Quantum Leap uses key events in the life of Polkinghorne to introduce the central ideas that make science and religion such a fascinating field of investigation. Sir John Polkinghorne is a British particle physicist who, after 25 years of research and discovery in academia, resigned his post to become an Anglican priest and theologian. He was a professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge University, and was elected to the Royal Society in 1974. As a physicist he participated in the research that led to the discovery of the quark, the smallest known particle. This cheerful biography-cum-appraisal of his life and work uses Polkinghorne's story to approach some of the most important questions: a scientist's view of God; why we pray, and what we expect; does the universe have a point?; moral and scientific laws; what happens next?
How does quantum physics relate to the Bible? Can words move mountains? How did Jesus supersede the laws of physics? There are amazing similarities between the teachings of Jesus and the discoveries of the new physics, quantum theory. The concept of speaking to mountains and trees may not be religious metaphor, but laws of a new physics that have not been fully understood. Jesus taught that our words are powerful enough to move physical matter. Quantum physics has discovered that subatomic particles respond to the observer. In this book, you will discover that your words and your faith (beliefs) are unseen forces that affect everything in your world. You are the one giving substance to your world through words!
QUANTUM RELIGION, Enlarging from the Inside-Out These times are scary but also hope-filled scary because of degraded nature, but hope-filled because global religion is coming to new self-understanding. In a word, religion means relationship; good news is experienced in relationships. Life itself is good news because it has built-in intelligence that can avoid hurtful relationships and can choose sustainable relationships instead. Global relationship (religion) is waking up to the tragic misdirection of imperial, top-down control, in contrast to the ordered direction of organic life growing and enlarging from within. Growing from the inside out happens incrementally with experience, a little bit at a time. But the good news is that consciousness of experience (the ground of faith) is cumulative by trial and error, and reveals what is sustainable and what is not. Organic relationships originated minutely, but have grown to the point of being self-reflective in the human person. Essential to growth is change, as experience has shown. But, political forces of self-interest compete to create self-serving webs of relationships that intend to dominate and control. The monopoly control of Christian churches has been centered in Rome under pope kings. The violence of imperial overreach came to a head in medieval times; and the weight of oppression, so heavy at that time, drove people to rebel and demand change. Denominational Christianity today is made up of reform factions of original Roman Catholicism. In the present time, the coming apart of imperial Roman Catholicism is happening with the resignation of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI and with the election of Pope Francis I. For the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, it is opening up to the organic nature of life, including humankind, and the incremental nature of relationships, growing bit-by-bit from within, not from the top down. Cosmic nature informs all relationships with the possibility and necessity of continuity and holding together from within. The mentality of dominion culture underlies the waste of nature by colonial overreach and corporate capitalism. The consciousness of love grounds in the universal understandings of common wellbeing, and expands in the incremental growth of complexity-consciousness. The affirming harmony of intentional relationships is the good news of personal/ social wellbeing and the condition of an uplifting and sustainable future. The personal search for self-identity takes on new meaning in light of understanding religion as common organic relatedness in Cosmic Earth evolution. The possibility of religions coming together on grounds of universal understandings is real given the wide open potentials of communication and the continuity of diverse life inside the webs of organic evolution. Beyond the benefits of the personal uplift of consciousness, QUANTUM RELIGION provides cohesive insights for bringing communities to a higher sense of religion and civility, and the necessary sensitivity that secures natural ecologies for future wellbeing. QUANTUM RELIGION is the good news of rising consciousness.
"From the electron microscope to the Hubble space telescope, modern technological advances have broadened our horizons - macroscopic and microscopic - beyond anything imaginable prior to the 1930s. One of the most important discoveries of the past few decades is the fact that everything, beginning with subatomic particles and including star systems and conscious human life, emerges from an underlying, transcendent Reality that brings all things from nonexistence into being through a continuous act of creation. All things are essentially interconnected in an entangled unity, which obliges us to view the world as a great hologram in which every aspect contains information of the Whole. This book raises the question of the relationship between that Reality and the Christian understanding of God. Written in the form of a simple novel, it begins by offering an overview, in lay terms, of quantum theory as it has developed since the early twentieth century. Gradually it lays the groundwork for an exploration of the relationship between quantum mechanics and certain key aspects of traditional Christian teaching. Its aim is to make clear that our usual conception of God and the world, in the words of the English theologian J.B. Phillips, is far 'too small.' With the help of insights drawn from quantum theory, we can now see that Creation is more intricate, more interconnected and more beautiful than our forebears could ever have imagined."--Publisher.
