I think "chance" might be Lane's euphemistic way of saying that religion is all
in our heads. When I looked at the Wikipedia article posted something caught my
eye... In the ORIGIN AND MOTIVATION section it said that Schrodinger intended
this cat thing to be a "thought experiment" to evoke discussion about an article
by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen that talked about quantum superpositions; the
combination of all possibilities of something.
So I clicked on the link to that entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_superposition
Here is the opening sentence:
"Quantum superposition is the fundamental law of quantum mechanics. It defines
the collection of all possible states that an object can have."
And here is the article's easy explanation ( yea right )
Superposition principle:
"The principle of superposition states that if the world can be in any
configuration, any possible arrangement of particles or fields, and if the world
could also be in another configuration, then the world can also be in a state
which is a superposition of the two, where the amount of each configuration that
is in the superposition is specified by a complex number."
What it says to me is that until you actually KNOW what something is (is the cat
alive or dead?) all about what you think it is (I don't know, but I think I
heard the glass break so the poison must be out and the cat must be dead.) and
the person next to you may think it is something different (No, I didn't hear
glass breaking, so I think the cat is still alive.)
Until you open that box and look neither of you know if the cat is alive. Yes,
there is a 50/50 chance, but this is not so much about probability as it is
about certainty and until you open that box no one is truly certain.
Apply this to religion it's the same thing, but you can't just open up a box to
look. Figuratively, that entity responsible for human kind is what is in that
box. Instead of just two possibilities there are hundreds, all attached to some
very passionate people who feel like they need answers, something to believe in,
hold on to.
I mean, these scientists, geniuses really, felt the need to do experiments,
write papers and create formulas about uncertainty. Really, just skim those
articles and some of the links. They couldn't just settle for that they really
don't know. That is what uncertainty is, after all.
And the truth of religion is that none of us know.
All Love,
Kiva
--- In religiousdiversity2@yahoogroups.com, "caitlinstevens8"
>
>
> After Monday's lecture the thing that stuck out in my mind the most was the
picture of the cat in the box with the poison and pop rocks that Dr. Lane
created on the board. I researched this topic on a few websites and this is
what I came up with.
>
> The original experiment was done by Erwin Schr�dinger in 1935. This idea
was created to illustrate that Copenhagen's interpretation of quantum mechanics
is incorrect. The experiment was to demonstrate that whether the cat lives or
dies is due to random chance (50/50). It was used as a model to inform everyday
people how quantum mechanics works. Copenhagen tries to explain that the cat is
both alive and dead until something happens or the box is opened. Schrodinger
says that the cat is either alive or dead, not both at the same time. This
experiment wasn't used as a joke or to torture cats, but to show the randomness
of quantum mechanics and physics.
>
> Wikipedia is always a good way to find information about a particular topic,
and it did not fail me when I researched Schrodinger's experiment.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_cat
>
> The other website that I looked at was actually quite funny. It shows that
the poison in the box was useless because the cat would not be able to breath
after a period of time. This is because the box would eventually run out of
oxygen, therefore not giving enough air for the cat to breathe. This isn't what
the model represents but I thought it was an interesting interpretation.
>
> http://www.messybeast.com/moggycat/schrodinger.htm
>
> I think Dr. Lane presented this topic in class because he wanted to emphasize
the fact that the world revolves around chance. Any situation could happen for
any given reason. I think this will later relate to studying religion because
each of the different religions were created by chance and where people were
positioned in the world. This experiment also shows that every person has there
own opinion or idea about how something works, and religion is also run in a
similar aspect. Every person has there own idea about a higher power and how it
relates to their life.
>
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