probability and why the observer has an intrinsic impact on the system being observed.\u00a0\u00a0 I can\u2019t summarize it.\u00a0 Read it yourself.\u00a0 Here is his conclusion:\n

If the mathematics of quantum mechanics is right (as most fundamental physicists believe), and if materialism is right, one is forced to accept the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics. And that is awfully heavy baggage for materialism to carry.<\/p>\n

If, on the other hand, we accept the more traditional understanding of quantum mechanics that goes back to von Neumann, one is led by its logic (as Wigner and Peierls were) to the conclusion that not everything is just matter in motion, and that in particular there is something about the human mind that transcends matter and its laws. It then becomes possible to take seriously certain questions that materialism had ruled out of court: If the human mind transcends matter to some extent, could there not exist minds that transcend the physical universe altogether? And might there not even exist an ultimate Mind?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

via Does Quantum Physics Make it Easier to Believe in God? | Big Questions Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HT:\u00a0 Anna Williams<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Physics professor Stephen M. Barr explains how quantum physics makes the world view of materialism\u2013the assumption of most of today\u2019s atheists\u2013scientifically impossible. Materialism is an atheistic philosophy that says that all of reality is reducible to matter and its interactions. It has gained ground because many people think that it\u2019s supported by science. They think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,33,40],"tags":[1400,1832],"class_list":["post-12293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologetics","category-nature","category-science","tag-materialism","tag-quantum-physics"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Quantum Physics refutes materialism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Physics professor Stephen M. 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