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Consciousness
Ken Glasziou, Qld., Australia
Consciousness is important because its study has become the focal point for an interdisciplinary co-operation that is slowly undermining determinism and materialism in our society. Hence the more we know about the basics of the evidence for and against the alternative philosophies, so do we increase our potential to contribute to the renaissance of true religion.
In recent years, concepts of quantum physics that have long been paradoxical and contrary to the expectations from both classical physics and determinist philosophy, have begun to be appreciated by many whose interests are in other disciplines.
The experimental and theoretical results of quantum physicists have now demonstrated that there is much more to our universe than a simple, pre-ordained dance of the molecules. In fact, much of what goes on at base levels is probabilistic rather than being predictable and pre-determined.
Determinism
For many years now, deterministic materialism has been the dominant philosophy shaping attitudes in the Western world. Its basic logic is that things happen because they cannot do otherwise--and whatever happens does so because of the past events that predetermine which dance of the molecules must unfold.
According to the determinists, the universe originated with a random fluctuation in the primordial vacuum, a Big Bang. All that now is, exists because of a cause-effect evolutionary progression of exploding matter and energy.
Determinist logic assumes that life is inevitable,--a spontaneous consequence in any universe where conditions are suitable. Having made the start, natural processes unerringly lead to the emergence of intelligent life forms.
Determinism insists that mind, free will, and consciousness, while being naturally emerging phenomena, nevertheless arise from the self-delusions of hopeful souls. The determinist world has neither room for God, nor for purpose.
Determinism undermined
Since the early part of this century, researchers in that branch of physics known as quantum mechanics have been discovering phenomena that do not fit a materialist-determinist interpretation of their experimental findings. Among these discoveries are the dual, wave-particle nature of the atom and its sub-components, the probabilistic nature of quantum events, the superpositioning of alternative outcomes to a potential event, the 'collapse' of all but one superposition by an observer, the non-local, instantaneous and space independent communication of closely correlated particles--and many others.
One intensively-investigated phenomenon is the fact that a single photon or electron, when presented with two pathways (such as via two slits or a split beam device) will take both pathways to a target, provided only that no attempt is made to determine which pathway it takes. By taking both paths, the particles are enabled to 'interfere' with themselves and exhibit wave-like properties. But when an observer acquires knowledge of a pathway, the photons, electrons, or atoms promptly behave purely as particles.
This strange reluctance of a particle to have its pathway revealed does not appear to be due to any physical effect on the particle by the instrumentation used during the attempt to observe it--as shown in work described below.
A smart ghost
Independent work by Pritchard and co-workers, or Chiao and his group, describes incredibly elaborate schemes attempting to gain knowledge of pathways in two-slit types of experiment without disturbing the wave-like performance of a particle--but all to no avail1. On every occasion the 'ghost in the machine' has been able to out-think its opponents.
An experiment by Chiao et al. is illustrative. A polarizer was placed in one of two pathways to an interference detector so as to attach a label to any photon that proceeded along that pathway. Doing so immediately collapsed the interference phenomenon that heralded wave behavior.
While leaving the polarizer at the same location, two more were added further along the pathways, one in front of each interference detector. This action meant that the observers lost the knowledge of the pathway they had previously gained by labeling photons proceeding along one path. The consequence was the prompt restoration of the interference phenomenon, this being signaled by the re-emergence of wave-like behavior of the photons at the detector system.
An even more elaborate system was then set up by Chiao's group by substituting beam
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