Albert Einstein’s search for God (Part #2) THE GREATEST THEORY OF ALL—THE QUANTUM THEORY He is the First and the Last, and the Manifest and the Hidden, and He has full knowledge of all things. (Al Quran 57:4) How could Allah have knowledge of all things? How could he be theManifest and the Hidden at the same time? How could He influence the universe in ways that did not clash with the concepts of physics at every step of the way? How could He grant prayers of His humble servants? If the universe was governed by the Laws of Physics of Newton and Einstein how could man be free? Quantum theory or quantum mechanics was the magical wand revealed to the prophet of physics, Werner Heisenberg, to solve all these mysteries and yet leave a new untold mystery! A mystery of physics that Einstein would refuse to accept or even acknowledge all his life. Quantum mechanics is a branch of science which was developed in the first three decades of the last century. It deals with the behavior of matter and light on the atomic and subatomic scale. It attempts to describe and account for the properties of molecules and atoms and their constituents — electrons, protons, neutrons, and other more esoteric particles such as quarks and gluons. These properties include the interactions of the particles with one another and with electromagnetic radiation (i.e., light, X-rays, and gamma rays).[45] In the era prior to quantum theory, there was only one aspect of uncertainty or indeterminacy, which rose from not knowing the “initial conditions.” If the “initial conditions” were known then, given the laws of Newton and Einstein, one could always determine, for example, the path of a projectile or a planet. It was thought that these laws applied equally to subatomic particles. So strong was the belief in determinism that Pierre Laplace said that given the knowledge of every atomic motion, the entire future of the universe could be mapped out.[46] This was soon to change. The concepts and the consequences of quantum theory are accordingly difficult to understand and to believe. Its concepts frequently conflict with common-sense notions derived from observations of the everyday world. There is no reason, however, why the behavior of the atomic world should conform to that of the familiar, large-scale world. It is important to realize that quantum mechanics is a branch of physics and that the business of physics is to describe and account for the way the world — on both the large and the small scale — actually is and not how one imagines it or would like it to be. Werner Heisenberg was a German physicist, who while still in his early twenties, was among the handful of young bright physicist who created quantum mechanics. He received a Nobel Prize at an age of 32, but is best known for his articulation of the uncertainty principle, in 1927. Neils Bohr contributed to some of these new ideas also. Their contributions lead to a broader theory called quantum theory. Albert Einstein belonged to the other camp who took issue with these concepts. The Heisenberg and Bohr debate with Einstein is not just one of detail. It concerns the entire conceptual structure of science’s most successful theory. At the heart of the subject lies the burning question: is an atom a thing, or just an abstract construct of imagination useful for explaining a wide range of observations? If an atom really exists as an independent entity then at the very least it should have a definite location and a definite motion. But the quantum theory denies this. It says that you can have one or the other, but not both. This is the celebrated uncertainty principle of Heisenberg. It says you can’t know where an atom, or electron, or whatever, is located and know how it is moving, at one and the same time. Not only can you not know it, but the very concept of an atom with a definite location and motion is meaningless. You can ask where an atom is and get a sensible answer. Or you can ask how it is moving and get a sensible answer. But there is no answer to a question of the sort “Where is it and how fast is it going?” According to Bohr, the fuzzy and nebulous world of the atom only sharpens into concrete reality when an observation is made. In the absence of an observation, the atom is a ghost. It only materializes when you look for it. And you can decide what to look for. Look for its location and you get an atom at a place. Look for its motion and you get an atom with a speed. But you can’t have both. The reality that the observation sharpens into focus cannot be separated from the observer and his choice of measurement strategy. If all this seems too mind-boggling or paradoxical to accept, Einstein would have agreed with you.[47] But the big shock came from the experiments in the sixties and seventies which proved that Bohr wins, and Einstein loses. The uncertainty of the micro-world is intrinsic. Events without causes, ghost images, reality triggered only by observation—all must apparently be accepted by experimental evidence.[48] The Heisenberg uncertainty principle can also be described by the term “quantum indeterminacy.” It was this uncertainty and indeterminacy that made Einstein very uncomfortable. By December 4, 1926, he was sufficiently irritated by the topic to write his famous words, “Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not bring us any closer to the secret of the ‘old one’. I at any rate, am convinced that He (God) is not playing at dice.”