THE WAHEGURU WAVE-PARTICLE DUALITY
INTRODUCTION
Regular
visitors will be familiar with the many exchanges we have
had over the years with Sikh apologists who have utilised a
varying number of contradistinctive methodological
approaches in their attempt to rescue the logically
incoherent theological concept of
Nirgun-Sargun.
It
ranged from the inexplicable self-defeating strategy adopted
by the likes of I. S. Dhillon (1,
2,
3) and
Project Naad, which was to uncritically dismiss the a
priori Law of Non-Contradiction (LnC) whilst
fallaciously maintaining that Waheguru is true without
objectively proving it, to the likes of
Saajan Sandhu and
Bijla Singh who perceptively chose the opposite approach
of making their defence through an internal critique of
their theology without rejecting LnC.
There
is, then, a third approach opted for by some Sikh apologists
who, in an attempt to objectively negate LnC, appeal to the
presence of corporeal things that can supposedly co-exist
contradictorily.
In this
regard, one particular example that is repeatedly cited by
some Sikh apologists is the Copenhagen interpretation (CI)
of the wave-particle duality (WPD) in Quantum Mechanics
(QM).
In doing
so, however, these keen defenders of the faith, who have the
courage to think so radically outside the box, inadvertently
set themselves up for the big fall, for, in appealing to WPD
they must also necessarily identify which interpretation of
WPD they hold to be true.
It is
irreconcilable for a theory, open to many uncorroborated
interpretations, to be simplistically cited as evidence for
proving the absolute truth regarding the nature of God's
being or essence.
For one
thing, since this divinely revealed truth of God's existence
is, fundamentally speaking, absolute in nature, any evidence
cited in an attempt to corroborate this absolute truth
cannot rest on shaky grounds.
If these
Sikhs do indeed stand by the tenuous notion that Waheguru
can exist contradictorily, and that concrete evidence exists
in the real world as indirect support of this, then the
evidence must, at the very least, be well established and
firmly corroborated.
Moreover, in the case of WPD, not only must these Sikhs make
an informed choice over the available interpretations, but
should also furnish a scientific reason (as this is a
scientific theory) as to why they have betted on one to the
exclusion of all others.
What one
will find is that each WPD interpretation carries with it an
open can of worms, which, rather than strengthening a
theological argument, will instead weaken it by raising a
slew of seemingly insurmountable questions vis-á-vis
God's purpose in creating the universe and mankind's
relationship with him.
Before
we continue, let us denote certain keywords that shall
repeatedly be used throughout this paper:
CI:
Copenhagen interpretation
WPD:
Wave-Particle Duality
QM: Quantum Mechanics
LnC: Law of non-Contradiction
A PRIMER ON THE WAVE
PARTICLE DUALITY
Sikh
apologists, Project Naad, attempted to rescue the
theology-proper of Nirgun-Sargun from the assertion
that it is contradictory, and thus false, by appealing to
WPD. In their paper Sikhism, Science and Quantum Physics,
which was presumably written in response to our website,
they claim:
Science has been used
exhaustively to determine the nature and characteristics of
matter i.e. whether matter is a wave or a particle. ...
Quantum field theory explains this by stating that
matter is neither a wave nor a particle. It is something
more abstract and could be considered as a simultaneous
co-existence of all possibilities. This leads to the idea of
superposition i.e. all possibilities potentially existing at
the same time.
There
are also other Sikhs who favour this counterargument. One
such individual is forum frequenter going by the name of
ms514:
Perhaps the author [Abu Adeeba
of Islam-Sikhism] would like to explain the concept of a
photon, which exhibits properties of both waves and
particles? Right...
And we
will, of course, certainly oblige.
Our
contention is that Sikhism's theological concept of the
Nirgun-Sargun duality ascribed to God's nature is
contradictory; and since all contradictions are false
according to LnC, Sikhism is, therefore, a false religion.
Sikhs
who make recourse to WPD do so by asserting that existential
reality exhibits contradictions; that is to say, since LnC
is violated by the presence of corporeal things existing
contradictorily, God, who is the creator of these
paradoxical phenomena, must also be able to exist
contradictorily.
And this
is precisely what Project Naad holds by supporting such
affirmations through the use of scripture:
The Sikh scripture mentions the
idea of superposition as being an intrinsic
part of creation and the creator.
"You have thousands of eyes,
and yet You have no eyes. You have thousands of forms, and
yet You do not have even one. You have thousands of Lotus
Feet, and yet You do not have even one foot. You have no
nose, but you have thousands of noses. This Play of Yours
entrances me." SGGSJ page 13
"He Himself is formless, and
also formed; the One Lord is without attributes, and also
with attributes" SGGSJ page 250
"At the same time, He is both
hidden and revealed. For the Gurmukh, doubt and fear are
dispelled." SGGSJ page 1048 (bold, underline ours)
Before
we come to define Superposition's role vis-á-vis WPD
and QM, as well as the theological implications towards
Sikhism and Waheguru, it will help if a brief overview is
provided to better understand and clarify the science that
lies behind these hypotheses.
WPD is a
concept that insists that all matter exhibits both wave and
particle properties at the quantum level. WPD is, thus,
considered a central tenet of QM, while CI, which, according
to a poll taken at the 1997 UMBC quantum mechanics workshop,
is considered the most popular interpretation of QM followed
by the Many Worlds interpretation,
attempts to reconcile the seemingly paradoxical nature of
matter, which can apparently behave both as a wave
(something which occupies a large space) and a particle
(something which occupies a small space) simultaneously.
The
famous double-slit experiment, first carried out by English
scientist, Thomas Young, in 1801, essentially consists of
light (photon) being passed over or through a medium to
determine its nature. Science then had to wait until 1961
for a source other than light to be used when Clauss Jönsson
performed the experiment using electrons, which again
exhibited wave and particle characteristics.
The
major problem with CI, and therefore with QM in general, is
that it is, according to Prof. Paul Marmet,
based upon "three unsurmountable [sic] difficulties:
a)
Negation of causality
b)
Negation of realism and
c)
Involvement of infinite
and imaginary velocities or masses."
THE CURIOUS CASE OF CAUSALITY
Causality is the basis of all
scientific work
Causality is the condition
that renders science possible
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Before
moving on to examine the implications of discarding the law
of causality from science, it is necessary at this stage to
remind ourselves of what the scientific method of discovery
and advancement is vis-á-vis prediction,
experimentation and theory.
Prof. of
Geology, Donald R. Prothero, defined it in lay terms as
follows:
In that regard, the scientific
method is similar to many other human endeavors, such as
mythology and folk medicine, which observe something and try
to come up with a story for it. But the big difference is
that scientists must then test their hypotheses. They
must try to find some additional observations or experiments
that shoot their idea down (falsify it) or support it
(corroborate it). If the observations falsify the
hypothesis, then scientists must start over again with a new
hypothesis, or recheck their observations and make sure that
the falsification is correct. If the observations are
consistent with the hypothesis, then it is corroborated, but
it is not proven true. Instead, the scientific community
must continue to keep looking for more observations to test
the hypothesis further (fig. 1.1).
