Quantum Gods: Creation, Chaos, and the Search for Cosmic Consciousness by Victor J. Stenger (PDF)

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Does quantum mechanics show a connection between the human mind and the cosmos? Are our brains tuned into a “cosmic consciousness” that pervades the universe enabling us to make our own reality? Do quantum mechanics and chaos theory provide a place for God to act in the world without violating natural laws?Many popular books make such claims and argue that key developments in twentieth-century physics, such as the uncertainty principle and the butterfly effect, support the notion that God or a universal mind acts upon material reality.Physicist Victor J. Stenger examines these contentions in this carefully reasoned and incisive analysis of popular theories that seek to link spirituality to physics. Throughout the book Stenger alternates his discussions of popular spirituality with a survey of what the findings of twentieth-century physics actually mean. Thus he offers the reader a useful synopsis of contemporary religious ideas as well as basic but sophisticated physics presented in layperson’s terms (without equations).Of particular interest in this book is Stenger’s discussion of a new kind of deism, which proposes a God who creates a universe with many possible pathways determined by chance, but otherwise does not interfere with the physical world or the lives of humans. Although it is possible, says Stenger, to conceive of such a God who “plays dice with the universe” and leaves no trace of his role as prime mover, such a God is a far cry from traditional religious ideas of God and, in effect, may as well not exist.Like his bestselling book, God, The Failed Hypothesis, this new work presents a rigorously argued challenge to many popular notions of God and spirituality.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Lots of biologists defend evolution against creationism. Unfortunately, few scientists in the physics community speak up about the pseudoscience in their own field. The public understanding of modern physics is seriously out of whack, thanks largely to pop junk like The Secret and What the BLEEP Do We Know? These books and movies promote a bogus version of quantum mechanics–the belief that ‘you create your own reality’ by controlling the laws of physics with your mind. They offer instant wealth and happiness, but they deliver medieval superstition. The sad part is that so many scientists are willing to let the public get their knowledge of physics from celebrity quacks.That’s why we re so lucky to have Victor Stenger. He knows quantum theory as well as anybody and, unlike most of his colleagues, he’s willing to step outside the ivory tower and face those who misuse science. In Quantum Gods, Stenger confronts mainstream theologians and New Age gurus–anyone who tries to link physics to mysticism. He takes their theories seriously enough to examine them in detail and he finds that, so far, none of them live up to the standards of scientific truth. As we accompany him on his investigation, he guides us through the most important concepts in modern physics from relativity to string theory. The world has needed a book like this for a long time. If you care about scientific literacy, Quantum Gods is not optional.” –Geoff Gilpin, author of The Maharishi Effect: A Personal Journey Through the Movement That Transformed American Spirituality About the Author Victor J. Stenger (1935 – 2014) was an adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado and emeritus professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Hawaii. He was the author of the New York Times bestseller God: The Failed Hypothesis, God and the Atom, God and the Folly of Faith, The Comprehensible Cosmos, and many other books.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Of the spate of books published in recent years debunking the notion of a personal god (and some others), none was better than Victor J. Stenger’s God: The Failed Hypothesis (2007), which I highly recommend. Here Professor Stenger, who is a philosopher and a physicist, goes after the idea that quantum indeterminacy is somehow supportive of the notion that we have “cosmic consciousness” in our finite little brains.By the by, Stenger also wishes to discredit the idea that there can be a God, such as the “omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent Judeo-Christian-Islamic God who is regularly fooling around with the laws of nature without our knowing it. “But he could surreptitiously intervene to prevent many diseases and catastrophes, so the fact that he does not also counts against his existence.” Stenger does allow that the deist God of the Enlightenment is marginally possible but that “science has no reason to introduce into its explanatory systems” such a God. (pp. 261-262)Okay the mainstream notion of God is dead and buried. Still alive and well somewhere outside of time and space is the new deist God that set things in motion and then retired to examine his navel. Well, even the God of Jehovah presumably didn’t have a navel. Anyway, this deist God included in the structure of the universe “a high element of chance.” Stenger then follows Hume in concluding that events are either caused or are random, which effectively destroys the quaint notion of free will. However, in keeping with ideas from string theory and other models from contemporary physics, Stenger posits that “the universe…had a spontaneous, uncaused, natural origin from a state of chaos equivalent to ‘nothing’ [which] agrees with all the data.” He even presumes to answer the monumental query of philosophers, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” His answer: “‘something’ is more natural than ‘nothing’.” (pp. 262-263)More interesting than these assertions to me is Stenger’s curiously postmodern statement that “The laws of physics were not handed down from above but are human inventions. They take the form they do in order to guarantee that they describe observations invariant to any particular point of view.” (p. 262) His explanation however, coming as it does from the world of particle physics, was not intelligible to this uninitiated reader. I wish it were.You may notice that I am quoting so far entirely from near the end of the book. This is because most of the book is a kind of Particle Physics 101 laying the groundwork for Stenger’s conclusions as mentioned above. Consequently I was not as enamored of this book as I was of his previous. My guess is that he felt he needed to follow up on the success of “God: The Failed Hypothesis” and didn’t have all that much new to say. What he does say is profound (as usual in my not so humble opinion) but hardly needs an entire book to say it. I think the reader who has already read a number of books on particle physics, relativity and string theory might get the meat of this book by reading Michael Shermer’s excellent Foreword which he entitles “Quantum Flapdoodle and other Flummery” (which says it all, really) and Stenger’s Preface, and a few selected chapters beginning with Chapter 1, and perhaps skipping to Chapter 14.Incidentally, one of Stenger’s contentions in Chapter 1 “Belief and Nonbelief in America” is that a much larger percentage of Americans believe in a deist sort of God than in the literal God of Abraham. I hope he is right because the deist God kills no first born sons nor does he send non-believers to eternal hell and damnation.Let me close with this quote from page 239 which I think sums up Stenger’s position very well: “In this and in previous books I have tried to show that both observational data and mathematical theory demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that no spirit world exists. The universe is truly comprehensible as a purely material system.”(Note: Thirteen of my books are now available at Amazon including “The World Is Not as We Think It Is.”)