[49] Anyone who is not shocked by the quantum theory has not understood it. Niels Bohr Paul Davies examines these concepts, very powerfully and in laymen terms, in his book, Other Worlds: The universe is not, after all, a clockwork machine whose future is completely determined. The world is ruled less by rigid laws than by chance. The uncertainties, moreover, are not merely a result of our ignorance of ‘initial conditions’, as was once thought, but an inherent property of matter. So unpalatable did this inherent chanciness of nature seem to Albert Einstein that he refused to believe it throughout his life, dismissing the idea with the famous retort ‘God does not play dice’. This notwithstanding, the vast majority of physicists have come to accept it.[50] Despite the uncertainty at the quantum level, on a larger physical scale and in a pragmatic manner, we find that the Newtonian and Einsteinian laws work extremely well in the physical world. On this larger scale we all trust these principles every time we ride in an elevator or fly in a plane. However, the concepts of quantum theory have been utilized in the discovery and manufacturing of transistors and lasers. Transistors, in turn have revolutionized the electronics industry and more recently computer industry. So the concepts of quantum mechanics are not merely theoretical but have found pragmatic applications. In other words, quantum physics now tells us that there is a boundary around our ability to grasp reality. We cannot say why it is there, but that does not make the boundary any less real, or any less consistent with the idea that it was the necessary handiwork of a Creator who is Al Baatin or the Hidden, Who fashioned it in a manner that it has a dual nature. There is a macro or larger aspect that is comprehensible and yields to human study and there is a quantum level that is hidden to a degree from human perceptions. This dual nature allow us the freedom and independence consistent with His design. This is the attribute Al Baatin of Allah that combines with it the attribute Al Sameeh. Classical physics had prepared everyone to think of physical events as governed by fixed laws, but the quantum revolution quickly destroyed this Newtonian or Einsteinian certainty or strict determinism. Uncertainty is the fundamental ingredient of the quantum theory. Does every event have a cause? In classical physics the fundamental belief is in a cause-effect chain. The quantum factor, however, apparently breaks the chain by allowing effects to occur that have no cause.[51] How complete can knowledge be when it cannot link cause and effect for something so basic as the movement of an electron? How can it claim fully to describe the universe when it cannot tell me whether something as humble as a single atom of carbon will persist into the next instant or disintegrate in a burst of radioactive energy? In the words of Kenneth Miller: If the behavior of that matter, at all levels, were to be governed by laws making the outcomes of all natural processes inherently predictable, then the entire structure of that universe would be a self-contained and self-sufficient clockwork. Two profound problems would result. The Creator would be unable to intervene, except by suspending the laws of His world in a visible way. And what is perhaps more important, His creatures could not have the freedom He desired for them. How could they, if they were only machines, made up of bits and pieces of matter following precise laws? If there is a God, consider what masterstroke quantum indeterminacy was. To create an orderly material world that didn’t require constant intervention, the Creator had to make things obey defined laws. But if those laws were to run all the way down to the building blocks of matter, they would also have denied free will. They would have made it possible for His creatures (eventually) to figure out that all past events and all future ones could be inferred from a single reading of the state of the physical world at any given time. Remarkably, what quantum indeterminacy does is to deny us the possibility of that ever happening. We cannot uncritically extrapolate the details of the present backwards to learn the past; and the future is what we make of it. Were this not the case, the future would be what our particles make of us. Instead, we are inextricably locked into the present, with our thoughts, words, and deeds helping to construct the future, a future that remains open to our own choices, to a world of possibilities.[52] What a stroke of Divine genius! The quantum indeterminacy not only allows for the free will, but also a portal for Divine Providence. As had been predicted in the throne verse of the Holy Quran, “Allah knows what is before them and what is behind them; and they encompass nothing of His knowledge except what He pleases,” the universe, at a quantum level, is bound up in a series of inherently unpredictable events that science, even in principle, can never master completely. Over the years there has been unification of forces and disciplines. Mass and energy were shown to be one. Then the different forms of energy were shown to be one. Then it was shown that the mundane chemical mechanisms also run in the living bodies. In this process of unification it is time to unify the physical with the metaphysical. There is one portal of entry for God to enter