Some of the problems: ''The argument being exploited in this...

  1. 22,855 Posts.
    Some of the problems:

    ''The argument being exploited in this method of proving God is that there needs to be an observer to cause a collapse. However, it makes the error of assuming that the collapse has to take prior to the creation of that observer. In fact, the Copenhagen interpretation contains no such requirement.
    Instead, what would happen according to quantum physics is that the universe could exist as a superposition of states, unfolding simultaneously in every possible permutation, until such a time when an observer springs up in one such possible universe. At the point the observer potentially exists, there is therefore an act of observation, and the universe collapses into that state. This is essentially the argument of the Participatory Anthropic Principle, created by John Wheeler. In this scenario, there is no need for a God, because the observer (presumably humans, though it's possible some other observers beat us to the punch) is itself the creator of the universe. As described by Wheeler in a 2006 radio interview''

    ''The second flaw in this line of reasoning is that it is usually tied in with the idea off an omniscient deity that is simultaneously aware of everything happening in the universe. God is very rarely depicted as having blind spots. In fact, if the deity's observational acumen is fundamentally required for the creation of the universe, as the argument suggests, presumably he/she/it doesn't let much slip by.
    And that poses a bit of a problem, because the only reason we know about the observer effect is because sometimes no observation is being made. This is clearly evident in the quantum double slit experiment. When a human makes an observation at the appropriate time, there is one result. When a human does not, there is a different result.
    However, if an omniscient God were observing things, then there would never be a "no observer" result to this experiment. The events would always unfold as if there were an observer. But instead we always get the results as we expect, so it seems that in this case the human observer is the only one that matters.
    While this certainly poses problems for an omniscient God, it doesn't entirely let a non-omniscient deity off the hook, either. Even if God looked at the slit every, say, 5% of the time, in between various other deity-related multitasking duties, scientific results would show that 5% of the time, we get an "observer" result when we should get a "no observer" result. But this doesn't happen, so if there is a God, then he/she/it apparently chooses consistently not to ever look at particles going through these slits.''

    http://physics.about.com/od/physicsmyths/f/QuantumGod.htm
    Last edited by DBT9: 01/12/15
 
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