⭐Victor John Stenger (born 1935) is an American particle physicist, philosopher, author, and religious skeptic; he is also a regular featured science columnist for the Huffington Post. He has written many other books, such as

⭐,

⭐,

⭐,

⭐,

⭐,

⭐, etc.He wrote in the Preface to this 2009 book, “In

⭐I tried to be very clear that I was not talking about every conceivable god, just the God with a capital ‘G.’ This is a God who not only created the universe but continues to play a central role in its operation and, most important, in the lives of humans for whom he has reserved a special place in the scheme of things… I am not finished. Other conceivable gods can be imagined whose attributes also lend their actions to be examined under the light of reason and science… Many people in nations less religious than America believe there must be more to the universe than matter. I will focus on two concepts of realities thought to lie ought there beyond the material world of science that at the same time are based ostensibly on scientific principles—specifically quantum mechanics… The first concept, which I term ‘quantum spirituality,’ asserts that quantum mechanics has provided us with a connection between the human mind and the cosmos. The second concept, which I term ‘quantum theology,’ argues that quantum mechanics and chaos theory provide a place for God to act in the world without violating his own natural laws.” (Pg. 13-14) He continues, “I will [also] consider … a God who created the universe but does not act in any way that is inconsistent with the laws of nature. This God would be very difficult to detect by the means I applied in ‘God: The Failed Hypothesis.’ Such a God would not perform miracles… Such a God would have left no evidence behind at the creation, so we would expect creation to appear perfectly natural to physicists and cosmologists… Such a God would not answer prayers… Such a God would not reveal facts to humans that they cannot have obtained by sensory means… A moral God who deliberately hides himself, exacting punishment on those who do not believe for good reasons… However, we can imagine a God who deliberately hides from us but issues no punishment… and no reward… Such a God would not need his creations to grovel before him.” (Pg. 15-16)He acknowledges, “The story of Galileo’s trial by the Inquisition… is also part myth and part fact. Historians now largely agree that Galileo was not tried for teaching heliocentrism, but for disobeying a Church order… in 1616 he was instructed not to discuss heliocentrism as a fact until he had definitive physical proof. This he claimed to have in 1632 with the publication of

⭐. In fact the proof presented there, which was based on the assumption that Earth’s motion causes the tides, was wrong. The argument… incorrectly predicted only one high tide a day. Galileo dismissed as ‘useless fiction’ the proposal by Kepler that the moon caused the tides, which turned out to be correct… In 1633 Galileo was tried for disobeying the order of the Church. He agreed to a plea bargain in which he would admit that he had gone too far but for still unknown reasons the Inquisition overruled the agreement and handed down a harsh sentence in which Galileo was forced to recant.” (Pg. 89-90)He asserts, “Since we still do not understand how life originally came about on Earth, anyone is free to propose that God initiated the process. However, saying that ‘God did it’ is no more an explanation than ‘Nature did it.’ We need to know how it was done. Furthermore, just because science cannot currently explain the origin of life, we have no reason to expect it never will. Seeking God in the gaps of scientific knowledge has never proven to be a fruitful enterprise. Science has always had a way of filling its own gaps.” (Pg. 103)He also notes, “However, Darwinism is perfectly compatible with the deist god of the Enlightenment. Evolution can be seen as the way the deity decided to create life in the universe, the whole development of life including humanity being written into the laws of nature at the creation. The problem is, this requires an acceptance of the clockwork universe and leaves no room for human free will… However… the clockwork universe has been refuted by quantum physics, thereby pulling the rug out from Enlightenment deism.” (Pg. 104)He says of Fritjof Capra’s

