Review of Polkinghorne’s “The Faith of a Physicist”

The main concern of both scientific exploration and theological reflection is the discovery of truth.  For Polkinghorne, the goals of both can be connected and helpful to one another.  Twenty-first century thinking tends to consider ancient dogma as meaningless abstractions, which in turn leads to a loss of respect for the actual meaning and messages of the biblical narrative.  This is a byproduct of modernity which has found it self entrenched within a paradigm unsuitable for the explanation of historically foundational matters.  Polkinghorne seeks to alleviate this trouble by understanding Christianity in a bottom-up fashion, as a quantum physicist would explore the micro world.  This is the solution to the problems faced when the world is seen through the lens of Newtonian physics, which explains plenty, although it is subject to important limitations.  In The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections of a Bottom-Up Thinker, an understanding of humanity, knowledge, divinity, and creation through the lens of a quantum physicist are presented.

As a quantum physicist, Polkinghorne realizes that Newtonian physics can only explain so much.  It does well enough to understand gravity and certain aspects of the order of the cosmos, but much is left unanswered, as can be seen by study of the detailed micro world.  Newtonian physics discovered that the world was ordered by universal laws of nature that could be understood through rationality and mathematical calculations.  This thought heavily influenced Enlightenment philosophers in their attempt to rationally understand the world and religion.  God came to be understood as a perfect creator of a mechanical universe that humans could fathom given that they utilize their rationality.  This effectively removed God from the world, for a perfectly created world would need no intervention, communication, or interaction from God.  These developments have eventually led to the problems faced by modernity.  For instance, if God created a perfect mechanistic world then the idea of human free will seems contradictory.  But since free will is obviously a characteristic of man, God becomes either a nonexistent or an uninterested and uninvolved entity.  Even still, however, it is difficult to completely deny the existence of God.  Polkinghorne says, “It seems to me that many educated people in the Western world view religious belief with a certain wistful wariness.  They would like some sort of faith, but feel that it is only to be had on terms which amount to intellectual suicide.  They can neither accept the idea of God nor quite leave it alone.” (5). This confusion is the product of a reliance on a Newtonian worldview coupled with a visually oriented understanding of reality.  Such an understanding is incongruent with that of the biblical narrative.  An understanding of the world based on quantum physics can help to solve these problems.

In bottom-up fashion, Polkinghorne considers the implications of quantum theory upon passages selected from the Nicene Creed which outline basic confessions of the Christian faith.  In the case of humanity, referenced by the ‘We believe…’ section of the creed, Newtonian physics have led to many theories, both scientific and theological that have separated mind and body.  Theories have made much effort in order to explain these contradictory and confusing dualisms.  For instance, the mental and physical being distinct from one another, appear to be related and connected by the hand of God.  This perplexing explanation is unnecessary when working with the quantum model, in which Polkinghorne relays as useful the concepts of complementarity and openness.  Polkinghorne says, “When one thinks about the mental and the material in human experience one is struck both by their inextricable interrelation and by their qualitative distance from each other.  Such intimacy-in-opposition is strongly reminiscent of the quantum phenomenon of complementarity…” (24).  This explanation does well to clarify the appearance of two seemingly exclusive modes of experience, being that of physical and mental.  Based on the quantum model of waves and particles, particles being tangible and waves being the invisible guiding force, the mind body dualism of the past can be understood as complementing experiences to one another while being interconnected, yet remaining distinct.  This interdependence is important seeing as how the effects of relying too exclusively on material aspects of reality can be so damaging.  The Newtonian world view leads to a reliance on understanding the world in a material manner because in order to obtain objectivity and fact, something must be displayed clearly as a mathematical solution, for example.  This can be seen by modernity’s materialistic obsession in protestant cultures.  It seems as if concepts such as spirit have lost credence in methods of explaining our experiences.   But reality obviously transcends the material aspect of experience, as can be seen by music or verbal communication.  Polkinghorne describes the spiritual element of experience as, “…aspects of our experience which hint at an incompleteness in what we are and that encourage the expectation of a fulfillment whose ground could only be in something or someone other than ourselves.” (13).  This is understood to be the openness that goes hand in hand with the complementarity of quantum physics.  It is a certain lack of confidence or certainty of the future, which Newtonian physics would claim as being able to be understood given the use of reason, that depends upon hope.  This hope can be found in the faithful creative God of Christianity.  This point can also be illustrated by chaos theory which holds that behavior is unpredictable in nature as possibilities remain limited.  This would negate the Newtonian explanation of the physical world, which would be that of an unchanging natural order, with the implication for humanity being that of existence as noncreative, static beings.  The implications of quantum physics and chaos theory for humanity are immense.  They claim that the world is developing while becoming more advanced.  Polkinghorne says, “The ontological picture proposed is one of increasing complexity generating increasing openness within which there is increasing scope for the use of explanatory causative concepts of a holistic and increasingly mental-looking kind.  The open future of a world of becoming signifies that there are opportunities for the action of causal principles, other than the merely mechanical interaction of parts in bringing that future about.” (26).  This means that the world is dynamic.  As a part of this world, humanity also has the ability to change and to create.  This capability is great, although it is limited.  These limits may not be able to be expressed explicitly, however, as Polkinghorne’s discussion of knowledge reveals.

