Rational Scientific Theories from Theism

Quantum mechanics is very successful!

• Good calculational tool! 
• A framework in which we express our physical theories. 
• No failures yet found, despite many tests (still ongoing) 
• BUT: (what) does Quantum Mechanics (QM)  tell us about the physical world???

Features difficult to understand:

• Wave/particle duality, interference effects, non-locality, etc, as we all know. 
• But there are more questions: 
  • Does anything actually happen? Are there actual events independent of our immediate experience? 
  • Are all measurements really position measurements, even though precise positions are never measured! 
  • What happens after measurements? 
  • Are actual and virtual events the same or different? 
  • Are all events really interactions? 

What happens after a measurement?

• If we measure a ‘system’ described by wave function y=a₁u₁+a₂u₂ to discriminate between the u_i, and u₁ is found to occur: 
• What happens after to the ‘unphysical’ u₂? 
• Equally as real as u₁? many worlds/Bohm 
• Exists, but has no effect? decoherence 
• Dynamically reduced? new physics!

Dynamical Reduction?

• If it occurs: When and Why? 
  • Large sizes? No: large superconductors 
  • Large distances? No: photons 20km apart 
  • Energy differences? No: we do see DE interferences 
  • Spontaneous? (GRW) ad hoc 
  • Mind? (Wigner, Stapp) cat? virus? 
  • Gravity: is spacetime classical? (Penrose) 
• Scope for new physics!? » tests ongoing. 
  • Any law should be Lorentz-invariant!

Does wave function describe anything?

• Relation between observations / experiences? 
• Does it tell us what exists? What is a ‘system’? 
• We agree that 
  • cannot use naive models of particles or waves 
  • assuming a ‘material world’ leads to problems, if ‘material’ means ‘solid’ or ‘fluid’ 
• I claim that: if we cannot find any idea of quantum existence, this shows not that there is no underlying world, but that we lack imagination!

There are many references I could give for this section, to a wide range of books and articles in both physics and philosophy.