Quantum Theory

Critic:-

You said: "You only need to look into yourself to see that any idea you have simply pops into your head. You do not create it. The same applies to your feelings, motives and actions."

This is Rubbish. (One gets tired of this pedantic 19th century *materialism* masquerading as "alternative" Muslim thinking ...) We know NICHT, NADA, ZIP, about the 'nature' of the higher 'Heavens' -- "the unSeen" -- beyond the Time-Space continuum of the Lower Heaven.

Comment:-

One gets tired of people who do not read or understand before jumping into comments based on their own agenda and desires.

I was discussing Ibn Rushd's explanations of some ideas in the Quran. I was not discussing science which does not deal in values, but religion which is concerned with facts, meaning and values. It is concerned with the process of living and adjustment to Reality, not with the pretence of knowing objective, impersonal facts rather than opinions about them.

I suppose that you require us to follow YOUR speculations instead! However, you are criticising your own misunderstanding.

Critic:-

The issue is *obviously* not causation. The issue is the notion of Actors in fields of Action. (The fact/speculation that the field is a causal field is entirely irrelevent to the question.) Your naive insistence on equating the field with the actors is 'a' source of your confusion in this matter.

Comment:-

Where exactly did I equate the Field of Action with the Actor? This distinction exists when speaking about the Creator and Creation. In so far as the actors are human beings their field of action is Creation of which they are part.

Critic:-

As to the comments of the questioner: "everything is recorded": Both he and the commentator are *confused* simply because you insist on holding on to the *illusion* of linear 'time'.

Comment:-

It is the Quran that tells us that everything is recorded.

No. I see that Time can be regarded as a dimension and cyclic. And in so far as things do not repeat themselves exactly but there is development, Time can be seen as a spiral. i.e. it has three dimensions.

Critic:-

The Act of 'Seeing and Recording All Events prior to their 'actualization' -- the Dominion of ALLAH -- and the Fact of your Free Will (Choice is a Given and you will be "Judged" according to your 'Choices') are in NO WAY contradictory.

Comment:-

I DID say they were not contradictory.

What I said was that there was no Free Will. There is Will and there are alternatives, but each requires a cause. A ball in a bowl is free to move in many ways, but the actual movement will depend on the causal forces.

Critic:-

The contradiction arises 'simply' because of a 'naive' understanding of 'time'. This is a boogaboo of 'classically inclined materialists'. (Cf. Quantum "paradoxes" -- FACTS which bewilder the linearly inclined scientific 'minds' as well ...) On the internet, look up

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=2+slit+quantum+paradox&btnG=

Comment:-

Which is more or less the same as having a wrong Logic as I said.

Critic:-

"GOD Is One". & One is *'indivisible'*.

Comment:-

Exactly. So do not create other independent centres of initiative and creation.

The critic obviously wants to judge the Quran by science, which of course changes its ideas as research increases knowledge.

But even so, if Time is a dimension then it can be seen by God as a whole, past, present and future. While human beings within it have a restricted view depending on the extent of their "Now" which is about 1/10 of a second. They are simply moving in it and retain some memory of the area they have been through and extrapolate this, where there are regularities, to predicting the future.

The critic is impressed by Quantum Theory and particularly by the "two slit paradox". According to experiments with light it appears that it sometimes behaves like particles moving in a straight line (when it passes through one slit in a foil and ends on a screen) but at other times (when passing through two slits) it is more like waves which spread out and give interference patterns instead of moving in straight lines to two positions on the screen.

According to the article the critic referred to, it is concluded that (I quote):-

"Each photon (or electron) cancels and reinforces itself when two slits are open, but does not do so when only one slit is open. The only logical explanation left is that a single electron must split and pass through both slits simultaneously. We can install detectors behind the slits to confirm this.... We place extremely sensitive particle detectors behind each slit and then set the emitter to release electrons singly. We wait to observe the simultaneous arrival of two bits of electrons at both particles detectors. And we wait ... and wait ... and wait. But all we ever see is that either one particle detector registers an electron or the other does, but never both simultaneously. Each electron travels through either one slit or the other.....

