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The Physics of Theism
The Physics of Theism
God, Physics, and the Philosophy
           of Science
        Jeffrey Koperski
This edition first published 2015
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Koperski, Jeffrey.
   The physics of theism : god, physics, and the philosophy of science / Jeffrey Koperski.
  pages cm
   Includes bibliographical references and index.
   ISBN 978-1-118-93281-0 (cloth) – ISBN 978-1-118-93280-3 (pbk.)
1. Physics–Religious aspects. 2. Theism. 3. Religion and science.
4. Science–Philosophy. I. Title.
   BL265.P4K67 2015
   211′.3–dc23
                                                         2014025620
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover image: © Brett Charlton / iStockphoto
Set in 10.5/13pt Minion by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India
1   2015
To my family, Marie, Andrew, Marcus, and Christopher
               without whom this book
  would have been completed twelve months sooner.
Introduction1
    I.1 Maps                                1
    I.2 Cosmology: Singularity and Creation 2
    I.3 Overview                            5
1   Science and Religion: Some Preliminaries             11
    1.1 Conventional Wisdom                              11
    1.2 History                                          12
    1.3 The Structure of Science                         25
    1.4 The Relation between Science and Religion        32
2   Fine-Tuning and Cosmology                            58
    2.1 What Is Fine-Tuning?                             58
    2.2 Examples                                         59
    2.3 No Explanation Needed                            66
    2.4 Naturalistic Explanations                        82
3   Relativity, Time, and Free Will                      102
    3.1 Physics and Freedom                              102
    3.2 STR and the Nature of Time                       104
    3.3 Contra the Block Universe                        117
    3.4 Two Suggestions from the Philosophy of Science   134
4   Divine Action and the Laws of Nature                 146
    4.1 Divine Intervention(?)                           146
    4.2 The Problems with Intervention                   148
    4.3 The Nature of the Laws of Nature                 156
    4.4 Noninterventionist Divine Action                 159
    4.5 QD: Pro and Con                                  165
    4.6 Noninterventionism: Goring the Sacred Cow        177
    4.7 Intervention and Determinism                     182
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viii                               Contents
Index275
                             Introduction
I.1 Maps
History remembers the names of famous explorers, and it’s easy to see why.
Discovery is full of intrigue. It sparks the imagination. Once the explorers
have returned home, another group comes along: the cartographers. They
are somewhat less well known, and that also makes sense. The blazing of
the trail is a good story; map making … not so much. Still, if new territory
is to be accessible, what most of us need is a map of the terrain.
   Something analogous is true in every academic discipline. There are those
on the cutting edge, breaking new ground and offering fresh insights. Then,
there are those who sort it all out, mapping out the camps and explaining
how things stand. Although I’ve done a bit of exploring, by nature I am a
cartographer. Explorers’ notes are often messy and hard to understand. This
book is a map of an unfamiliar terrain and a guide through it. The territory
of interest is found along the border of science and religion.
   Theologians and philosophers of religion often look to science, especially
physics, for ideas. They want to know how the world was created, how God
might interact with it, and whether there are any fingerprints of divine action.
In the chapters that follow, we will consider how physics is relevant to matters
of religion, and more surprisingly perhaps, how the influence sometimes goes
the other way. If you want to know what quantum mechanics, relativity, and
chaos theory have to do with religious belief, this is a good place to start.
   Very well, but why then is a philosopher writing this book? If we’re
talking about science and what it means, we usually hear from a physicist.
You never see a philosopher on CNN addressing these questions. You never
see a philosopher on CNN addressing any questions.
   While that’s true, people outside of the ivory tower often don’t understand
the hyperspecialization of academia these days. Few scholars are able to keep
up with trends even in their own discipline. In addition, one’s training and
expertise are suited to specific needs, especially in science. Experimentalists
are experts in the collection and analysis of data. Theoreticians are in the
best position to develop and judge between competing theories. This divi-
sion of labor means that no one is simply an expert on “physics,” let alone the
whole of science. Still, it’s hard not to cross disciplinary borders on occasion.
Scientists sometimes offer opinions on matters of religion, although only
their negative remarks generally make the news. And insofar as the truth
about physical reality is relevant, scholars in religion and the humanities
want to be informed. This explains the proliferation of conferences, work-
shops, and centers devoted to the study of science and religion.