into the natural’s laws. That portal of entry is at the quantum level. In other words, there is a similar explanation for God’s intervention in cosmology, evolution of life or in the hearing of prayers. That is at the quantum level! The speed of light is the fastest speed that can be imagined as far as the material world is concerned, yet it takes light, billions of years to travel from one end of the universe to the other. But, Allah can influence any part of the universe instantaneously, as has been said, “Indeed, We have created everything in due measure, and our command is carried out instantaneously, like the twinkling of any eye.” (54:50-51) Moreover, Allah is omnipresent and He is extremely close to each individual man, “And assuredly, We have created man and We know what his mind whispers to him, and We are nearer to him than even his jugular vein.” (50:17) These verses lend support to the concept that Allah influences the world at the subatomic or the quantum level. CONCLUSION “Science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration toward truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion. To this there also belongs the faith in the possibility that the regulations valid for the world of existence are rational, that is, comprehensible to reason. I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith. The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”[54][55] Albert Einstein The human mind is not a split personality. Science and religion both reside in the same mind. For a Muslim the nature and the universe is an act of God and revealed religion is word of God. The study of nature or religion is to him two facets of the same manifestation. A believer’s mind is an integral whole. There is no artificial division. No wonder, the Holy Quran Allah argues from the physical and tangible to the intangible and spiritual. For example it says, Allah is He Who raised up the heavens without any pillars that you can see. Then He settled Himself on the Throne. And He pressed the sun and the moon into your service; each planet pursues its course until an appointed term. He regulates all affairs and He clearly explains the Signs that you may have firm belief in the meeting with your Lord. (13:3) Here, Allah is raising the tangible parts of the universe and their deeper understanding in the form of the science of sun and moon and gravity as a proof of the life after death. So the separation between science and religion is somewhat artificial and one needs proficiency in both to fully comprehend the Holy Quran. The first part of the quote, “science without religion in lame, religion without science is blind,” can be understood from the shortcomings of a genius like Einstein, that have been described above. His inability to understand the merit in quantum mechanics, was certainly not intellectual, but stemmed from an erroneous concept of God. He was fixed on the idea that Allah cannot influence this universe even when He so willed. In other words, he had a limited concept of the attributes of Allah. Any conceptualization of physics that defies the attributes of Allah as explained in the Holy Quran is likely to fall short and will be proven wrong in due course of time. The second part of the above quote of Einstein, “science without religion in lame, religion without science is blind,” can be understood from the fact that the Holy Quran urges us to reflect on the Laws of Nature. It draws examples from cosmology and physics among other branches of science, as signs for all men of understanding. For example, the Holy Quran says: Do they not then look at the camel, how it is created? And at the heaven, how it is raised high? And at the mountains how they are rooted, and at the earth how it is outspread? (88:18-21) And again: Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the alternation of night and day, and in the ships which sail in the sea with that which profits men, and in the water which Allah sends down from the sky and quickens therewith the earth after its death and scatters therein all kinds of beasts, and in the change of the winds, and the clouds pressed into service between the heaven and the earth—are indeed Signs for the people who understand. (2:165) Seven hundred and fifty verses of the Quran (almost one-eighth of the Book) exhort believers to study Nature, to reflect, to make the best use of reason in the search of the ultimate, the Creator, the Almighty Allah. For a believer, his science supports his religion and vice versa. As mentioned before, the Holy Quran suggests that the physical study of the universe should lead one to a firm belief in accountability and hereafter: Allah is He Who raised up the heavens without any pillars that you can see. Then He settled Himself on the Throne. And He pressed the sun and the moon into your service; each planet pursues its course until an appointed term. He regulates all affairs and He clearly explains the Signs that you may have firm belief in the meeting with your Lord. (Al Quran 13:3) References [1] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 110-111. [2] Jerry Mayer and John Holms. Bite-size Einstein: Quotations on just about everything from the greatest mind of the twentieth century. St Matin’s Press. New York. [3]Tableegh-e-Risalat, Roohani Khazain Vol. VI, p. 15. Also mentioned in Essence of Islam, under the heading Allah. [4] Einstein A, Infeld L. The evolution of Physics. