Do the oddities of quantum theory make you more open to considering the possibility of supernatural phenomenon?
When I read about quantum entanglement and about some of the strange results of the double slit experiment, I’m left feeling almost anything is possible. Hard science comes to seem no less “crazy” than New Ageism.
Sure, at that level of examination possibility takes on a whole new level of importance. But the supernatural takes place on a little bit larger of a scale. That’s one consideration. 
Yes, quantum theory is one more obstacle in embracing a pantheism, where the Universe is god, omniscient and omnipotent.
On the one hand, the Universe is omnipotent: we cannot break the laws of physics.
On the other hand, there is a debate whether the Universe is omniscient (in a way.) After all due to the fact that information travels at light speed, the only way for the universe to know about itself is to have the information before the actions happen, which devolves to knowing it before the Big Bang.
When particles interact quantum-ly, could they have been"programmed" to act that way since the beginning of the universe? After all, the particles were once all together in a singularity, and in certain cases, this means the particles “know” of each other.
The answer appears to be no, they dont: they make up their actions “on-the-fly” sometimes, as it were, but I don’t understand the scientific reasons behind this. Could someone enlighten me?
then again, Pantheism wouldnt be supernatural, so I guess that’s a hijack
Actually, pantheism is not supernatural. Panentheism is supernatural. The interpretation that atheist philosophers give the modern ontological proofs is pantheistic.
I guess my point was, though, that the realization that, even if particles were, at some point, quantumly entangled, they wouldnt necessarliy “know” about each other in all cases.
Yes, but not directly.
Its existance and its incompatability with Classical Physics makes me that their this at least one state of being that we can’t perceive fully yet, but will unify the two mechanics.
Since this speculative 3rd mechanic will exist outside or on the fringes of the Matter/Energy Universe, I think it would be safe to call it Supernatural.
Depends on how you look at it. That guy doesn’t think there’s anything strange going on at all.
They do? Who?
P.S. There is no such word as “panentheism” in my dictionary.
No. There seems to be a popular misconception that the oddities of quantum theory have direct implications for the macro world, e.g. “if a subatomic particle can be in 2 places at once, maybe I can too”. But it doesn’t work that way. It might make for a fun science-fiction story, but I don’t see as how it’s changing my day-to-day life. A rational person is always open to the possibility of learning new things about the universe, and would never be so arrogant as to think he knows everything. But if we discover something new that makes us rethink our model, it just means that our old model needed to be revised. If we just throw up our hands and say “Gee, I believe in magic”, then what’s the point of trying to learn anything?
According to John Gribbon, an experiment done by the University of Paris showed quantum wave behavior in iodine molecules.
Cite
We know that if two entangled photons are shot out in opposite directions, causing the wave function to “collapse” on one instantaneously causes the collapse of its partner’s wave funtion? On the macro scale, cannot human energies become entangled? And might not that be a building block for understanding, say, those incidents where a person knows that someone he cares about is in danger or has died half a world away?
Why, do you have reason to believe that such is the case? If you do, please show us the experimental evidence (objective evidence, NOT anecdotal evidence). And what exactly do you mean by “human energies”, anyway? To be honest, I don’t understand exactly what it is they did in the experiment that Gribbon describes (it sounds like he’s saying they shoot the particle with lasers and change it into a wave, and then are surprised when it behaves as a wave), but I’m fairly certain that it’s my own lack of knowledge as well as Gribbon’s cursory description that are to blame, so I’m willing to keep an open mind about it. If they are onto something, then the experiment should be reproducable, and the results will be debated, and there may or may not be some sort of consensus as to what it means. To get from that to believing that human beings have psychic connections between one another is the WILDEST of speculation.
It’s a mistake on my part to try to scale up the quantum experiments to the macro world. And I am not knowledgable enough in psychology or psychic research or quantum mechanics to even attempt to create a theory that ties the workings of the electron to that of the electrician.
But for me, personally, the strangeness at the bleeding edge of physics is license to consider the possibilty that equally strange macro experiences are possible, and that paranormal events reported by sane individuals should not be dismissed out of hand.
The foundation science, physics, entertains notions like multiple dimensions folded up tightly, a separate universe for every quantum possibility, waves propagating back in time, etc. Those seem no less strange to me than the notion of, say, life after death. (In fact with mass/energy equality established, life after death doesn’t seem that radical at all).
Ok. So, just to clarify, Your argument goes as follows:
Which is, quite frankly, rubbish. I don’t wholly dismiss some supernatural ideas (I dismiss most specific cases that have been ‘demonstrated’, but that’s another issue), but trying to justify them with quantum mechanics is ridiculous. Sure they may both seem equally strange to you, but there’s a key difference.
Quantum mechanics has a lot of evidence in it’s favour. The Supernatural has basically none.
Most of the claims of the paranormal involve communication across a currently undetectable medium, sometimes across time itself.
It seems to me that these possibilities are all the more plausible given post-classical discoveries in physics. No, you can’t assume that quantum observations explain psychic phenomenon, but when you see spooky-action-at-a-distance in the lab, it should make you a bit less dismissive of claims of something like it in the real world.
It seems to me that the kind of certainty a lot of science types exhibit is more approrpriate to 1880 than 2003.
Take a look at…
Quantum Quackery - from the Skeptical Inquirer
And then…
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I will be less dismissive when the science catches up to the claims, until then I’ll try not to mix up my macro with my micro. Quantum strangeness is often only really meaningful on the scale at which it is observed, it is not a reasonable explanation for most macro phenomena.
It should be noted that the Copenhagen Interpretation, while the most widely accepted, is not the only one.
Yes, to which interpretation are you adhered?
<em>“It takes a “don’t ask – don’t tell” approach to the formalism which focuses exclusively on the outcomes of physical measurements and which forbids the practitioner from asking questions about possible underlying mechanisms that produce the observed effects.”</em>
This isn’t quite true. It rejects any attempts to bring in philosophical connotations to Quantum Physics, which makes sense.