⭐, “To Capra, bootstrap theory was a beautiful example of the connectedness that he found in Eastern philosophy… Capra joined [Geoffrey] Chew’s group in 1975, just having written his best seller, and… just as the bootstrap began to unravel.” (Pg. 145) Later, he adds, “Capra was putting his money on bootstrap theory, which did away with the notion of elementary particles. However, even by the time of the publication of Tao, elementary particles were back in fashion and had become part of the standard model… Capra’s contention that physics implies a universe as one interconnected whole is edifying and poetic. Certainly, parts of the universe are connected in various ways. But Capra insists that we cannot understand our world unless we treat it as one inseparable whole.” (Pg. 171)He argues, “The main message about complexity… for the purposes of this book is the fact that complexity can arise naturally from simplicity… The development of complex systems from simpler systems has been demonstrated in virtually every field of science and, indeed, everyday life. Snowflakes develop spontaneously from water vapor. Amino acids and other molecules of life are easily assembled from basic chemical elements… Once life exists, organisms develop from the splitting or merging of cells.” (Pg. 151) He continues, “Emergence is just a name for the evolution of complexity out of simplicity, no doubt a notable phenomenon and little doubt that it arises purely from particles of matter.” (Pg. 161)He explains, “The difference I have with creationists is they think the Bible is correct and science is wrong, while I think that science is correct and the Bible is wrong. As we shall see, however, evolution does not conflict with the new deism… while we do not know exactly the mechanism by which our universe appeared 13.7 billion years ago, we can present any number of plausible scenarios based on well-established physics and cosmology… Similarly, we cannot explain exactly how life originated, but many proposed scenarios consistent with well-established chemistry and biology can be found in reputable scientific journals. Thus no rational basis exists for claiming that a supernatural origin for life or the universe must have occurred… no case can be made that we need something more than matter to understand the universe.” (Pg. 211-212)He asks, “If life is converging inevitably toward high intelligence, how is it that of the millions of species on Earth we have only one, Home sapiens, with that ability? Look how far ahead we are than other animals in intelligence. Indeed, since most life forms are microbial, intelligence would not seem to be very high at all on the universe’s agenda.” (Pg. 231)He states, “The new deist god creates the universe but includes in it a huge element of chance. Of course apologists will work very hard to reconcile this new god with Christianity, but… It is hard to see how they will make this god into one who still should be worshipped and prayed to… I have bad news for them. Modern physics and cosmology imply that all the creator did when he made the universe, if he existed at all, was make a single toss of the dice.” (Pg. 235-236) Later, he adds, “The Enlightenment deist god, who created a perfectly predetermined universe, can almost but not quite be ruled out… And science has no reason to introduce into its explanatory systems an Enlightenment deist god.” (Pg. 261) Still later, he observes, “Deism and Christianity have always been totally incompatible—as incompatible as science and Christianity.” (Pg. 243)He summarizes, “My main arguments against the existence of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God are scientific ones. A God who plays such an important role in the universe as the God of the great monotheisms should leave observable, physical evidence for his existence… he cannot deliberately hide from us and remain a moral god… Absence of evidence can be evidence of absence beyond a reasonable doubt when the evidence should be there and is not found… God’s actions in the world, including the creation itself, should be detectable. Of course, an all-powerful God is free to do whatever he wants, but it is inconsistent with his omnipotence for God to violate presumably perfect laws that he instituted in the first place. Furthermore, such a God would be much easier to detect by our direct observation of natural law violations. We see no such violations… We can safely conclude that an omnipotent God who takes direct divine action in the world without violating natural laws can be ruled out.” (Pg. 241)He concludes, “So we appear to have good evidence for a universe that came about spontaneously, without cause, from nothing. The laws of physics also came from nothing. The structure of the universe emerged from nothing. Indeed, we can view that structure, including Earth and humanity, as forms of frozen nothing.” (Pg. 262-263)This book is a substantial addition to Stenger’s earlier arguments; this book focuses more on the “religious/philosophical” issues than the “scientific” issues, but it will be of great interest to those who like his other books (although it should be supplemented with at least one or two of his more scientifically-focused books).