This is where the public most
misunderstands the scientific method. As many philosophers
of science (such as Karl Popper) have shown, this cycle of
setting up, testing, and falsifying hypotheses is unending.
Scientific hypotheses must always be tentative and subject
to further testing and can never be regarded as finally true
or proven. Science is not about finding final truth, only
about testing and refining better and better hypotheses so
these hypotheses approach what we think is true about the
world. Any time scientists stop testing and trying to
falsify their hypotheses, they also stop doing science.
One of the reasons for this is
the nature of testing hypotheses. Lots of people think that
science is purely inductive, making observation after
observation until some general scientific law can be
inferred. It is true that scientists must start with
observations, but they do not arrive at scientific
principles from induction. (bold, underline ours)
He
added:
Most people think that science
is about finding the final truth about the world and are
surprised to find that science never proves something
finally true. But that's the way the scientific method
works, as philosophers of science have long ago demonstrated
about logic of the scientific method. Science is not about
final truth or "facts"; it is only about continually testing
and trying to falsify our hypotheses, until they are
extremely well supported. At that point, the hypothesis
becomes a theory (as scientists use the term), which is a
well-corroborated set of hypotheses that explain a larger
part of the observations about the world.
Influential particle theorist at Harvard, Lisa Randall,
agreed that a theory is:
A
definite physical framework embodied in a set of fundamental
assumptions about the world - and an economical framework
that encompasses a wide variety of phenomena. A theory
yields a specific set of equations and predictions
- ones that are borne out by successful agreement with
experimental results. (bold mine)
While
particle physicist Lee Smolin stated:
A
scientific theory that makes no predictions and
therefore is not subject to experiment can never fail, but
such a theory can never succeed either, as long as science
stands for knowledge gained from rational argument borne out
by evidence. There needs to be an honest evaluation of the
wisdom of sticking to research program that has failed after
decades to find grounding in either experimental results or
precise mathematical formulation. (bold ours)
But
where does the scientific method stand if causality is
negated for a physical phenomenon? How can scientists set up
experiments to determine causal relationships for things
that are ostensibly considered uncaused (causeless)? Further
still, if a hypothesis is said to be uncaused, how can
"observations or experiments" be setup to falsify or
corroborate it?
The
counterintuitive implications of this stance are perhaps the
reason why Marmet holds to the seemingly a priori
position that:
Nothing is created from
nonexistence. We firmly believe that a cause is always
essential.
He
further elaborates:
The aim of science is to explain
phenomena and predict new observations. Practicing
scientific research means to find out why an effect has
been produced. It would be ridiculous and absurd to
answer that there is no reason or no cause leading to the
observed results - that results simply happen like that.
It would certainly be more rational to answer that we do not
know. (bold, underline ours)
The
implication of negating the law of causality within science
is, indeed, absurd since it is clearly self-defeating; and
yet we have a major interpretive model which is established
upon this premise of causelessness.
Marmet
declares:
The Copenhagen Interpretation
claims that Modern Physics does not always require a cause!
And:
According to the Copenhagen
interpretation, there is no cause to a phenomenon.
Consequently, since quantum mechanics is not causal, it is
useless to look for causes. One might well ask why so
many physicists look for causes when they use and support a
model that is not causal! (bold ours)
Werner
Heisenberg, a prominent contributor to CI, clearly affirmed
this self-defeating point:
The law of causality is no
longer applied in quantum theory.
It is
only in holding to this preposterous stance that someone
like Prof. Daniel Greenberger could nonsensically proclaim
that "Quantum Mechanics is Magic",
and why a distinguished physicist, such as, Richard P.
Feynman, could conclude:
The theory of quantum
electrodynamics describes Nature as absurd from the point of
view of common sense. And it agrees fully with experiments.
So I hope you can accept Nature as she is - absurd.
(bold ours)
But,
what an educated and critically minded person, who hears of
any claim from a scientist, should do, as Smolin urges, is
"evaluate it as strictly as you would an investment. Give it
as much scrutiny as a house you would buy or a school you
would send your children to".
Hence, what does Feynman mean when he claims that the theory
of quantum electrodynamics "agrees fully with experiments"?
Marmet
answers:
Physicists are taught to believe
that when an equation gives a correct prediction, it proves
that the model is correct (even if the model is absurd).
Furthermore, they claim that, since the working model is
absurd, one must conclude that Nature is absurd.
And the
problem with CI, and thus WPD, is that it is most assuredly
absurd vis-á-vis both the mathematical model and the
accepted notion that it is uncaused.
The
overarching problem is the attempt made through the
interpretive framework of CI to reconcile between nature and
mathematics, as Marmet perceptively pinpoints:
It is clear that mathematics
must cope with the internal mathematical relationship
between various physical concepts. The mathematical
formalism used in physics forms probably what is the most
coherent and logical internal system that exists in science.
However in physics, the choice of the mathematical relations
is controlled by external relations dictated by Nature with
the help of experiments and observations. The Copenhagen
interpretation is expected to provide the external link
between Nature and mathematics. It is clear that the
Copenhagen interpretation fails completely to give a
rational explanation of Nature. (bold, underline ours)
Therefore, in regards to the WPD hypothesis, it is "feasible
mathematically" and "not a problem as long as we consider
that it is an internal property of the mathematical
formalism. However, if one claims that this is an external
relationship described by the duality of waves-particles,
that interpretation is absurd". (bold ours)
Similarly, Marcus Chown recognised:
There are at
least half a dozen different interpretations of quantum
theory. Each one is a way of relating the mathematics of
quantum theory to what might be going on in the real world.
Contrast
this with a mathematically coherent and logical internal
system that contains infinite (symbolically represented as
∞) and imaginary quantities, such as, velocities or masses.
The German mathematician,
David Hilbert, "recognised as one of the most
influential and universal mathematicians of the 19th and
early 20th centuries", held that infinites cannot exist in
reality:
The infinite is nowhere to be
found in reality. It neither exists in nature nor provides a
legitimate basis for rational thought.... The role that
remains for the infinite to play is solely that of an
idea....
In a
documentary titled Horizon: To Infinity and Beyond,
aired on BBC1 in 2010, the following scientists accede to
this position:
"Infinity is like a landscape, a
place in which you do mathematics. It's not a real
place; you can't actually go there except in your
imagination; but to those who do mathematics, it seems
very real indeed."
(Prof. Peter Cameron, Queen
Mary University, London, UK)
"One of the problems of infinity
is that it has some paradoxical properties and very
basic questions about infinity that we can't answer."
"Infinity; may be it doesn't
exist, but it is a beautiful subject. And until one has
real reason to doubt the mathematical infinity, I just don't
see the point."
(Prof. Hugh Woodin,
University of California, Berkeley, US)
"Infinity in mathematics, to
me, is nonsense because it's abstract nonsense.
In my opinion, infinity is only a fiction of the human
mind."
(Prof. Doren Zeilberger)
"No matter how much I study the
field of cosmology and think about this, it still makes no
sense to me that the universe is infinite and always has
been infinite; I don't understand that, I don't pretend to
understand that.
