> From: george murphy <gmurphy@raex.com>
> To: "Howard J. Van Till" <hvantill@novagate.com>
> Subject: Re: What does the creation lack?
> Date: Fri, Oct 26, 2001, 6:50 AM
>
> Howard -
>
> An obvious question about Peter's
> proposal, & the only one I address here, concerns
> the nature of the "several physical processes for
> which many differing outcomes are possible" and
> for which "There are permanent epistemic barriers
> ... that prevent science from gaining sufficient
> knowledge to predict which particular outcome will
> occur." In his articles he says "they may include
> quantum uncertainties, randomness in elementary
> events, unpredictability due to minute parameter
> value deviations in nonlinear systems liable to
> produce deterministic chaos, and coincidences."
> It's not clear what "randomness" & "coincidence"
> might refer to other than aspects of the other two
> possibilities, which are the ones that really need
> to be considered: Quantum uncertainty & chaos.
An example of randomness in elementary events: which one of the N bases
in a given DNA gets hit by a cosmic ray or decaying radioactive atom,
producing a mutation. An example of a coincidence: two specific
mutations essential for an evolutionary path occur at about the same
time in a given piece of DNA.
> A number of people, going back to Wm
> Pollard, have suggested that God acts below the
> level of the uncertainty principle. Bob Russell
> has recently (in his essay in Evolutionary and
> Molecular Biology) connected the idea that God
> acts at the quantum level with genetic mutations &
> evolution. Polkinghorne has emphasized the role of
> chaos in giving God freedom of action in the
> world.
> There's a problem with trying to do this
> entirely with classical chaos, for there the
> equations of motion are still deterministic, even
> though there is sensitivity to initial conditions.
> Therefore free divine action would have to involve
> some type of "violation" of the classical laws,
> even though that violation would be undetectable
> by us. But even though there is no "quantum
> chaos" in the strict sense, divine action at the
> quantum level could provide the variation in
> initial conditions needed for classical chaos.
Such divine influencing of intial conditions at the quantum level may
decide which path a system takes at a chaos bifurcation. Such actions at
the quantum level selecting a given bifurcation path may occur at many
points in the origin and development of life. No "violation" whatsoever
need be involved.
> A proposal that God acts at the quantum
> level to bring about definite results of
> measurement processes (i.e., God collapses wave
> packets) needs to be spelled out more fully. Does
> it mean that God collapses all the wave packets of
> all measurement processes throughout the universe?
> If so, does this happen through some hidden
> variables or simply by decreeing the result of
> each process?
> Or does God only determine the results of certain
> critical processes, such as those required for
> some steps in evolution? If so, what determines
> the results of all other quantum processes?
My proposal only involves these critical events relevant for biology.
Others may possibly have occurred in cosmology (cf. the anthropic
cosmological principle). I suppose events not critical for anything may
be left to genuine chance (cf. my paper "How has life and its diversity
been produced?" PSCF 44/2 (June 1992), 80-94).
Peter
> There's my contribution for starters.
> Shalom, George
>
> George L. Murphy
> http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
> "The Science-Theology Interface"
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