Knowledge and belief are the foundations of creativity, hence the importance of discovering truth in knowledge and belief.  Polkinghorne attempts to do so through a quantum lens.  Seeing as how the world is changing and developing, an important aspect of truth is the attention that must be paid to history, for it surely provides incites into how the world progresses.  In order to get a good look into history, Polkinghorne suggests that an understanding of the circularity of knowledge, both hermeneutic and epistemic, is needed.  They mean that belief and understanding depend upon each other as well as something and our knowledge of it, respectively.  This means that knowledge and belief are not known unto themselves, but that they are revealed and developed.  In order to gain knowledge and belief there is a, “…need to allow our thinking to be shaped by the nature of the reality encountered.” (33).  For example, God is known only through revelatory occurrences.  This surely makes clear the inherent limits of our knowledge.  Explicit explanations of God, for instance, are impossible.  However, an understanding that goes far beyond a precise account can explain the phenomenon of faith and belief which are responsible for much human creativity.  This is what Thomas Nagel calls an intellectual optimism which is “the belief that we possess an open-ended capacity for understanding what we have not yet conceived.” (39).  This is the hope from which knowledge and belief spring.  Such hope is characteristic of a commitment to a better, yet unknown future, as is the case with Christianity.  With this understanding of knowledge which depends on hope, a discussion of divinity and creation would be helpful.

Often times God is described as a lofty, disconnected super-being who created the earth and now sits back to enjoy the show he has produced.  This is the God generated from Newtonian physics.  As mentioned before, a perfect God does not make mistakes; therefore, no intervention is needed into his creation.  God is given a much different characterization when thought about from the standpoint of a quantum physicist.  The most important development is God’s relationship to time.  Newtonian physics would argue that God is eternal therefore timeless, for involvement in the temporal would taint perfection.  This of course has led to much trouble in considering God’s distance from his creation.  But in a bottom-up fashion, Polkinghorne argues that God is indeed involved in a temporal manner.  This would raise concerns of humanizing God to the point of a loss of divinity and to this Polkinghorne replies, “But, just as in physics we can conceive of an equilibrium which is not simply a static staying put but which is the dynamical exploration of a pattern of possibility (atoms are something like that), so we can surely conceive a dynamical understanding of perfection, which resides, not in the absence of change, but in perfect appropriateness in relation to each successive moment.” (59).  He goes on to say that it resembles the idea of a perfect piece of music as opposed to a perfect sculpture.  The world is a becoming reality that exists temporally.  This is how the world is to be understood.  Newtonian physics claims God as eternal knower of the temporal as timeless.  But Polkinghorne argues that the temporal is not to be known as timeless, for that is not how it actually exists.  If God is to be involved, concerned, and knowledgeable of his creation than he should know how his creation knows their experiences.  This will aid the idea that the world is a becoming reality and that God is a part of it in some way, temporally, while transcending it in his divinity.  This has the implication for humanity that if God is in the world, not separated and disconnected as Newtonian physics would suggest, than we are not alone.  This God who places himself within a sinful place such as earth should give humanity hope that there is good to be done.  As mentioned before, once human capabilities are realized coupled with an understanding that God’s presence and power is with us, a true march towards goodness can occur.  Concerning the power of God, Newtonian physics would argue that it is the power of sheer force, much like Nominalism.  If the universe is made up of material objects moving into one another, than it follows that God would have the power over these material objects and may move them as he pleases.  But in thinking of God’s power from the bottom-up, a much different picture appears.  Being that God has a temporal aspect to his existence, it is more easily seen how he is made vulnerable by his love for his creation.  God’s willingness to suffer has defeated suffering altogether.  He has transcended misery, and this is the foundation in which humanity can find hope.  This ever giving love is the power of God.  This discussion of suffering also relates to God being involved in temporality.  For if God were not involved temporally, what threat did he actually receive by being involved on earth?  Jesus must not have known his future, for it would have been dishonest or it would be as if God were putting on a play.  A true suffering experience was had in a temporal manner.  This is the argument for divine temporality.  With a better understanding of God within his temporal creation, perhaps a discussion of such creation would be of benefit.