"The idea that there may be an
infinite number of earths and an infinite number of people
sitting here having this exact same talk that I'm having
right now, that just doesn't compute in my brain.
"I prefer a finite universe
because I can get my mind around that. It's the only
universe that makes intuitive sense to me."
(Prof. Doug Leonard, San
Diego State University, US)
"Fortunately, our math doesn't
have any inhibitions; we can calculate all these things
even if they seem completely counter-intuitive.
It's only through the math that we are able to deal with
all these ideas."
(Prof. Max Tegmark,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US)
Just as
the role of an infinite variable is taken to be an abstract
idea not found in reality, Marmet similarly holds that the
mathematical theorem of WPD cannot exist in reality:
The dualistic model is just as
absurd as the Copenhagen interpretation because, in both
models, no physical reality can exist BEFORE DETECTION.
(bold, underline, capitals ours).
Why?
Because:
In the Copenhagen
interpretation, things are created by the observer's
knowledge. There is an incompatible difference between:
a) combining mathematically two
sets of properties in an equation, and:
b) saying that, in reality,
light is simultaneously made out of a wave and of a
particle.
Condition a) is possible. [...]
b), that is the model of light made out of a wave and of a
particle, is totally irreconcilable.
And
Marmet quotes Heisenberg as alluding to just this point:
The paradoxes of the dualism
between wave picture and particle picture were not solved;
they were hidden somehow in the mathematical
scheme. (bold, underline ours)
ESSE EST PERCIPI
- EXISTENCE IS PERCEPTION
If actually all our knowledge
is derived from perception,
there is no meaning in the
statement that the things really exist
Werner
Heisenberg
(1901-1976)
CI
becomes ever more absurd when one learns of the alleged
phenomenon known as the Wave Function Collapse:
Prior to the act of measurement,
the 'reality' of a quantum object exists only as a series of
'ghost-like' probabilities that correspond to the
wavefunction. As soon as the attention of an intelligent
observer is directed at the object (in other words, an
attempt is made somehow to 'measure' it), its wavefunction
'collapses' and the object is changed from a superposition
of probabilities to a 'classical' phenomenon. Once the
state vector is defined as our knowledge of the system,
measurements that alter our knowledge also alter the system.
The system therefore has no reality independent of the
measuring apparatus (and its interpretation). Wigner (1961;
1963; 1964) therefore argued that wavefunction/state vector
collapse requires the interaction of the system with a
conscious (information processing) observer. As Wheeler
(1994, 19) succinctly put it: ... we have no right to say
that the electron is at such-and-such a place until we have
installed equipment, or done the equivalent, to locate it.
What we thought was there is not there until we ask a
question. No question? No answer! (bold ours)
Philosopher David Berlinsky elaborated further:
So long as no one is looking,
the electron is all things to all men. But let the physicist
have a look, and boom! the particle that could be
here and there becomes here or there all over
again. The wave packet collapses into just one of its
possibilities. The other quantum states that it embodies
vanish, and they vanish instantaneously. No one knows why.
Niels Bohr [...] embraced this
interpretation of quantum mechanics, whence its designation
as the Copenhagen interpretation. It has become canonical.
It has not, however, explained
the connection between the quantum realm and the classical
realm. "So long as the wave packet reduction is an essential
component [of quantum mechanics]," the physicist John Bell
observed, "and so long as we do not know when and how it
takes over from the Schrödinger equation, we do not have an
exact and unambiguous formulation of our most fundamental
physical theory." (bold ours)
To show
this self-conflicting hypothesis, Erwin Schrödinger "devised
a thought experiment to explain his own perplexity". Called
Schrödinger's Cat, Berlinsky explicates:
Imagine that a cat has been
placed in a sealed container, together with a device that if
it goes off will kill it - a revolver, say, or some sort of
radioactive pellet. Whether the device goes off is a matter
of chance. So long as no one is looking, the cat exists in a
superposition of quantum states, at once half dead (the gun
might fire) and half alive (it might not). As soon as an
observer peeks into the box, that superposition gives way.
That cat is either dead or alive and there are no two ways
about it.
If the
reader does not appreciate the profundity of this analogy,
let us cite an alternative:
The most accurate way of
describing the state of the yet-to-be-observed atom is to
put into English the mathematics describing the state of the
atom: The atom was simultaneously in two states: it is
wholly-in-the-top-box-and-not-in-the-bottom-box, and
simultaneously it is
wholly-in-the-bottom-box-and-not-in-the-top-box. This is
saying that the atom was in both situations at the same
time.
Putting it this way, however,
boggles the mind. It's saying a physical thing was in
two places at the same time. The quantum mechanical term for
this situation is that the atom is in a "superposition
state" simultaneously in both boxes.
Quantum mechanics says the
method of looking creates the present situation of the atom
concentrated in a single box or spread out over two. It says
more than that: the method of looking creates the
atom's history - apparently backward in time.
Finding it in a single box implies it had come on a single
path after its earlier encounter with the semi-transparent
mirror. Interference establishes that it had come on both
paths after that earlier event.
...
Quantum theory tells us
that any look, anything in fact that provides information,
collapses the previously existing state. There's no
immaculate perception. (bold, underline ours)
According to Cramer, CI teaches that the result of the
experiment is not decided and does not exist "until such
time as the observer collapses the state vector into one or
the other of these states by making an observation, since it
is the change in the observer's knowledge that precipitates
the state vector collapse".
Little wonder Marmet said that "such a description does not
make sense".
Thus, it
is unsurprising to find a physicist of the calibre of
Richard Feynman candidly stating:
What I am going to tell you
about is what we teach our physics students in the third or
fourth year of graduate school. It is my task to convince
you not to turn away because you don't understand it. You
see my physics students don't understand it... That is
because I don't understand it. Nobody does.
So, how
would these proponents go about inoculating their neophytes
from the potential disease of disillusionment during those
crucial early stages of indoctrination?
Niels Bohr realized that he had
to confront the influence of knowledge on physical phenomena
in order to allow physicists to just get on with doing
physics without getting bogged down in philosophy. He thus
asserted his principle of complementarity: The two
aspects of a microscopic object, its particle aspect and its
wave aspect, are "complementary," and a complete
description requires both contradictory aspects, but
we must consider only one aspect at a time.
We avoid the seeming
contradiction by considering the microscopic system, the
atom, not to exist in and of itself. We must always include
in our discussion - implicitly at least - the different
macroscopic experimental apparatuses used to display each of
the two complementary aspects. All is then fine, because it
is ultimately only the classical behavior of such apparatus
that we report. (bold, underline ours)
Indian
theoretical physicist at the Bose Institute, Kolkata, Prof.
Dipankar Home, further revealed:
[T]he philosophy of complementarity was an attempt to go beyond pragmatism. Bell
[5] remarked:
Rather than being disturbed by
the ambiguity in principle, Bohr seemed to take satisfaction
in it. He seemed to revel in contradictions, for
example between "wave" and "particle." That seem to appear
in any attempt to go beyond the pragmatic level. Not to
resolve these contradictions and ambiguities, but rather to
reconcile us to them, he put forward a philosophy which he
called "complementarity."
