Physics to God Podcast

Physics to God Episodes

by Rabbi Elie Feder PhD and Rabbi Aaron Zimmer

Physics to God is a guided journey through modern physics to discover God. We start from the fine tuning of the constants of nature, travel through the multiverse, and ultimately arrive at a compelling idea of God. We recommend that you read or listen to the episodes in order.

I'll likely read through the transcripts rather than listen to every episode, but looking forward to checking this out.

Is the Multiverse Real?

The idea of the multiverse is not new. Over 2,000 years ago, the Roman philosopher, Lucretius, theorized that over an infinite expanse of time, atoms randomly assemble themselves into all possible arrangements—including a universe like our own. This idea was revived over a hundred years ago in 1895 by physicist Ludwig Boltzmann; only this time it was described in the more modern language of random fluctuations in the state of thermal equilibrium.
 
Despite its various iterations, few philosophers or scientists have taken the multiverse seriously—until 1998. Cosmologists discovered that the expansion rate of our universe is accelerating due to the extremely fine tuned cosmological constant. Because of the clear theological implications of fine tuning, this discovery forced modern scientists to reconsider the ancient theory of the multiverse. 
 
After introducing the idea of fine tuning, this essay lays out the three basic features needed for a multiverse theory to successfully explain fine tuning. It then analyzes and evaluates the scientific supports that multiverse scientists offer for each of its three premises. Finally, it shows why proper scientific methodology leads to the devastating measure problem and necessitates rejecting the multiverse as a viable scientific theory.

Is the Multiverse Real?

The Many Worlds Interpretation is indeed nonsense, because it posits that there is no wave function collapse, but rather, every single possibility just manifests into distinct, non-interacting worlds ~ for no reason whatsoever.

Sure, I have experienced different realities, but they have no relation to anything "quantum", but rather whatever the nature of the astral planes is. Separate universes seem to exist, but they don't have anything to do with quantum states, as far as I'm aware.

MWI just seems to be a lazy hack to avoid having to acknowledge or deal with the fact that the wave function does appear to collapse according to observation by conscious entities, in the same vein as a multiverse being posited to avoid having to deal with fine-tuning being clearly observed.

The real issue is that these ideas are not formulated out of observation, but of a desire to avoid having to acknowledge actual observations that conflict with Materialism, and which might actually confirm the existence of non-physical minds / souls, or the power of minds / souls to create a reality that is specifically, peculiarly, designed for biological life.

The Many Worlds Interpretation is indeed nonsense, because it posits that there is no wave function collapse, but rather, every single possibility just manifests into distinct, non-interacting worlds ~ for no reason whatsoever.

Sure, I have experienced different realities, but they have no relation to anything "quantum", but rather whatever the nature of the astral planes is. Separate universes seem to exist, but they don't have anything to do with quantum states, as far as I'm aware.

MWI just seems to be a lazy hack to avoid having to acknowledge or deal with the fact that the wave function does appear to collapse according to observation by conscious entities, in the same vein as a multiverse being posited to avoid having to deal with fine-tuning being clearly observed.

The real issue is that these ideas are not formulated out of observation, but of a desire to avoid having to acknowledge actual observations that conflict with Materialism, and which might actually confirm the existence of non-physical minds / souls, or the power of minds / souls to create a reality that is specifically, peculiarly, designed for biological life.

I'm not sure consciousness causes collapse directly...admittedly this is a bit tricky for me because I think all causation is mental...course the minds that ground different causal relations need not be human...

I guess I would say that, AFAIK, it's not definitive human consciousness collapses a wave function by observation?

I'm not sure consciousness causes collapse directly...admittedly this is a bit tricky for me because I think all causation is mental...course the minds that ground different causal relations need not be human...

Not directly, no ~ I think that the quantum is just responding to our awareness in however the quantum... works, I guess.

To be clearer, I don't think the quantum collapse is necessarily universally objective ~ moreso relative to the subject. A stronger effect allowing it to be objective / universal probably requires multiple subjects being focused on the same idea and intention, which is probably what causes a collapse proper.

I guess I would say that, AFAIK, it's not definitive human consciousness collapses a wave function by observation?

Not human consciousness ~ just minds in general, the collapse happening on the quantum side in response to conscious observation by any observer, and probably at just the level of the quantum that corresponds to our layer of reality ~ the physical.

It's rather difficult to talk about how any of this works ~ so I will paraphrase Terence McKenna: it can't really be correctly described by language, so I will proceed to just incorrectly describe it, haha.