© 2005 The Brotherhood of Man Library
| Can Universes and Life Self-generate from Nothingness? | Volume 12 - No. 1 — Index | Communing with God—from the Urantia Revelation |
The curiosities of quantum theory (see Innerface vol. 11, No. 5) have many of our physicists in a non-materialistic dither. In seeking to make sense of their own quite extraordinary and quite brilliant experimental results, they have proposed apparently outrageous explanations.
One such proposal is that the whole of our universe, as we perceive it, is actually a hologram–in reality a four-dimensional system operating in compliance with a set of physical laws on a 3-dimensional boundary of space-time.[1] And perhaps it could be so, even is so, if it operates under the control of deity consciousness functioning via a non-local dimension outside our local space-time.
Non-local is the name given to a dimension not in our space-time which messages can traverse instantaneously. It is also the ‘home’ of particles in a state of super-positioning such as an electron that is neither wave nor particle but a combination ‘wavicle.’ Its existence was predicated by Irish physicist, John Bell, and demonstrated experimentally by French physicist, Alain Aspect. See Innerface vol. 11, No. 5.
Another proposal by Raphael Bousso utilizes a 2-D boundary so that our innate perception of the world as having 3 spatial dimensions would be an “extraordinary illusion.” But is it really so extraordinary? For when looking at any normal scene, the image our minds perceive, though apparently in 3-D, is actually a flat 2-D image upon the retinas at the back of our eyeballs.
It is a truly remarkable feat of our brain that we can quite unconsciously make that 2-D to 3-D transformation, even to judging relative distances and estimating the speed of different objects at a variety of distances.
This remarkable ability is obviously an innate function of mind that extends way back into the evolution of the animal and insect worlds of the past–and is an essential survival attribute for both predator and prey. And it all must be constructed from information stored in our memories of previous related experiences.
So what are the new experiments that merit our praise and appreciation? Those that currently interest us have been mainly conducted to discover how far certain strange quantum phenomena can be preserved as the size of the object under study is increased from the sub-microscopic to take in the “real” world, the one we can actually touch, feel, see, and smell.[2]
One of the key apparent differences between the familiar classical world we inhabit and the strange quantum world is the phenomenon of “superposition”–the ability of quantum objects to exist in two different states such as wave and particle, but at the same time.
Previously we have described this behavior for photons, electrons, and even atoms, and molecules.[3] Now it has been demonstrated for large spherical molecules called fullerenes consisting of 70 carbon atoms that form a ball .
To do so, fullerene molecules were fired, one at a time, at two diffraction gratings (see below). Initially the target simply showed where each single molecule hit. But as the number increased to about two thousand, the detector began to show a perfect pattern of interference stripes.
As with electrons, etc., in the same type of experiment[4], it was concluded that each of the fullerene molecules must interfere with itself. So where was the information that permitted formation of the striped interference pattern?
A possible answer to this problem was revealed by varying the temperature of the fullerene molecules prior to them passing through the first grating. Hot matter radiates thermal photons over a wide spectrum of wave lengths. Below 1700o C, the fullerene molecules are unlikely to radiate wave lengths in the visible range. But at 2200o C each molecule should radiate at least three such photons. Outside this temperature range photon emission fell away, as did the diffraction pattern–which is consistent with the hypothesis that these emitted photons carried the information utilized to form the bar pattern.
The hypothesis was strengthened by double slit experiments (see ref. 4) that modified the wave length of the photons emitted by electrons passing through slits. The photon’s wave length determined whether or not the interference pattern was washed out.
But that leaves us with an even harder question. How can a mere photon possibly carry such information? Answer–we do not know.
Is there a limit to the size of objects that can show this extraordinary behavior? Apparently not as nothing in quantum theory puts any limit to this size. Even living things (to be tested shortly) are expected to behave likewise.
Apparently a completely new theory will be necessary. Anton Zeilinger, leader of the fullerene experiment team, had this to say: “Something else–some other undiscovered theory–will have to explain what role information plays. But if you are thinking that this new theory will put us out of our collective misery over the weirdness we see in quantum experiments, think again. There’s no indication that it shouldn’t get weirder.”
Items that interest us for the discussion that follows are: Objects that become super-positioned may always and instantaneously be located in non-local space–where they will remain in waiting for such an occasion as being recalled by an observer to normal local space. Once made, that recall occurs instantaneously.