⭐Two of the most widely misunderstood and abused words in the English language are “quantum” and “God”. Bringing them together without being sucked into a black hole of hokum is a rare feat, and one carried off in this book by Victor Stenger, who adds to his long list of books that have shed considerable light on some very entangled subjects. Having spent a lifetime in particle physics research, Stenger is well qualified to respond to “quantum spiritualists” and those theologians who unwisely step into his domain. As for the supernatural, Stenger points to the widely held belief that God not only exists but acts in the world, and so it is entirely reasonable for a scientist like him to expect to be able to detect those actions. Have such actions been detected? Divine intervention “would seem to be ruled out by the data”: the world is governed not by gods but by natural, material processes.This conclusion, of course, does not satisfy most people, who “believe there is more to existence” and who just don’t like the idea of being made of the same kind of stuff as slugs and sand and stars. I’m with Stenger on this when he briefly lets his exasperation show: “for the life of me I don’t see what they have against particles.” Why feel diminished as a human being for having emerged from the world of wonder that is quarks and electrons and photons? Whatever our feelings, the fact is that “from cosmology to neuroscience, no case can be made that we need something more than matter to understand the universe.”That doesn’t stop people like Deepak Chopra and the makers of the documentary “What the Bleep Do We Know!?” and respected scientists like Roger Penrose from invoking quantum physics to bolster notions such as “cosmic consciousness”. Stenger examines their claims over several chapters and patiently unpicks their often rather intellectually threadbare quilts. It takes a while to reach the conclusion that the “brain is simply too large and too hot to be a quantum device.” Along the way Stenger provides some historical context, not just the scientific giants of the twentieth century who developed quantum mechanics, but figures like Rousseau, who “disputed what has become the primary tenet of science since Galileo, that objective observation is the only means by which we can obtain reliable information about the world.” The “common belief in an immaterial mind capable of reaching beyond the world of our senses” has been around for a long time and isn’t about to go away just because physicists have measured the Lamb shift to more decimal places than you’ve had hot dinners.Emergence, apparently, “has become a hot topic in philosophy and theology.” For anyone clutching at this particular straw, hoping to find evidence of immateriality or top-down causality, Stenger has bad news: “emergence is both reductive and materialist” and “the attempt to develop a holistic theory of particle physics has failed, while the reductionist model of elementary constituents of matter has enjoyed continued success.” Authors like Fritjof Capra enjoyed a window of opportunity to write books comparing modern physics and ancient wisdom, but a less advertised parallel is that while “Capra was trying to make physics look like Eastern mysticism, Maharishi was trying to make Eastern mysticism look like physics.” The Maharishi’s own brand of transcendental meditation “differs from Zen and other meditation forms in not concentrating so much on the mantra but making as little conscious effort as possible.” Quite.Ancient wisdom, of course, is more revered for its age than its wisdom. No matter how generous the reading, the “stories in sacred books do not bear even the most superficial resemblance to modern physics and cosmology.” The Genesis story of creation, for example, “is in deep conflict” with big bang cosmology: far from needing God to run the universe, “we would need God to maintain a state of nothingness”.While there are virtually no equations, there are challenging concepts in every chapter. For example, “the universe has no fundamental direction of time” – so the whole idea of creation has to be rethought. Complexity “can arise naturally from simplicity”. There is no wave-particle duality. Photons are just particles. Noether’s theorem shows how the conservation laws of energy and momentum all “follow from point-of-view invariance”. And, if you’ve ever wondered why we don’t see round corners, it’s because of decoherence, which “explains why objects on the macroscale do not normally exhibit interference and diffraction”. There are occasional lapses: saying we have “what masquerades as free will, but it is really just random” may not satisfy those who’ve read, for example, Dennett on free will.As with all of Stenger’s books, it’s not just about the science. He argues that many people actually believe in a deist rather than a Christian god, and the difference matters, not just theologically but politically. He also pleads with his “scientist colleagues to take a more active role in what fundamentally continues the ancient battle between science and superstition.” Since reason can always be trumped by faith (in the eyes of a believer), this will require steely determination and the character to withstand unfair attacks by the religious. For those of us who aren’t particle physicists, it may be tricky – when someone insists the Maharisha was onto something – to remember to ask why “the demise of minimal SU(5) did not cause GUTs to disappear from TM literature.” I didn’t enjoy “Quantum Gods” quite as much as

⭐God, the Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist

⭐and

⭐Has Science Found God?: The Latest Results in the Search for Purpose in the Universe

⭐(both highly recommended), but it is still very much worth reading.

⭐This book is a follow-up to the author’s God: The failed Hypothesesis, where he (to my mind) convincingly disposes of the notion of a Christian God. This book tackles the subject of the new-age gods. It is certainly not as user-friendly as its predecessor (which is perhaps why it has yet to make it to a paperback edition). In truth for someone like myself (and I have to confess that not withstanding a public school education, my teachers and parents had seen fit that I would study no physics after the age of fourteen) it is not so much hard-going as difficult to know whether everything he says is true – or for that matter false. Doubtless Professor Stenger has made the physics as straight-forward as it fact can be. The book doubles as a short introduction to modern physics especially of the quantum variety.

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