Once Bohr recognized that wave
particle dualism was inescapable, he did not concentrate
on overthrowing the ideas of wave and particle but on
removing the paradoxical consequences by limiting their use.
(bold ours)
His
revelling in contradictions is similar to the revelling of
these Sikhs who, perhaps recognising the illogicality of the
Nirgun-Sargun concept, wherein Waheguru is
simultaneously both attributeless (sans creation) and its
opposite, feel they have no other choice accept to defend an
absurdity. If only they were sincere and critically minded
enough to recognise that they do: Islaam!
But
there is certainly more to this ad hoc hypothesis than some
care to admit. One of the main proponents of CI, Heisenburg,
acknowledged the influence of philosophers, who brazenly
rejected realism, over his decision in accepting this
theory; in his own words:
The next step was taken by
Berkeley. If actually all our knowledge is derived from
perception, there is no meaning in the statement that the
things really exist; because if the perception is given it
cannot possibly make any difference whether the things exist
or do not exist. Therefore, to be perceived is identical
with existence. (bold ours)
As
Marmet noted:
"Heisenberg admits that he just
carried Berkeley's idea of modern philosophy to modern
physics."
Who,
then, was Berkeley and what did he say of realism ("defined
as the result that matter has its own existence independent
of the observer")?
"[Bishop] Berkeley was an Irish philosopher of the
seventeenth century" and this is what he had to say of
reality:
It is indeed an opinion
strangely prevailing amongst men, that houses, mountains,
rivers, and in word all sensible objects have an existence
natural or real, distinct from their being perceived by the
understanding.
Marmet
quotes Berkeley further as claiming:
Some truths there are so near
and obvious to the mind, that a man need only open his eyes
to see them. Such I take this important one to be, to wit,
that all the choir of heaven and furniture of the earth, in
a word all those bodies which compose the mighty frame of
the world have not any subsistence without a mind, that
their being is to be perceived or known.
And,
thus, did Berkeley bizarrely conclude:
Esse est percipi meaning
Existence is perception.
Hence,
Marmet observes that "modern philosophy is
astonishingly identical to modern physics as suggested by
the Copenhagen interpretation of Bohr, Heisenberg and Pauli"
where "matter is not considered to have its own independent
existence before it is detected, just as in the case of
modern philosophy of Descartes and Berkeley".
The
question we wish to raise at the end of all this is whether
these Sikhs, who have conveniently hitched a ride on
Heisenberg's, Bohr's and Pauli's bandwagon, agree with them
and their predecessors, Descartes, Cardinal Ballarmino,
Bishop Berkeley, Hume, et alia, that existence is
nothing more than perception (esse est percipi)?
SARGUN AND NON-REALISM
The can
of worms that these Sikhs have opened begins with the major
obstacle of reconciling the philosophical notion of
non-realism, which they are forced to embrace having acceded
to WPD, and Sikh theology.
What
these Sikhs have perhaps overlooked is that God (Waheguru),
or more precisely the Sargun nature of God, is
all-pervasive through the very fabric of existence, i.e.
space and time.
According to Daljeet Singh, one of the definitions of
Naam is that it "extends to all creation. There is no
place or space where Naam is not". He then qualifies
the meaning of Naam by adding: "There are numerous
verses in Guru Granth Sahib where Naam and God
have been described synonymously. Both Naam and God have
been mentioned as [...] 'permeating and informing all
things, beings, space and interspace.' [...] This
unambiguously leads us to conclude that God and Naam
are one and the same." (bold, underline ours)
Are we
to infer from this that if matter does not exist until it is
observed or perceived, then Waheguru, who is in every place
or space of creation, will not be manifest until matter is
perceived?
In
contradistinction to non-realism, Prof. Taran Singh, former
head of the Dept. of Guru Granth Studies at Punjabi
University in Patiala, believed that creation is real,
emphatically declaring:
The Supreme Reality is one and
indivisible, its manifestations and the form of creation is
real, not illusory, the Supreme Reality is personified
consciousness which is creative and is eternally
progressing.
The 'Sidh-Gosti' (Raga
Ramkali, pages 938-46) of Guru Nanak maintains that all
creation is real because it has its ground in the One
Real....
Similarly, Prof. Sohan Singh elucidated the meaning of the
word sat(i), from the clause sat(i) nam(u) of
the mool mantra, to mean "'truth' or 'reality' [...]
as existence, in contrast to reality as something
non-existing, yet real".
He
further added that sat(i) can also mean "power (sakti)"
and that "there is no other approach to truth other than
the empirical approach. But existence is truth, because
it is power, energy. An energy-less existence, would not be
existence at all-dead matter is dead once [sic] for all, and
no philosophy with any credibility can ever resurrect the
concept of a dead matter". (bold ours)
He
concluded:
Guru Nanak was always
antipathetic to any view of the world which denigrated its
reality or made the world illusory. To make the world
illusory is to inject non-being into the very texture of the
world. This would tantamount to vitiating man's dharma in
the world. He was, therefore, firm on the principle that
the creation is as real as the Creator... (bold ours)
If the
empirical approach is the only way of determining and
discovering truth, then how can such an approach empirically
quantify CI and WPD when it is known that "in both models,
no physical reality can exist before detection"?
It is
this "rejection of realism" that is today, according to
Arthur Jabs, leading to "a large and growing number of
physicists who feel the need for a realistic formulation
(Bell [1973]; Rayski [1973]; Bunge and Kalnay [1975];
Levy-Leblond [1976]; Bunge [1977]; Roberts [1978]; Max- well
[1982]; Burgos [1984]; Popper [1985]; Stapp [1985]; Rohrlich
[1987]; Bohm et al. [1987]; and many others)".
There is
yet more; Prof. Wazir Singh, head of the Dept. of Guru
Gobind Singh Religious Studies at Punjabi University in
Patiala, in clarifying the term purakh(u), said that
"the supreme Being does not possess consciousness, but
rather it is consciousness... He is the cosmic
consciousness, in the sense of personification of the
cosmos that is self-aware." (bold ours)
This
throws out another conundrum for these Sikhs to mull over,
and one which Project Naad glaringly overlooked:
The Sikh scripture also goes
further to mention that mind or consciousness and matter are
interchangeable and that the spirit of God rests within
both.
"You Yourself are conscious
of Your Creation." SGGSJ page 1076
"Wherever I look, I see the
Lord pervading there, in the union of Shiva and Shakti, of
consciousness and matter" SGGSJ page 21
"The distinction between
Shiva and Shakti - mind and matter - has been destroyed, and
the darkness has been dispelled." SGGSJ page 163
"He Himself is mind, and He
Himself is matter" SGGSJ page 1236
If
matter cannot exist independent of a conscious (information
processing) observer, and yet Waheguru is said to be
consciousness itself and fully conscious of his creation,
how then can WPD be a viable model when CI is established
upon the notion of a wavefunction collapse?