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1938. Page 27. [5] Friedrich Durrenmatt. Albert Einstein. Diogenes Verlag, Zurich, 1979. Page 12. [6] E Salaman. A talk with Einstein. The Listner 54 , 1955. Page 132. [7] Albert Einstein. The world as I see it. Published by The Book Tree, 2007. Page 29. [8] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 126. [9] Jerry Mayer and John Holms. Bite-size Einstein: Quotations on just about everything from the greatest mind of the twentieth century. St Matin’s Press. New York. [10] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 149. [11] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 149. [12] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 149. [13] The new quotable Einstein. Collected and edited by Alice Calaprice. Princeton University Press, 2005. Page 195-196. [14] Albert Einstein. The world as I see it. Published by The Book Tree, 2007. Page 5. [15] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 73. [16] Albert Einstein. Ideas and opinions. A collection of his writings. This quote is from an address at Princeton Theological Seminary, May 19, 1939. Wing’s books, New York, 1954. Page 52. [17] The new quotable Einstein. Collected and edited by AliceCalaprice. Princeton University Press, 2005. Page 199-200. [18] Jerry Mayer and John Holms. Bite-size Einstein: Quotations on just about everything from the greatest mind of the twentieth century. St Matin’s Press. New York. [19] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 141. [20] Albert Einstein. Religion and science. Written expressly for the New York Times Magazine. Appeared there November 9, 1930 (Pp.1-4). The German text was published in the Berliner Tageblatt, November 11, 1930. It is reproduced in Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein. Published by Wings Books. [24] The new quotable Einstein. Collected and edited by Alice Calaprice. Princeton University Press, 2005. Page 196. [25] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 148. [26] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 144. [27] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology.Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 147-148. [28] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 74. [29] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 149. [30] Jerry Mayer and John Holms. Bite-size Einstein: Quotations on just about everything from the greatest mind of the twentieth century. St Matin’s Press. New York. [31] Albert Einstein. The world as I see it. Published by The Book Tree, 2007. Page 28. [32] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 68-69. [33] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 80. [34] Jerry Mayer and John Holms. Bite-size Einstein: Quotations on just about everything from the greatest mind of the twentieth century. St Matin’s Press. New York. [35] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 110-111. [36] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 85. [37] Albert Einstein. Ideas and opinions. A collection of his writings. This quote is from an address at Princeton Theological Seminary, May 19, 1939. Wing’s books, New York, 1954. Page 46-47. [38] Albert Einstein. Religion and science. Written expressly for the New York Times Magazine. Appeared there November 9, 1930 (Pp.1-4). The German text was published in the Berliner Tageblatt, November 11, 1930. It is reproduced in Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein. Published by Wings Books. [39] Albert Einstein. Religion and science. Written expressly for the New York Times Magazine. Appeared there November 9, 1930 (Pp.1-4). The German text was published in the Berliner Tageblatt, November 11, 1930. It is reproduced in Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein. Published by Wings Books. [40] Max Jammer. Einstein and religion, physics and theology. Princeton University Press, 1999. Page 85-86. [41] Albert Einstein. Ideas and opinions. A collection of his writings. This quote is from an address at Princeton Theological Seminary, May 19, 1939. Wing’s books, New York, 1954. Page 48. [42] The new quotable Einstein. Collected and edited by Alice Calaprice. Princeton University Press, 2005. Page 196. [43] The new quotable Einstein. Collected and edited by Alice Calaprice. Princeton University Press, 2005. Page 195. [45] britannica/eb/article-9110312/quantum-mechanics [46] Paul Davies. Other Worlds. Penguin Science, 1980. p 13 and28. [47] Paul Davies. God and the new physics. Simon and Schuster,1983. p 102-103. [48] Paul Davies. God and the new physics. Simon and Schuster, 1983. p 106-107. [49] Brian Clegg. The God effect: Quantum entanglement, science strangest pheonomenon. St Martin’s Press, 2006. Page 21. [50] Paul Davies. Other Worlds. Penguin Science, 1990. p 33-34. [51] Paul Davies. God and the new physics. Simon and Schuster, 1983. p 102. [52] Kenneth R Miller. Finding Darwin’s God. Cliff Street Books (Harper Collins), paper back edition 2000, p. 250-251. [54] Jerry Mayer and John Holms. Bite-size Einstein: Quotations on just about everything from the greatest mind of the twentieth century. St Matin’s Press. New York. [55] Albert Einstein. Ideas and opinions. A collection of his writings. This quote is from an address at Princeton Theological Seminary, May 19, 1939. Wing’s books, New York, 1954. Page 46.
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