Seeking a fertile union of physics and theology

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Preface: The problem

Ancient Background

Traditional theology postulates an omniscient and omnipotent god as the creator and maintainer of the world.

Western theological tradition derives its god and the first version of its theology from the Hebrew Bible, known in Christian circles as the Old Testament. Christianity emerged from Hebrew theology. We owe many features of the civilization we now enjoy to the work of Hebrews and Christians. Hebrew Bible - Wikipedia, Robert Crotty (2017): The Christian Survivor: How Roman Christianity Defeated Its Early Competitors

God appears in the first book of the Hebrew Bible, Genesis, where we read:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, ' Let there be light: and there was light'.

These words were written nearly three thousand years ago. About two thousand years ago Christians composed the New Testament as a sequel to the Hebrew Bible. The new Christian ideas spread through the Roman Empire and merged with many other philosophical and theological traditions. Christianity gained official status in the Empire in the time of Constantine. Constantine the Great and Christianity - Wikipedia

Christian theology reached its high point in the work of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). Since that time our understanding of the Universe has increased enormously. The late medieval period saw the development of evidence based justice and and science. By this time the political influence of Christianity was able to proscribe the work of scientists like Galileo and openly oppose efforts to bring theology into the realm of science using terror backed by murder and torture. Thomas Aquinas: Opera Omnia, Galileo affair - Wikipedia

The modern world

Theology is the traditional theory of everything. In each culture a theology or its equivalent serves as the frame of reference that gives meaning and coherence to human existence. Sharing a common theology binds communities together. Theologies also have powerful political influence, even in communities that claim to be secular.

In the last few centuries the power of Christianity has faded and evidence based science and justice have created a healthy and peaceful world for many people. Many people know now that we live in a Universe which approaches infinity in size and complexity, is as perfect as can be, and fulfils all the roles traditionally attributed to gods: creator, lawmaker, judge and source of meaning. By adding our knowledge of the universe to the thousands of years of wisdom accumulated by philosophers and theologians, we can lead theology into the realm of science. Here the information available to explore divine nature vastly exceeds all historical explorations of both divinity and the world. One consequence of this awareness is to show that it is quite reasonable to identify god and the world.

This identification is the first step toward scientific theology. It makes god is visible so that theology can join the mainstream of empirical science. In the medieval period Aquinas built theology on the 1600 year old philosophy of Aristotle. Aristotle's crowning achievement was to create a line of argument that led from physics to a god (the unmoved mover). Aquinas repeats this argument in his first proof for the existence of god. Aquinas, Summa, I, 2, 3: Does God exist?, Unmoved mover - Wikipedia

Today physics is rooted in quantum theory. Quantum theory has a well established reputation for counterintuitivity. While it is the basis for almost all modern technology there is very little consensus about what it means. I wish to present my story as a sequel to Aquinas, so I will stick as closely as I can to his picture of God and develop an interpretation of quantum theory that honours the work of Aristotle and Aquinas.

God and the initial singularity

I begin at the beginning with Einstein's general theory of relativity. Penrose, Hawking and Ellis found that Einstein’s theory implies the existence of an initial point (the initial singularity) in the history of the universe. They write

Einstein's General Theory of Relativity . . . leads to two remarkable predictions about the universe: first that the final fate of massive stars is to collapse behind an event horizon to form a 'black hole' which will contain a singularity; and secondly that there is a singularity in our past which constitutes, in some sense, a beginning to our universe. Hawking & Ellis: The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time

Einstein's initial singularity and Aquinas's God each have just three properties: they exist; they are completely without structure; and they are the source of the universe.

The existence of the predicted initial singularity is supported by astronomical observations. This singularity precedes space and time. We can no more ask where it came from that we can ask where God came from, leading many to conclude that God is eternal. Insofar as there is are no grounds for distinguishing these two entities, it seems reasonable to identify them.

How did the structureless initial singularity become the current universe? On the cosmic scale, the beginning of this process has come to be called the “big bang”. We do not know what made the big bang go off but we can observe and study the result, which includes ourselves. Peacock: Cosmological Physics, Weinberg (2008): Cosmology

Our current understanding of the history of the universe rests on two pillars. At the large scale we rely on general relativity, the cosmic microwave background radiation and other astronomical observations. At the small scale we have the century of experimental particle physics that underlies quantum theory. Using machines like the Large Hadron collider, we arrange head-on collisions of fundamental particles so violent that they reduce everything to a bubble of energy. These bubbles, like little big bangs, then emit large numbers of different particles. This work helps us understand the creative process that transforms energy into the structure of the universe. The result of this research, so far, is a body of theory called the Standard Model. Cosmic microwave background - Wikipedia, Large Hadron Collider - Wikipedia, Martinus Veltman (2003): Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics, Standard model - Wikipedia

Modern physics studies the universe as it is now and the results are enormously complicated. Here I wish to work in the opposite direction as well, beginning with the initial singularity and working toward the present. Since both quantum theory and theology are both theories of everything this approach will, I hope, will provide a transparent path to uniting them into a coherent picture.