This
quandary was also highlighted by Christian philosopher,
William Lane Craig:
In short, Hawking's
wave-functional analysis of the universe requires the Many
Worlds Interpretation of quantum physics, and in another
place Hawking admits as much (Hawking [1983], pp.192-3). But
why should we adopt this interpretation of quantum physics
with its bloated ontology and miraculous splitting of the
universe? John Barrow ([1988]. p. 156) has recently remarked
that the Many Worlds Interpretation is 'essential' to
quantum cosmology because without it one is left, on the
standard Copenhagen Interpretation, with the question. 'Who
or what collapses the wavefunction of the universe?' - some
Ultimate Observer outside of space and time? This answer
has obvious theistic implications. Indeed, although 'the
theologians have not been very eager to ascribe to God the
role of Ultimate Observer who brings the entire quantum
Universe into being', still Barrow admits that 'such a
picture is logically consistent with the mathematics. To
escape this step cosmologists have been forced to invoke
Everett's "Many Worlds" interpretation of quantum theory in
order to make any sense of quantum cosmology (Barrow [1988],
p.232). 'It is no coincidence', he says, 'that all the main
supporters of the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum
reality are involved in quantum cosmology' (Barrow [1988].
p.156). (bold ours)
And with
this final observation, we come to the final problem, and
that is: what interpretation of WPD will these Sikhs invoke
in defending their understanding of Truth and what
legitimate scientific justification will they provide
for accepting one to the exclusion of all the others (and
yes, there are many others)?
WAVE PARTICLE INTERPRETATIONS GALORE
John
Cramer said:
Despite an extensive literature
that refers to, discusses, and criticizes the Copenhagen
interpretation of quantum mechanics, nowhere does there seem
to be any concise statement that defines the full Copenhagen
interpretation.
And the reason for this, as we have already seen, most
plausibly stems from the euphemistically termed paradoxes
that are an inevitable consequence of CI. The result is, as
Marmet identified in his book Absurdities in Modern
Physics, that "many different versions of the Copenhagen
interpretation
can be identified... [all of which
lead] to the most astonishing set of contradictions that
ever existed in science".
These
differences, unsurprisingly, filter over to affect even the
results generated from Young's double-slit experiment
because the apparent behaviour of a particle is based not
only on what Michael Brooks called "updated versions" of the
experiment, but also more importantly, "how you detect
them":
Place a detector far behind the
slits, and a single electron will produce a characteristic
interference pattern - a wave has seemingly passed through
both slits at once.
Place separate detectors close
enough behind tie slits, and only one registers a click - as
if the electron were a single particle.
All that leaves a fundamental
question: how can stuff be waves and particles at the same
time? Perhaps because it is neither, says Markus Arndt of
the University of Vienna, Austria, who did the buckyball
experiments in 1999. What we call an electron or a buckyball
might in the end have no more reality than a click in a
detector, or our brain's reconstruction of photons hitting
our retina.
"Wave and particle are then just
constructs of our mind to facilitate everyday talking," he
says.
Dipankar
Home and John Gribbin concur:
This duality is one of the key
puzzles of quantum mechanics, the most successful theory we
have of the way matter and radiation behave at the atomic
and subatomic levels. How can something be both a particle
and a wave at the same time? Common sense, based on our
experiences in the macro world, says that this is
impossible. But quantum mechanics requires that in the micro
world, light, electrons and other entities can behave as
either wave or particle, depending on the experimental
arrangement. ...
By moving the detector
about, we can build up a picture of the pattern made by the
photons. Quantum mechanics predicts that this will be the
standard interference pattern, just as if each photon has
somehow gone through both holes in the intervening screen,
and interfered with itself before deciding where to go next.
Speaking
of the Bohrian thesis, John A. Wheeler, therefore,
acknowledges this ad hoc approach:
It is wrong to attribute a
tangibility to the photon in all its travel from the point
of entry' to its last instant of flight.... What answer
we get depends on the question we put. The experiment we
arrange, the registering device we choose. By his choice of
question, the observer decides about what feature of the
object he shall have the right to make a clear statement.
Only AFTER the
detection process is complete, can we infer which of the two
classical models, wave and particle, is relevant to the
experiment in question. As already mentioned, to avoid
any logical inconsistency due to mutual incompatibility
between these two classical pictures, the possibility is
precluded that a single experiment whose observed results
contain one subset of data comprehensible in terms of a
classical wavelike propagation coexists with another subset
of data interpretable by using a classical particle like
propagation all the way from a source to a detector. (bold,
capitals, underline ours)
According to Marcus Chown:
Bohr
proposed that the face you see [a
particle-like or a wave-like face]
depends on how you set up your experiment. And, he
said, you'll never see both at the same time in one
experiment. He called this the "principle of complementarity".
(bold ours)
Hence,
not only does CI stand on shaky epistemological grounds, but
the results from the double-slit experiment will always be
inconclusive, and thus uncorroborated, owing to the bizarre
notion that "observations make a difference to what we will
see". On these grounds, Albert Einstein, categorically
rejected this unscientific principle:
Einstein
took exception to this: he refused to believe that the
very fabric of the observable universe could change
depending on our choice of measuring equipment. But he
never managed to find an experimental way to refute
complementarity, and Bohr's influence ensured that it
gradually became the accepted view of how the quantum world
will manifest in our classical experiments. (bold ours)
So,
then, how much do we really know about this strange magical
world of QM, and, by extension, WPD? Relatively little,
according to the New Scientist:
If you want to know how little
we know, ask a roomful of physicists what goes on when we
measure a particle's properties. All will be able to
calculate the result of the measurement
but the explanation they give will differ wildly.
Some will tell you that new
parallel universes necessarily sprang into being. Others
will say
that, before a measurement is performed, talk of particles
having real properties is
meaningless. Still others will say that hidden properties
come into play.
Another group will tell you that
they deal with physics, not philosophy and dismiss the
question without giving you an answer. It has been thus for
more than 80 years. "These
conceptual challenges are still not understood at all," says
Markus Aspelmeyer at the
University of Vienna in Austria. "We're still right at the
beginning."
Hence,
how can anyone say for certain that WPD is corroborated when
we admittedly know so little? No wonder Home and Gribbin
conceded:
But three centuries after
Newton, we have to admit that we still cannot answer the
question 'what is light?' As yet there is still no answer to
the basic question: is light 'really' a wave, a combination
of wave and particle, or something entirely different which
cannot be comprehended except as an abstract mathematical
description? As Einstein remarked in 1951, four years before
his death, in a letter to M. Besso: 'All these fifty years
of conscious brooding have brought me no nearer to the
answer to the question 'what are light quanta?' Nowadays
every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks he knows it, but he is
mistaken.'
However,
this proverbial rabbit hole simply continues to spiral out
of control. Rosenblum and Kuttner are more than honest in
their evaluation of the many interpretations of QM:
There is no way to interpret
quantum theory without in some way addressing consciousness.
Most interpretations accept the encounter but offer a
rationale for avoiding a relationship. They usually start
with the presumption that the physical world should be dealt
with independently of the human observer.
