The Strangely Relational World of Quantum Mechanics
Catherine Crouch
January 1, 2000
In the popular imagination, Albert Einstein represents the ultimate physics genius—when people want to personify the stunning role that physics has played in the development of the modern world, they turn to the bushy-haired German Jew whom Time named "Man of the Century."
But while Einstein is rightly celebrated for his association with relativity, one of the two major innovations in twentieth-century physics, it's less well known that he vehemently opposed the other theory that rocked the twentieth-century scientific world—quantum mechanics. The brainchild of several of Einstein's contemporaries, quantum mechanics makes mind-bending predictions such as simultaneous causes and effects, particles that seem to be in more than one place at the same time, and an unsettling randomness at the heart of the universe.
Albert Einstein was convinced it couldn't be the whole story, largely for the same kinds of philosophical and aesthetic reasons that caused an earlier world to reject Copernicus's idea that the earth was not the center of the universe. [1] The story of why Einstein, along with other less well-known physicists, violently opposed certain aspects of quantum theory—and why they were probably wrong—has many parallels for Christians who want to make judgments about, or draw theological conclusions from, the ever-changing world of basic science.
And surprisingly, in recent years the theory that reportedly caused Einstein to protest, "God does not play dice [with the universe]," not only has turned out to be right, but may be remarkably congruent with Christian convictions. Call it the quantum leap of faith.
Outside of the physics world, the theory of relativity has much more name recognition than quantum mechanics. Not that either ...
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