A Quantum Mechanical Argument

DEFENSE

On the contrary, modern physics supports the existence of God.

Quantum mechanics is a branch of physics that studies very small phenomena like the behavior of subatomic particles. According to some interpretations of quantum mechanics, an argument supporting God’s existence may be constructed as follows:

1. The universe contains phenomena that appear to require a conscious observer to achieve a definite state.
2. These phenomena achieve definite states.
3. Therefore, there are conscious observers.
4. There cannot be an infinite regress of physical observers.
5. Therefore, there was a first physical observer.
6. The first physical observer cannot have actualized its own existence.
7. Therefore, a non-physical observer actualized it.
8. That non-physical observer is God.
9. Therefore, God exists.

The premises of this argument are lines 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8. The conclusions (lines 3, 5, 7, and 9) follow from them.

Line 1 is a finding of quantum mechanics. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Eugene Wigner wrote: “It was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way without reference to consciousness” (Symmetries and Reflections, 172). A famous non-technical illustration is Schrödinger’s cat (a thought experiment in which a cat is not definitely alive or dead until it is observed).

Line 2 is established by experiment. Line 4 is supported by the fact that the known history of the universe would not allow life, and thus conscious physical observers, to exist before a certain point.

Line 6 is based on the fact that the first conscious physical observer would need to be in a definite state—actually alive—in order to observe things in the world. It is also based on the metaphysical principle that nothing that could be otherwise (such as a physical observer who did not previously exist) is its own cause. This is also verified by experience. We do not see things causing themselves in the world.

Line 8 is based on the conception of God as the Supreme Being who is ultimately responsible for life. This fits with the idea of a non-physical ob- server being responsible for the first physical observer being actually alive.