So if it does not traverse both routes, how does the electron 'know' that the other slit is present. Well obviously a thing as simple as an electron can't know anything. And yet knowledge of the existence of a second slit is involved at the deepest level of these series of experiments. Knowledge of possibilities rather than any actual particle trajectory , or other physical event, seems to be determining the properties of material objects. But if the electron has no knowledge of its environment, then the only other place where such knowledge could reside is in the mind of the observer. Therefore, the observer's mind is in some way determining the outcome of the observations."

After mentioning other "spooky actions" at the Quantum level such as "entanglement", it is concluded:-

"Basically, what quantum theory says is that fundamental particles are empty of inherent existence and exist in an undefined state of potentialities. They have no inherent existence from their own side and do not become 'real' until a mind interacts with them and gives them meaning. Whenever and wherever there is no mind there is no meaning and no reality. This is a similar conclusion to the Mahayana Buddhist teachings on sunyata."

If we look at these things from an Islamic point of view, then a different picture can be painted.

We see that the detectors and observers most certainly see points or interference patterns on the screen depending on conditions. So it is not a matter of the experimenter's mind. But it does depend on his choices which are certainly not without causes. We can tentatively conclude that:-

(1) The bipolar logic based on axioms such as either/or which demands either a particle or a wave is wrong. It is better to state that "A has a relationship B with C under conditions D", and that each of these factors is variable and affects the others.

(2) Light (and other fundamental particles) is not either a particle or wave but a bundle of potentialities which collapses into an actuality when it collides or interacts with something else - e.g. the screen, the measuring device, the eye. Actuality is an interaction. The fundamental particles might be like pulsating elastic or like cells that change shape to get through openings. Or they may be diffuse like gases that get through inter-spaces.

(3) The dichotomy between mind and matter on which Western science is based since Descartes is wrong. There is no justification for it. We do not see things as they are (as Allah sees them), but we experience them and this is an interaction that depends not only on the nature of the thing, but also on the nature of our minds and our relationship with things. We have assumptions, motives and actions which elicit reactions. There are no facts that have not been interpreted with respect to past experiences and human motives, and there are no actions that do not flow from motives modified by past experiences. An illusion of objectivity is created because of the consensus of scientists trained in the same way, using the same language and instrument in the same conditions.

(4) There is a much wider Field of potentialities underlying Actual Existence (no infinite number of parallel Universes need be postulated). Actual existence is the resultant of the sum total of all interactions. But there may be many different universes or areas where Actuality differs from our own owing to a different set of laws.

(5) The Universe can be regarded as a network of forces such that the knots are points of convergence and divergence and all affect each other to different degrees.

(6) The motion of an entity through the environment depends on the interaction of the nature of entity and every point in the environment through which it passes. Newtonian Laws of motion are probably incorrect because there is nothing that exists in isolation unaffected by its environment and the behaviour of things depends on their nature, including the energy they contain. Things are known relative to other things. Therefore, nothing can be said about something that is moving in isolation.

(7) Basically there is no determinism, but flexibility. But this, owing to mass interactions, evens out to form averages. We perceive these averages because of the reinforcement and regularities and become unaware of the fuzzy boundaries which are weaker owing to less super-imposition.

However, all this is advanced only as a possibility. What is certain is that fundamentally existence, reality, is very much different from what is normally and superficially seen. It is also possible to describe and organise facts, the data of observation differently according to the purposes one has in mind - industry and commerce, social application or psychological adjustment to Reality.

As the same facts can be interpreted and organised in several different ways, we must distinguish between the facts as they are, the data of experience and the interpretation which result from processing of the data. One reaches Truth by greater conscious interaction with Reality - through increasing awareness, rather than by mere verbal means. This makes the difference between the religion and science.

This is not deny that science is useful - it does provide us with new facts and expands knowledge and understanding. Other areas of life - industry, commerce, art, and politics also have these effects. Science is not independent of these. It is an art form and is involved with industry and politics. One needs to disentangle the various objective, social and subjective factors. It is part of the function of life to discriminate, filter and separate the evolutionary and involutionary processes. It is a typically Islamic attitude that life itself provides all the facilities and opportunities that can be used for spiritual or psychological development and that withdrawal from it is a mistake.(Quran 57:27)

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