...
Each interpretation we will
discuss is currently defended as the best way to view what
quantum mechanics is telling us. Each, however, presents a
weird view of the world. How could it be otherwise? We saw
the weirdness of quantum mechanics right up front in the
most basic experimental findings. Any interpretation
explaining those findings that goes beyond FAPP (or "Shut up
and calculate!"), must be weird.
Though the interpretations we
discuss have been developed with extensive mathematical and
logical analysis, we package each in a few nontechnical
paragraphs. Thoroughness in understanding them is not
crucial for what follows.
It's enough to get the flavor of the wide range of views
expressed and to see that quantum physics shows that
profound questions about our world are wide open. Notice
particularly how each interpretation involves consciousness
or tries to evade the encounter.
MANY WORLDS INTERPRETATION
It is surely the most bizarre
of all the ideas
To what extent are these
possible worlds fictions?
They are like literary
fiction in that they are free inventions of the human mind
John Stewart
Bell
(1928-1990)
Lev
Vaidman of Tel Aviv University, Israel, said:
[L]ike many other physicists,
touts an alternative explanation. "I don't feel that I don't
understand quantum mechanics," he says. But there is a
high price to be paid for that understanding: admitting
the existence of parallel universes.
In this picture, wave functions
do not collapse to classical certainty every time you
measure them; reality merely splits into as many parallel
worlds as there are measurement possibilities. One of
these carries you and the reality you live in away with it.
"If you don't admit many-worlds, there is no way to have a
coherent picture," says Vaidman.
Or, in the words of Feynman
again, whether it is the Copenhagen interpretation or
many-worlds you accept "the paradox is only a conflict
between reality and your feeling of what reality ought to
be". (bold, underline ours)
We shall
allow Rosenblum and Kuttner to provide a somewhat lengthy
explanation of this bizarre hypothesis, which, according to
the aforementioned poll taken at the 1997 UMBC quantum
mechanics workshop, came second behind CI:
The many-worlds interpretation
accepts literally what quantum theory says.
Where the Copenhagen interpretation has observation
collapsing the atoms wavefunction into a single box-and
Schrödingers cat into the living or dead state-the
many-worlds interpretation "just says 'no'" to collapse. If
quantum theory says the cat is simultaneously alive and
dead, so be it! In one world, Schrödingers cat is alive, and
in another it is dead. "Many worlds" may be the most bizarre
description of reality ever proposed.
Hugh Everett came up with the
idea in the 1950s to allow cosmology to treat a wavefunction
for the universe. Since there are no "observers" external to
the entire universe, the many-worlds interpretation resolves
the mystery of the conscious observer by the
sensible-seeming ploy of including consciousness as part of
the physical universe described by quantum mechanics. ...
In the many-worlds
interpretation, when you look into one of the boxes, you
entangle with the atom's superposition state. You go into a
superposition state both of having seen the atom in the box
you looked in and also of having seen that box empty. There
are now two of you, one in each of two parallel worlds.
The consciousness of each one of you is unaware of the other
you. Nothing we actually experience conflicts with this
bizarre view.
Instead of the look-in-a-box
experiment, you might have chosen to do an interference
experiment. It is your exercise of free will-your being able
to freely choose to do either experiment-that brings about
physics' encounter with consciousness. In the many-worlds
interpretation, you are part of the universal wavefunction.
Everything that can possibly happen as the wavefunction
evolves does happen. You both looked in a box and did an
interference experiment. You took both options. You
exercised no free will.
To bring more than one observer
into the picture, let's go back to Schrödinger's cat. Alice
looks in the box while Bob is far away. The world splits in
two. In one world Alice, call her Alice1, sees a live cat. In
the other, Alice2 sees a dead cat.
At this point Bob is also in both worlds, but Bob1 and Bob2
are essentially identical. Should Bob1 meet Alice1, he would
help her get milk for the hungry cat. Bob2 would help Alice2
bury the dead cat. Macroscopic objects Alice2 and Bob1 exist
in different worlds and, for all practical purposes, never
encounter each other.
After Bell's theorem and the
experiments it allowed, we know we cannot have both reality
and separability. In the many-worlds interpretation, there
is no separability. And there is no single reality, which is
essentially equivalent to no reality.
The many-worlds interpretation
stirs strong feelings. One academic author decries it as
"profligate" and refers to its proposer as a "chain-smoking,
horned-Cadillac-driving, multimillionaire weapons research
analyst." (At the time Everett proposed it, he was just a
graduate student.) On the other hand, a leader in quantum
computing writes that the many-worlds interpretation "makes
more sense in so many ways than any previous world-view, and
certainly more than the cynical pragmatism which too often
nowadays serves as a surrogate for a world-view among
scientists." (By "cynical pragmatism" he surely means the
unquestioning acceptance of Copenhagen.)
There's an unresolved problem
with many-worlds: What constitutes an observation? When does
the world split? The splitting into a finite number of
worlds is presumably just a way of speaking. Are infinitely
many worlds continuously created?
In any event, this
interpretation vastly extends what Copernicus started. Not
only are we removed from the center of the cosmos to a tiny
spot in a limitless universe, but the world we experience is
just a minute fraction of all worlds. However, "we" exist in
many of them. Though bizarre, the many-worlds interpretation
is a fascinating base for speculation.
In light
of this speculative model, one can appreciate why Maggie
McKee would say that the Quantum "theory has been criticised
for casting doubt on the notion of an objective reality - a
concept many physicists, including Albert Einstein, have
found hard to swallow":
Other interpretations of quantum
theory - of which there are at least half a dozen - deal
with the measurement problem by suggesting even more
far-fetched concepts than a universe dependent on
measurement. The popular many worlds interpretation suggests
quantum objects display several behaviours because they
inhabit an infinite number of parallel universes.
On the
other hand, Frank J. Tipler, while accepting this tenuous
interpretation, reluctantly acknowledged:
Of course, the Many Worlds
Interpretation may be wrong; most physicists think it is
(most physicists think it nonsense). But the overwhelming
majority of people working on quantum cosmology subscribe to
some version of the Many Worlds Interpretation, simply
because the mathematics forces one to accept it. The
mathematics may be a DELUSION, WITH NO REFERENCE IN PHYSICAL
REALITY. (bold, capitals, underline ours)
And
Berlinsky comically noted:
The many-worlds interpretation
of quantum mechanics is rather like the incarnation. It
appeals to those who believe in it, and it rewards belief in
proportion to which belief is sincere.
But,
would these Sikhs also be sincere in their belief? Would
they be sincere enough to explain, in scientific terms, why
they would wager on this particular interpretation and not
the others?
Furthermore, how would they reconcile between the existence
of a seemingly endless number of parallel universes and
their theology? Would they accept the idea that there also
existed an endless number of Wahegurus or 10 Gurus in each
universe?
And
after all this, there exist more interpretations, including
one carried out by Iranian-American physicist, Prof.
