Louisville Process Theology Network

Religion and Science, III

Jun 15, 2006

Uncertainty (from Quantum Physics): The principle of uncertainty in quantum physics is another radical departure from the classical Physics of the 18th and 19th centuries. It abandons the strict determinism implied by Isaac Newton's calculations on planetary motion in our solar system and other deterministic principles in the earlier Physics. The universe appears to be not so precise about how it does things after all.

Examining the smallest units of matter, the mathematical calculations in quantum physics can make predictions of particle locations and movement only in terms of probabilites; not absolutes. There is some degree of randomness in these movements. Quantum particles are not matter as we know it elsewhere in our experiences. They appear to be partly matter and partly waves of energy.

This finding in quantum physics suggests that choices are made individually in our universe and these choices have important consequences. So, the free will we sense in our experience just might be something real after all.