It may also be true that all material objects not being observed by a conscious observer are in such a state. That is the thinking behind the statement of quantum physicists that the moon is not there unless an observer is observing it.
So where is the moon if one person is observing it and another is not doing so? The most likely reality is that it is there for the one looking, but not for the person not looking. It has to be in the observer’s mind to be his or her reality.
Experimental work indicates that information about what has happened, is happening, and perhaps, what will happen to the fullerene molecules we have described is carried from the fullerene being observed by emitted photons. Previous such work also shows that the amount of information being generated and needing to be instantly available in such events can be large and variable. How is this necessary information stored, who keeps the records, and who or what makes the decisions about which information is to be activated?
Further questions remain, an important one being how many “bits” of information would be required to move from a non-local dimension to a specific address in a local one. How does a photon in non-local space ‘know’ where it came from?
Since the observer is normally completely unconscious about the details of this process and, for the most part, has zero knowledge that such a process exists, observers can be ruled out as being the necessary information banks.
These information banks, if they exist, must surely also be located in non-local space. And as the over-all process appears to include decision making, it becomes extremely difficult to perceive it as being other than subject to conscious control. Could it be computerized? Possibly, but who built the computer, who maintains it, and who runs it?
Few have had the courage to even speculate about this problem. One view that is held by those who subscribe to a philosophy termed “monistic idealism” is that the whole universe is created from consciousness and is existent only in consciousness–the consciousness of God. For such idealists, consciousness is the ground of all being.
The Urantia revelation puts it this way: The universe is mind planned, mind made, and mind administered. (UB 42:11.2)
All the worlds of every universe are constantly within the consciousness of God. (UB 3:3.2)
God is possessed of unlimited power to know all things; his consciousness is universal. (UB 3:3.3)
When man analytically inspects the universe through the material endowments of his physical senses and associated mind perception, the cosmos appears to be mechanical and energy-material. Such a technique of studying reality consists in turning the universe inside out. (UB 103:6.4)
A logical and consistent philosophic concept of the universe cannot be built up on the postulations of either materialism or spiritism, for both of these systems of thinking, when universally applied, are compelled to view the cosmos in distortion, the former contacting with a universe turned inside out, the latter realizing the nature of a universe turned outside in. Never, then, can either science or religion, in and of themselves, standing alone, hope to gain an adequate understanding of universal truths and relationships without the guidance of human philosophy and the illumination of divine revelation. (UB 103:6.5)
Unaided, faith and reason cannot conceive nor construct a logical universe. And without insight into the spiritual domain, mortal man cannot discern love, truth, beauty, and goodness in the phenomena of the material world. Revelation is evolutionary man’s only realistic hope of bridging the gulf between the material and spiritual domain. But revelation is always personal. Therefore must man live, by faith, midst uncertainty. And this truth is the inevitable accompaniment of God’s most precious gift of free will to all mankind. (UB 103:6.13)
Is there another way to explain quantum weirdness such as the existence of a spatial dimension outside of our own space-time in which messages are transferred instantaneously, in which complex decisions appear to be made, and which must hold absolutely enormous memory banks plus a way to relate their contents correctly to occurrences within our space-time?
Is it necessary that all this and much more should be attributed to an unknown and unknowable God?
We human earthlings have a long history of attributing to God all those phenomena that we don’t understand, plus a good many more besides. And mostly we have been totally wrong. This time we look to be the winner. However the likelihood is that we will never know for certain. And that appears to be how things were intended to be. How else could we have true free will?
¶ External links
- Article in Innerface International: https://urantia-book.org/archive/newsletters/innerface/vol12_1/page11.html
| Can Universes and Life Self-generate from Nothingness? | Volume 12 - No. 1 — Index | Communing with God—from the Urantia Revelation |
¶ Notes
Beckenstein, J. Information in the Holographic Universe Scientific American, September, 2003 ↩︎
Zeilinger et al, in New Scientist, Worlds Apart, May 15, 2004 ↩︎
Innerface, Vol. 11, No. 5, Sept/Oct. 2004. Innerface vol. 11, No. 5 ↩︎
Pritchard et al. see Worlds Apart article, New Scientist, May 15, 2004 ↩︎