Shahriar Afshar, in 2001. Called the Afshar Experiment, some
have speculated that it negates the many worlds model. Prof. Afshar
believes his version of the double-slit experiment
"contradicted the standard result", which holds that "nothing
really exists until it is measured", and it, therefore, "made
no sense to talk about an objective reality independent of
observers because our observations make a difference to what
we will see".
According to my experiment, one
of our key assumptions about quantum theory is wrong.
Cramer
holds that "Afshar's
experiment also falsifies the 'many worlds interpretation'":
Afshar has
identified a place where the Copenhagen and the many worlds
interpretations are inconsistent with the formalism of
quantum mechanics itself.
More
interestingly, however, is the motivations for accepting and
rejecting any of the surplus number of interpretations.
Chown recognised that:
Afshar is
aware that each person's opinion of his experiment depends
on their own view of how quantum theory should be
interpreted. Valentini, for example, believes that there
must be something behind quantum theory, and that things do
have properties with well-defined values (New Scientist, 29
June 2002, p 30), so it is unsurprising that he finds a
refutation of Bohr's ideas so appealing. Cramer, too, has a
vested interest in Afshar's experiment. He has developed his
own interpretation of quantum theory, called the
transactional interpretation. This uses waves that travel
backwards in time to allow quantum particles to interact
and, Cramer says, it stands up to Afshar's experimental
test.
And, of
course, these Sikhs also have their vested interests in
simplistically appealing to WPD in defence of their
religious beliefs.
There is
then the Penrose interpretation that is a variation of the
wavefunction collapse, which proposes, again purely
mathematically, that the wavefunction is a physical wave
that randomly collapses without the intervention of
an observer.
Penrose suggests that the
threshold for wave function collapse is when superpositions
involve at least a Planck mass worth of matter. He then
hypothesizes that some fundamental gravitational event
occurs, causing the wavefunction to choose one branch of
reality over another. ...
Penrose believes that things
can exist in more than one place at one time. In his view, a
macroscopic system, like a human being, cannot exist in more
than one position because it has a significant gravitational
field. A microscopic system, like an electron, has an
insignificant gravitational field, and can exist in more
than one location almost indefinitely.
And the
list goes on:
Heisenberg's uncertainty paper
was aimed at providing a satisfactory interpretation of the
new quantum theory. Today there are many interpretations of
quantum theory-the Copenhagen, the many worlds (Everett
1957; De Witt and Graham 1973), the realistic statistical
(Ballentine 1970), the (nonlocal) hidden variables (Bohm
1952; Vigier 1982), the modal (van Fraassen 1981, 1991;
Kochen 1985; Dieks 1994; Bub 1992; Healey 1989), the quantum
logical (Finkelstein 1965; Putnam 1968; Friedman and Putnam
1978).
Yet there is no agreement on the basic question: what does
it mean to interpret a mathematical-physical theory?
There
is, however, a final question that arises vis-á-vis
Penrose's suggestion that macroscopic systems, "like a human
being, cannot exist in more than one position because it has
a significant gravitational field".
This
argument, which is not restricted to Penrose's
interpretation, for differentiating between the micro- and
macroscopic world vis-á-vis the effects of QM is one
that is highlighted by Marmet:
Van Zandt writes:
Thus we are led to suggest a
critical size for separating the microscopic world of
quantum mechanics and the macroscopic.
This would mean that logic is
different when applied to small things than it is when
applied to big things. Yurke and Stoler show that the
frontier between the macroscopic and the microscopic world
does not exist because any macroscopic state can evolve from
the superimposition of many microscopic states. Yurke and
Stoler conclude:
Hence there is a possibility of
bringing the strangeness of quantum mechanics into the
macroscopic world.
It is clear that the field of
application of the Berkeley-Copenhagen interpretation cannot
be limited to microscopic systems: logical reasoning cannot
depend on the size of the systems considered. (bold ours)
In light
of this differentiation, if Sikhs hold that Waheguru is, if
not a part of, then at least greater than his creation
(macroscopic world), then it would seem fallacious for them
to use CI, and the existence of contradictions in the
microscopic world, as an argument for Waheguru existing
contradictorily precisely because CI fails to affect the
macroscopic world.
As
Marmet has queried: what logical reason is there to make
what seems to be another ad hoc condition for maintaining
CI?
Smolin
gives a plausible reason why:
Quantum mechanics, at least in
the form it was first proposed, did not fit easily with
realism. This is because the theory presupposed a division
of nature into two parts. On one side of the division is the
system to be observed. We, the observers, are on the other
side. ...
One difficulty is where you
draw the dividing line, which depends on who is doing the
observing. When you measure an atom, you and your
instruments are on one side and the atom is on the other
side. ...
This whole issue goes under
the name the foundational problems of quantum mechanics.
It is the second great problem of contemporary physics.
(bold ours)
Smolin
takes the rational and smart choice of siding with the
realists - Einstein, et al.
THE COPENHAGEN CAN OF WORMS
Sikhs
who make recourse to WPD do so by asserting that existential
reality exhibits contradictions; that is to say, since LnC
is violated by the presence of corporeal things existing
contradictorily, God, who is the creator of this paradoxical
phenomenon, must also be able to exist contradictorily.
After so
much information to digest, it will help if we provide a
summary of the problems these Sikhs must tackle and solve
before desperately grasping a hold of CI for their defence:
a)
Do these Sikhs, who have
conveniently hitched a ride on Heisenberg's, Bohr's and
Pauli's CI bandwagon, agree with them and their
predecessors, Descartes, Cardinal Ballarmino, Bishop
Berkeley, Hume, et alia, that existence is nothing
more than perception (esse est percipi)?
b) If
so, then since "Naam
and God have been described synonymously", where Naam
is "permeating and informing all things, beings, space and
interspace", will they conclude that if matter does not exist until
it is observed or perceived, then Waheguru will not be
manifest until matter is perceived?
c)
According to CI, since
matter can only exist as WPD prior to the wavefunction
collapse, i.e. before being perceived by a conscious
(information processing) observer, how can WPD exist
contradictorily, and thus be used in defence of the
Nirgun-Sargun contradiction, when a cosmic consciousness
is eternally observing all of matter?
d) Out of the many
interpretations of WPD, which one will these Sikhs invoke
and what legitimate scientific justification will they
provide for accepting one to the exclusion of all the
others?
e)
If Sikhs hold that
Waheguru is, if not a part of, then at least greater than
his creation (macroscopic world), how will they be able to
use CI, and the existence of contradictions in the
microscopic world, as an argument for Waheguru existing
contradictorily when CI cannot affect the macroscopic world?
f)
If these Sikhs opt for
the many worlds interpretation, how will they reconcile
between the seemingly endless number of parallel universes
and their theology? Would they have to affirm the existence
of an equal number of Wahegurus or the 10 Gurus having
existed in each respective universe?
CONCLUSION
The
cardinal sin that these Sikhs have committed, by hastily and
ignorantly jumping on the CI bandwagon, is in failing to
recognise the inherent danger of attempting to validate
religious theology through the exclusive use of science.