   While these conferees might not realize it, the terrain on which this
discussion takes place is most often the philosophy of science. Within the
humanities, philosophers of science generally pay the closest attention to
the goings-on in science as well as its history. They make generalizations
about the nature of scientific inferences, the assumptions and implications
of science, and how each of these has changed over time. In short, philoso-
phers of science specialize in just the sort of questions that tend to emerge
in the science-and-religion literature. Hence, we tend to make good guides
for this terrain (or at least that’s what I’ve talked my publisher into believing).
This book aims at mediating a wide range of debates in which science, espe-
cially physics, plays a significant role in matters of religion.
   The reader should know that while I try to give an accurate description
of the issues to be discussed, this is not a “neutral” textbook that one might
use in introductory courses. Like any philosopher, I have views on these
matters, and there are judgment calls to make at every turn. Not everyone
will agree with my analysis (but they should). To see what this approach
looks like, let’s briefly consider the recent history of cosmology.
Modern cosmology has never just been about science. Although Einstein’s
field equations for general relativity showed that the universe would expand
or contract over time, that idea did not square with his philosophical views.
                                  Introduction                                     3
Einstein believed instead that the whole of space was “static.” To bring the
physics in line with what his philosophy said it should be, Einstein added
the infamous cosmological constant to his equations, a move he would
deeply regret.
   The first widely accepted solutions of Einstein’s field equations predicted
that our universe has not always existed. (More precisely, the Friedmann–
Lemaître–Robertson–Walker (FLRW) models have a finite time metric.)1
Many theists, including Pope Pius XII, were delighted by what came to be
known as the Big Bang since it seemed to confirm something like creation
ex nihilo. As astronomer Robert Jastrow put it,
  For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story
  ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about
  to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is
  greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.
  (1992, 107)
Although Jastrow was an agnostic, this quote has been used by theists ever
since its publication.
   As one might imagine, atheists reacted differently.2 Many, like physicist
William Bonnor, took the Big Bang as a religious doctrine masquerading as
science:
  The underlying motive [for Big Bang cosmology] is, of course, to bring in
  God as creator. It seems like the opportunity Christian theology has been
  waiting for ever since science began to depose religion from the minds of
  rational men in the 17th century. (Kragh 2004, 241–242)
Astronomer Fred Hoyle actually coined the term “Big Bang” as a pejorative,
declaring it “a form of religious fundamentalism” (Kragh 2004, 235). All
this motivated a search for solutions that did not entail a finite beginning.
The most successful of these was the steady-state model in which the uni-
verse was infinitely old and matter continually created throughout space,
not just once at the Big Bang. The steady-state model was seen by many on
both sides as being antitheistic or at least undercutting the need for a cre-
ator, as Carl Sagan argued: “This is one conceivable finding of science that
could disprove a Creator—because an infinitely old universe would never
have been created” (Halvorson and Kragh 2011, sec. 3). The debate between
the two rival views ranged from whether one was more scientific than the
other to questioning the scientific status of cosmology itself.3
4                                   Introduction
    Even the last remaining trump card of the theologian, “Why is there
    something rather than nothing?,” shrivels up before your eyes as you read
    these pages. If On the Origin of Species was biology’s deadliest blow to super-
    naturalism, we may come to see A Universe From Nothing as the equivalent
    from cosmology. The title means exactly what it says. And what it says is
    devastating. (Krauss 2012a, 191)
2012b). (As fellow cosmologist Sean Carroll notes, Krauss doesn’t have to
care, “but if the subtitle of your book is ‘Why There Is Something Rather
Than Nothing,’ you pretty much forfeit the right to claim you don’t …”
(Carroll 2012).)
   For our purposes, all this serves as a nice illustration of the interplay
between science, philosophy, and religious belief. What Krauss has to say
is interesting and important. His arguments should be carefully consid-
ered by theologians and philosophers. Krauss himself has been pushed to
be more accurate and precise about his claims. The back and forth between
scholars of different disciplines pares away overstatements from real
advances in scientific knowledge. It also helps make clear what the impli-
cations of physics are for matters of philosophy and religion. It is this sort
of interdisciplinary crossover that we will have an eye on throughout the
rest of this book.
I.3 Overview
We are not finished with cosmology; but for now, let’s briefly consider what
is to come.
almost all of our beliefs about time are based on an illusion. The future—
or at least what we already think of as the future—exists, and nothing
that happens in the present can change it. (Why didn’t anyone mention
that in my freshman physics class?) In Chapter 3, we will consider some
ways of reestablishing a flow of time within the “block universe” of rel-
ativity, the unique reality of the present, and where to find room for free
choice.
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