Hi everyone!
I'm Bruce Nolasco, from México. I'm a huge fan of Physics and I love to talk about cosmology and quantum physics. Recently I've been a little disapointed because I've found that in many atheist forums and FB groups there's many people that clasify or tag quatum physics as a "pseudoscience". Many people argue about this because they think that it is scientificaly unproven (or improbable). Even though it is a branch of physics that has been being under research for more than 50 years.
Making a little of analisys, i'm under the suspect that this confusion could have its origin in the recent introduction and over-use of this term in the world of pseudoscientific publications.
What are your thoughts on this topic?
Subscription Note:
Choosing to subscribe to this topic will automatically register you for email notifications for comments and updates on this thread.
Email notifications will be sent out daily by default unless specified otherwise on your account which you can edit by going to your userpage here and clicking on the subscriptions tab.
Quantum mechanics is testable, reliable, and often used in our understanding of the observable universe. But to be honest, many charlatans use it to sell woo of their own choosing to people. I don't blame the theory I blame our poor understanding of it.
That's the best way to look at it! The theory itself is good, the people speaking out of turn give it a bad name.
I'm definitely with you on that!
Though, I must say I've never heard a theist try to use quantum mechanics to sell me on anything... I get the feeling that I talk to a lot less theists than some of you guys :/
Unless the person talking is a physicist it most likely is being used to promote rubbish. Listen to Deepak Chopra and it becomes quite clear. So few of us, including atheists, understand quantum physics that most serious discussions would leave us (me) completely confused and feeling quite stupid.
Lots of folks use (or should I say misuse) bits and pieces of science to support their own goals. Non-scientists hear those carefully chosen words and buy the snake oil. Ken Hamm comes to mind. Insisting on and providing thorough education in science to our children will go a very long way in eliminating the purchase of that snake oil. If we can do nothing more than work diligently to keep mythology in a course about mythology instead of allowing it to creep into science courses, we have provided some protection for future generations.
Personally, I don't consider quantum physics pseudoscience at all. It's just physics at the extremely micro level. I think quantum physics may help atheists, IF I understand correctly (which I may not)... Based on what I have read, at the quantum level, the hand-in-hand relationship of cause and effect breaks down. In other words, there may well be some uncaused effects at the quantum level.
If that's the case, then we may be able to once and for all rule out the arguments that many (including recent ones on this very site) use to say something like, "The universe needs an external cause, therefore my particular god."
So, it's not that the cause and effect break down as such, it's that you cannot observe an effect without introducing a cause. Which is where uncertainty comes in. This is basically because the position and speed of an electron are denoted by a wave function and to find one value, say velocity, you have to know where it was thereby affecting the experiment.
I agree that Quantum Physics is little understood by the public at large and I only have a comparatively small understanding of it myself, but I know enough to know when someone is talking shit. That, I suppose is enough.
Head to futurelearn.com and see if you can find the course on the Higgs discovery. From Newtonian mechanics to the LHC in 7 weeks :)
Im here to break your dreams and say that you cant solve the universe with physics, cuz its something you made in your heads. Was it nice to waste over 100 years of studying guys? :D Shiiet i feel bad 4 u :s
Im just joking 16 April joke, i have no idea about quantum physics :S
Do I agree? Until you open the box.... both
Hi Bruce :)
You won't find the pseudoscience bias here, at least not with me. Physics isn't really my strong point, but I'm as good with it as a neuroscientist needs to be, lol.
You might have been looking on the wrong forums then Bruce. Maybe stop using Bing as your search engine. :)
What you have here with Atheist Republic is one of the most sought after forums regarding atheism online today. You still have some lunatics running around here, but for the most part, you will get a very cordial welcome and some friendly banter thrown in for good measure.