Prothero
stated:
Most people think that science
is about finding the final truth about the world and are
surprised to find that science never proves something
finally true. But that's the way the scientific method
works, as philosophers of science have long ago demonstrated
about the logic of the scientific method. Science is not
about final truth or "facts"; it is only about continually
testing and trying to falsify our hypotheses, until they are
extremely well supported. At that point, the hypothesis
becomes a theory (as scientists use the term), which
is a well-corroborated set of hypotheses that explain a
larger part of the observations about the world.
Project
Naad et al. have failed to realise that scientific
hypotheses and theories could be open to being
falsified.
Carl
Popper, as cited by Marmet, said of the original CI
proponents:
The Copenhagen interpretation -
or, more precisely, the view of the status of quantum
mechanics which Bohr and Heisenberg defended - was, quite
simply, that quantum mechanics was the last, the final, the
never-to-be-surpassed revolution in physics. [...] These
were claimed to show that physics has reached the end of the
road.
Popper
concluded:
[T]his epistemological claim I regarded, and
still regard, as outrageous.
By
putting all of their eggs into such a scientific basket,
Project Naad et al. risk an all or nothing outcome,
which in relation to religious truth will always be a risky
approach.
The
ignorance of Project Naad et. al. and the hole which
they have dug themselves into becomes even more pronounced
and unscalable when one reads the historical research of
Professor Mara Beller, "a distinguished historian of the
emergence of quantum physics",
in her excellent work Quantum Dialogue: The Making of a
Revolution. She wrote:
[C]ontrary to the usual
historical account that the heated controversy between Bohr
and Heisenberg eventually ended in complete agreement due to
Pauli's skillful intervention, a genuine unanimity of
opinion between the two men never occurred. Heisenberg
stated clearly in an interview with Kuhn that he never
accepted Bohr's dualistic approach. This is the reason
the papers of Jordan and Wigner (1928) on second
quantization made him very happy-they demonstrated not
that one needs both waves and particles but that one can do
it "either way." "We have," Heisenberg emphasized, "one
mathematical scheme that allows many transformations, but...
just one mathematical scheme----The fact that we can use two
kinds of words ... is just an indication of the inadequacy
of words." And when Kuhn asked about the γ-ray thought
experiment, in which Bohr-contrary to Heisenberg's first,
mistaken account-used both particle and wave features of
radiation, Heisenberg insisted: "For explaining the γ-ray
experiment, it was useful to play between both pictures- But
it was not absolutely essential. You could actually use both
languages independently" (interview with Heisenberg, 25
February 1963, AHQP).
What is
more, Beller, who according to Smolin "has studied his
[Bohr's] work in detail", points out that in spite of the
fact that Bohr "laid the foundations of the quantum theory
of an atom and inspired and supervised the erection of the
new quantum theory", he was yet remarkably "unable, with his
heavy administrative duties and limited mathematical
knowledge, to participate actively in further developments
when the field became too mathematical (chapter 12)". She
reveals:
While Bohr presented himself as
a dilettante who had to approach "every new question from a
starting point of total ignorance," Pais graciously remarks
that "Bohr's strength lay in his formidable intuition and
insight rather than in erudition" (1991,7).
Bohr's "formidable intuition" and "subtle reasoning" were
often used by the orthodox to certify the Copenhagen
interpretation as final and to disarm those who sought an
alternative. The legend that Bohr had some sort of access to
nature's secrets, qualitatively different from that of other
mortals, directly discouraged critical dialogue. This legend
is supported by another, peculiar claim-unlike other theoretical physicists,
Bohr did not need to calculate in order to obtain "the
truth." Blaedel's is a typical statement: "Perhaps
his intuition allowed him to grasp things when others needed
calculations" (1988, 11). Bohr's personal limitation is thus
uncritically transformed into a strength.
Such an
approach would be equivalent to a person with no knowledge
of Gurmukhi, the language of Sri Guru Granth Sahib,
attempting to make an internal critique and an exegetical
study of the Sikh's holy book from the point of view of its
language! No Sikh would stand for that.
In light
of all the above, it is clearly apparent that jumping on the
CI bandwagon has, rather than support Project Naad et al.,
exposed their ignorance and further compounded their
situation vis-á-vis their defence of the falsehood
that is Nirgun-Sargun.
They
essentially have three options:
-
Provide a comprehensive
response to the questions we have raised so as to defend
their adopted position.
-
Abandon this seemingly
hopeless stance and forward something more robust.
-
Or be sincere and honest
enough to recognise the Truth of what we have been saying
all along: The Nirgun-Sargun theology-proper is
contradictory; thus, Sikhism is false, precisely because of
the fact that the a priori LnC is inviolable.
In the
end, it would have been better if Project Naad et al.
had been more critically minded and adopted the astute
position delineated by well-known writer, G.S.Sidhu, who
wisely said in his work Sikh Religion and Science:
Scientific theories keep
changing for years and years until one particular theory is
accepted in the hope that no one at any time will be able to
disprove it. For example, Newton first advanced 'The
corpuscular theory' of light, proving that light is a stream
of particles thrown out by a luminous source and always
travels in a straight line. Later, this was disproved when
reflection, refraction and diffraction of light were brought
into play. 'The corpuscular Theory' gave way to 'the wave
theory' but soon even this theory lost its appeal and "the
quantum theory" of indivisible photons was advanced to
replace it. At present, light is considered both as a wave
and a particle at the same time (Theory of Waveparticle
duality). Sometimes it behaves like a wave and at other
times as a particle and this behaviour is un-predictable.
Einstein also proved that light could bend. Future
research may even question this stand.
One of
the great Muslim scholars of the late 20th
century, Muhammad ibn Saalih al-'Uthaymeen, likewise warned
against the inherent dangers of this approach vis-á-vis
the Qur'an:
There are some risks involved in
interpreting the Qur'an according to modern theories. That
is because, if we interpret the Qur'an according to those
theories, then other theories are produced which contradict
them; this implies that the Qur'an will be incorrect in the
view of the enemies of Islam. The Muslims would say that the
error is in the understanding of the one who interpreted the
Qur'an in that manner, but the enemies of Islam are always
watching for an opportunity to attack Islam. Hence, we must
exercise the utmost caution against rushing into
interpreting the Qur'an according to these scientific
matters. We must leave these alone and let matters take
their course. If it is proven that some of these theories
are correct, we do not need to say that the Qur'an has
already proven it, the Qur'an was revealed for the purpose
of worship and moral, and for people to ponder its meanings.
Allaah says:
"(This is) a Book (the
Qur'an) which We have sent down to you, full of blessings,
that they may ponder over its Verses, and that men of
understanding may remember." (Qur'an Surah Saad
38:29)
It was not revealed concerning
these matters which are subject to experimentation and which
people study as part of their scientific quest. ...
But for us to distort the
meaning of the Qur'an and to try to make it fit this event,
this is not correct and is not permitted.
Subhanakallaahuma wa bi hamdika, ash-Shahaadu al-Laa ilaaha
illa Ant, astaghfiruka wa atoobu ilayka.
BACK TO TOP
|