I have been working on this project since I left the monastery and have collected thousands of pages of notes and essays to document my path. Much of this is available at https://www.naturaltheology.net/

[revised 29 May 2021]

Copyright:

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Further reading

Books

Crotty (2017), Robert, The Christian Survivor: How Roman Christianity Defeated Its Early Competitors, Springer 2017 ' The book puts the current interest in historical Jesus research into a proper historical context, highlighting Gnosticism’s lasting influence on early Christianity and making the provocative claim that nearly all Christian Churches are in some way descended from Roman Christianity. Breaking with the accepted wisdom of Christianity’s origins, the revised history it puts forward challenges the assumptions of Church and secular historians, biblical critics and general readers alike, with profound repercussions for scholarship, belief and practice. About the Author Robert Brian Crotty is the Emeritus Professor of Religion and Education at the University of South Australia. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Oxford University, and a Visiting Fellow at the Woolf Institute, Cambridge University. Professor Crotty was educated in Australia, Rome and Jerusalem. He has research degrees in Ancient History, Education, Christian Theology and Biblical Studies. He is an Élève Titulaire of the École Biblique in Jerusalem. In Rome and Jerusalem, he studied under some of the great scholars of early Christianity, including Ignace de la Potterie, Marie-Émile Boismard and Pierre Benoit and studied Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin and Syriac in order to further his intimate understanding of biblical texts. He has authored or edited some 33 books, multiple book chapters and journal articles in the areas of Theology, Biblical Studies and World Religions.' 
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Hawking, Steven W, and G F R Ellis, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, Cambridge UP 1975 Preface: Einstein's General Theory of Relativity . . . leads to two remarkable predictions about the universe: first that the final fate of massive stars is to collapse behind an event horizon to form a 'black hole' which will contain a singularity; and secondly that there is a singularity in our past which constitutes, in some sense, a beginning to our universe. Our discussion is principally aimed at developing these two results.' 
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Peacock, John A, Cosmological Physics, Cambridge University Press 1999 Nature Book Review: ' The intermingling of observational detail and fundamental theory has made cosmology an exceptionally rich, exciting and controversial science. Students in the field — whether observers or particle theorists — are expected to be acquainted with matters ranging from the Supernova Ia distance scale, Big Bang nucleosynthesis theory, scale-free quantum fluctuations during inflation, the galaxy two-point correlation function, particle theory candidates for the dark matter, and the star formation history of the Universe. Several general science books, conference proceedings and specialized monographs have addressed these issues. Peacock's Cosmological Physics ambitiously fills the void for introducing students with a strong undergraduate background in physics to the entire world of current physical cosmology. The majestic sweep of his discussion of this vast terrain is awesome, and is bound to capture the imagination of most students.' Ray Carlberg, Nature 399:322 
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Veltman (2003), Martinus, Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics, World Scientific 2003 'Introduction: The twentieth century has seen an enormous progress in physics. The fundamental physics of the first half of the century was dominated by the theory of relativity, Einstein's theory of gravitation and the theory of quantum mechanics. The second half of the century saw the rise of elementary particle physics. . . . Through this development there has been a subtle change in point of view. In Einstein's theory space and time play an overwhelming dominant role. . . . The view that we would like to defend can perhaps best be explaned by an analogy. To us, space-time and the laws of quantum mechanics are like the decor, the setting of a play. The elementary articles are the actors, and physics is what they do. . . . Thus in this book the elementary particles are the central objects.' 
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Weinberg (2008), Steven, Cosmology, Oxford University Press, USA 2008 Amazon book description: 'This book is unique in the detailed, self-contained, and comprehensive treatment that it gives to the ideas and formulas that are used and tested in modern cosmological research. It divides into two parts, each of which provides enough material for a one-semester graduate course. The first part deals chiefly with the isotropic and homogeneous average universe; the second part concentrates on the departures from the average universe. Throughout the book the author presents detailed analytic calculations of cosmological phenomena, rather than just report results obtained elsewhere by numerical computation. The book is up to date, and gives detailed accounts of topics such as recombination, microwave background polarization, leptogenesis, gravitational lensing, structure formation, and multifield inflation, that are usually treated superficially if at all in treatises on cosmology. Copious references to current research literature are supplied. Appendices include a brief introduction to general relativity, and a detailed derivation of the Boltzmann equation for photons and neutrinos used in calculations of cosmological evolution. Also provided is an assortment of problems.' 
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Links