Stenger alternates his discussions of popular spirituality with a survey of what the findings of 20th-century physics actually mean in laypersons terms--without equations.
Setting aside the pervasive material bias of science and lifting the obscuring fog of religious sectarianism reveals a surprisingly clear unity of science and religion. The explanations of transcendent phenomena given by saints, sages, and near-death experiencers—miracles, immortality, heaven, God, and transcendent awareness—are fully congruent with scientific discoveries in the fields of relativity, quantum physics, medicine, M-theory, neuroscience, and quantum biology. The Physics of God describes the intersections of science and religion with colorful, easy-to-understand metaphors, making abstruse subjects within both science and religion easily accessible to the layman—no math, no dogma. This intriguing book: Pulls back the curtain on the light-show illusion we call matter. Connects string theory’s hidden brane worlds to religion’s transcendent heavens. Reveals the scientific secret of life and immortality: quantum biology’s startling discovery that the human body is continuously entangled. Demonstrates the miracle-making power of our minds to effect instantaneous physiological changes. Explains how the intelligent observer effect confirms our high spiritual potential. Compelling and concise, The Physics of God will make you believe in the unity of science and religion and eager to experience the personal transcendence that is the promise of both.
A considerable amount of public debate and media print has been devoted to the “war between science and religion.” In his accessible and eminently readable new book, Stephen M. Barr demonstrates that what is really at war with religion is not science itself, but a philosophy called scientific materialism. Modern Physics and Ancient Faith argues that the great discoveries of modern physics are more compatible with the central teachings of Christianity and Judaism about God, the cosmos, and the human soul than with the atheistic viewpoint of scientific materialism. Scientific materialism grew out of scientific discoveries made from the time of Copernicus up to the beginning of the twentieth century. These discoveries led many thoughtful people to the conclusion that the universe has no cause or purpose, that the human race is an accidental by-product of blind material forces, and that the ultimate reality is matter itself. Barr contends that the revolutionary discoveries of the twentieth century run counter to this line of thought. He uses five of these discoveries—the Big Bang theory, unified field theories, anthropic coincidences, Gödel’s Theorem in mathematics, and quantum theory—to cast serious doubt on the materialist’s view of the world and to give greater credence to Judeo-Christian claims about God and the universe. Written in clear language, Barr’s rigorous and fair text explains modern physics to general readers without oversimplification. Using the insights of modern physics, he reveals that modern scientific discoveries and religious faith are deeply consonant. Anyone with an interest in science and religion will find Modern Physics and Ancient Faith invaluable.
From black holes to holograms, from relativity theory to the discovery of quarks, an original exposition of quantum theory tht unravels profound theological questions
Despite the differences of their subject matter, science and theology have a cousinly relationship, John Polkinghorne contends in his latest thought-provoking book. From his unique perspective as both theoretical physicist and Anglican priest, Polkinghorne considers aspects of quantum physics and theology and demonstrates that the two truth-seeking enterprises are engaged in analogous rational techniques of inquiry. His exploration of the deep connections between science and theology shows with new clarity a common kinship in the search for truth. The author identifies and explores key similarities in quantum physics and Christology. Among the many parallels he identifies are patterns of historical development in quantum physics and in Christology; wrestling with perplexities such as quantum interpretation and the problem of evil; and the drive for an overarching view in the Grand Unified Theories of physics and in Trinitarian theology. Both theology and science are propelled by a desire to understand the world through experienced reality, and Polkinghorne explains that their viewpoints are by no means mutually exclusive.
Quantum theory has shaken our understanding of the universe to its deepest foundations. Quantum theory raises deep and profound scientific, philosophical and theological issues. Consider several scientific issues: Is quantum indeterminism ontological (a reflection of reality) or epistemological (a reflection of human ignorance)? Does the universe have a place for chance? What is the famous Bohr-Einstein debate? Who won? What is Schrödinger’s famous cat and what does it teach us? Some philosophical issues: How do our metaphysical commitments affect the interpretation of quantum theory? How, given quantum theory, should we understand the laws of nature? What are the implications of quantum theory for the traditional metaphysics and epistemologies of, for example, Kant, Leibniz and Spinoza? Finally, what are the implications of this revolutionary theory for theology? Is it possible to construct a natural theology -a case for God based on nature- given quantum theory? Is “Divine action” possible given quantum uncertainties? Are there implications for the ongoing debates about miracles, free will and the problem of evil? This book, which seeks to answer these and many other questions, is highly recommended for those who value understanding quantum theory from and for philosophical and theological perspectives.
