The Big Question. (Spirituality & Prayer)

by James, Australia, Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 15:25 (642 days ago) @ Warren

Warren,

If you want to equate reason with Aristotelian syllogisms, then yes, you are right. But modern science, which is certainly based on reason is not limited by Aristotle. Aristotle said a lot of things, particularly about the natural sciences that we know are just not true.

Bohr, Schrödinger, Planck and Heisenberg did not dream up quantum theory by reading St. John of the Cross or the Bhagavad Gita. They did it by observation of physical phenomena and drawing particular conclusions.

It was not surprising that when Rutherford postulated atoms as having a nucleus with revolving particles, that his successors tried to apply Newtonian physics to that, but it didn't work. It was through observing that it didn't work that quantum theory evolved. The extent to which the various players in quantum theory applied "reason" in coming to their conclusions can be seen from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics

The fact that the end results, their conclusions, do not fit the Newtonian model is neither here nor there. The process by which they came to their somewhat startling conclusion (for the times) was through observation and deduction which is what we normally mean by "reason".

The fact that chaos appears to be part of reality, or that two things can appear to be in different places at the same time, or two different things at the same time is something that does not accord with our common sense. And it was something that Einstein could not accept ("God does not play dice"). But that does not mean that quantum physics is "contrary to reason". It just means that there is more to reality than we thought there was.

If reason means the classical either/or logic of separation and as far as I know that is what it is generally considered to mean then Quantum Theory goes beyond reason.

That may have been the classical concept of "reason" because by operating on that principle solved most scientific problems - and still solves most scientific problems for large bodies. As I understand it, we still send probes to Jupiter using Newton with a bit of adjustment for Einstein, but I also understand (am I wrong?) that the computers on board the craft that keep it going work on quantum principles.

But I don't see how designing a Jupiter probe can be regarded as anything but the exercise of "reason" whether we are talking about the macro elements of the right angle and velocity of the rocket or the micro elements that make the computers work.