Aquinas, Summa, I, 2, 3, Summa: I 2 3: Does God exist?, I answer that the existence of God can be proved in five ways. The first and more manifest way is the argument from motion. . . . The second way is from the nature of the efficient cause. . . . The third way is taken from possibility and necessity . . . The fourth way is taken from the gradation to be found in things. . . . The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world. back

Aquinas, Summa, I, 3, 7, Is God altogether simple?, 'I answer that, The absolute simplicity of God may be shown in many ways. First, from the previous articles of this question. For there is neither composition of quantitative parts in God, since He is not a body; nor composition of matter and form; nor does His nature differ from His "suppositum"; nor His essence from His existence; neither is there in Him composition of genus and difference, nor of subject and accident. Therefore, it is clear that God is nowise composite, but is altogether simple. . . . ' back

Constantine the Great and Christianity - Wikipedia, Constantine the Great and Christianity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' During the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (AD 306–337), Christianity began to transition to the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. Historians remain uncertain about Constantine's reasons for favoring Christianity, and theologians and historians have often argued about which form of early Christianity he subscribed to. . . . Constantine's decision to cease the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire was a turning point for early Christianity, sometimes referred to as the Triumph of the Church, the Peace of the Church or the Constantinian shift. In 313, Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan decriminalizing Christian worship. The emperor became a great patron of the Church and set a precedent for the position of the Christian emperor within the Church and raised the notions of orthodoxy, Christendom, ecumenical councils, and the state church of the Roman Empire declared by edict in 380. He is revered as a saint and is apostolos in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, and various Eastern Catholic Churches for his example as a "Christian monarch”.' back

Cosmic microwave background - Wikipedia, Cosmic microwave background - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is the thermal radiation left over from the time of recombination in Big Bang cosmology. . . . The CMB is a snapshot of the oldest light in our Universe, imprinted on the sky when the Universe was just 380,000 years old. It shows tiny temperature fluctuations that correspond to regions of slightly different densities, representing the seeds of all future structure: the stars and galaxies of today.' back

Galileo affair - Wikipedia, Galileo affair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Galileo affair (Italian: il processo a Galileo Galilei) began around 1610[1] and culminated with the trial and condemnation of Galileo Galilei by the Roman Catholic Inquisition in 1633. Galileo was prosecuted for his support of heliocentrism, the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun at the centre of the Solar System. ' back

Hebrew Bible - Wikipedia, Hebrew Bible - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, The Hebrew Bible . . . is a term referring to the books of the Jewish Bible as originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic. The term closely corresponds to contents of the Jewish Tanakh and the Protestant Old Testament (see also Judeo-Christian) but does not include the deuterocanonical portions of the Roman Catholic or the Anagignoskomena portions of the Eastern Orthodox Old Testaments. The term does not imply naming, numbering or ordering of books, which varies (see also Biblical canon).' back

Large Hadron Collider - Wikipedia, Large Hadron Collider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and most powerful particle collider, the largest, most complex experimental facility ever built, and the largest single machine in the world. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and engineers from over 100 countries, as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories' back

Standard model - Wikipedia, Standard model - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Standard Model of particle physics is a theory that describes three of the four known fundamental interactions between the elementary particles that make up all matter. It is a quantum field theory developed between 1970 and 1973 which is consistent with both quantum mechanics and special relativity. To date, almost all experimental tests of the three forces described by the Standard Model have agreed with its predictions. However, the Standard Model falls short of being a complete theory of fundamental interactions, primarily because of its lack of inclusion of gravity, the fourth known fundamental interaction, but also because of the large number of numerical parameters (such as masses and coupling constants) that must be put "by hand" into the theory (rather than being derived from first principles) . . . ' back

Thomas Aquinas, Opera Omnia, The complete works of one of the most important writers in the Christian tradition. [© 2019 Fundación Tomás de Aquino Iura omnia asservantur OCLC nr. 49644264] back

Unmoved mover - Wikipedia, Unmoved mover - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The unmoved mover (Ancient Greek: ὃ οὐ κινούμενον κινεῖ, romanized: ho ou kinoúmenon kineî, lit. 'that which moves without being moved'] or prime mover (Latin: primum movens) is a concept advanced by Aristotle as a primary cause (or first uncaused cause) or "mover" of all the motion in the universe. As is implicit in the name, the unmoved mover moves other things, but is not itself moved by any prior action. In Book 12 (Greek: Λ) of his Metaphysics, Aristotle describes the unmoved mover as being perfectly beautiful, indivisible, and contemplating only the perfect contemplation: self-contemplation. He equates this concept also with the active intellect. This Aristotelian concept had its roots in cosmological speculations of the earliest Greek pre-Socratic philosophers and became highly influential and widely drawn upon in medieval philosophy and theology. St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, elaborated on the unmoved mover in the Quinque viae. ' back

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