Polkinghorne begins his discussion of creation with a long scientific explanation of the big bang, the formation of stars and planets and so on.  The explanations of theology must go hand in hand with this excepted scientific discovery.  As Newtonian physics would have it, the world does not change but exists statically as God created it.  But as quantum physics would put it, the world is dynamic and continues to change.  This can be seen by the metaphorical biblical creation story in which God speaks the world into existence and since speech is dynamic, so is the world.  Creation in relation to God can be explained by creation ex nihilo and creatio continua.  The former being that the world is dependant upon the will of God for it came from nothing but the will of God and the latter meaning that God’s will continues to interact with his creation.  Polkinghorne explains the two’s differences by saying, “Belief in creation ex nihilo will always be a metaphysical belief, rooted in theologically perceived necessity that God is the sole ground of all else that is.  Belief in creatio continua can be more directly motivated by our perception of cosmic process, the evolving complexity of a universe endowed with anthropic potentiality.” (76).  This goes along with the notions of necessity and contingency which support that humanity enjoys freewill while remaining dependant upon God.  In further support of creatio continua, which he seeks to place on equal footing with creation ex nihilo, Polkinghorne discusses heaven and earth as God’s creative process.  He says that heaven is the openness to earth’s future that allows us to transcend our existence into the mental.  They don’t exist exclusively but are both sequences of God’s creation.  Another point that is brought up within the discussion of creatio continua is the fact that if the world is not exclusively creation ex nihilo, and since God’s creatures have been given free will, then God has given up certain powers.  This is implicit within creation.  Polkinghorne says, “…that by endowing his creation with the power of true becoming, God has permitted a kenosis of his omniscience, parallel to the kenosis of his omnipotence.  Even he does not know the unformed future, and that is no imperfection in the divine nature, for that future is not yet there to be known.”  (81).  This surely establishes the temporal aspect of God’s existence while aiding the idea that God is among us.  But some may ask why so many bad things happen within God’s creation if God is involved in it.  Seeing as how God’s creatures are also creators in their own right, he has given humanity free will to create as we please and he does not hinder his creation from doing so.  This is also true of the physical world which God allows to act in accordance with what ever nature the physical universe happens to possess.  The universe itself is essentially free, which although this leads to tragedy, it is not as awful as would be a world without freedom.  This is the creation from which mankind has sprung and as such has received similar gifts.

Polkinghorne in looking into the nature of the world, mankind, knowledge, and divinity through the lens of quantum physics has broken through many misconceptions brought about by Newtonian physics and the philosophy that followed.  Newtonian physics focused on the big concepts of the universe, making mankind look tiny, unimportant and as the antithesis of God’s subject of interest.  This has been a large contributing factor to the modern situation in which secularism saturates the culture and church attendance and religiosity are no longer considered to be of grand importance.  Even though many may not be able to articulately explain Newtonian physics, it pervades our culture in a way that our thinking, dreaming, and speaking are affected to the point noted above.  Quantum physics can provide an abundance of answers to questions that have been unaddressed or confused by Newtonian physics.  Although Newtonian physics explains plenty as far as issues such as gravity are concerned, why would we as humans not look deeply into the micro world from which we developed to seek answers?  These are the elements with which we are most closely related and interconnected.  Particles and waves so closely resemble the situation in which man finds himself, in that particles are what make up the stuff of the world while waves are the forces which move and manipulate said particles.  We too are moved by unseen forces that undoubtedly exist.  These elements being so interrelated, can give us clues as to what kinds of roles and changes that man should take up and be a part of.  For instance, the idea of individuality, although undeniable, would not be considered as important as the idea of community.  Individuality is only a small part of the whole collection.  This has implications for many aspects of modern experience.  For example, polling and democracy would be conducted much differently if quantum theory were applied.  Instead of a collection of individual opinions supposedly representing a group of like minded people on either side of an issue, a poll might be conducted in a way that seeks to bring about some sort of educated consensus.  This would include well-informed deliberation amongst individuals who are members of their shared community.  As with democracy, a more direct approach would be more fitting of quantum theory so as to give all a voice as a community of people should, for we are all interconnected.  This is the argument of Dr. Ted Becker who has experimented with ways in which democracy and polling can be streamlined into quantum practice, which he believes will lead to a more honestly executed empowerment of the citizenry.  Instead of considering people first and foremost individuals with competing opinions, as would be supported by Newtonian thought of matter knocking into other matter, an understanding of our relatedness and interdependence could be developed in which processes could be produced in which good could be brought about by agreement.  In recognizing the stark contrast between Newtonian physics and quantum theory while also realizing the verisimilitudinous quality of quantum physics it can be established that just as foundations of thought are based on Newtonian principles so can be the case with quantum theory.  The most beneficial result of a pervading understanding of quantum theory would perhaps be the effects on Christianity.  It has been duly noted and easily seen in modernity that God has come to be misunderstood and many explanations account for this demeaning decline of a respect for the spiritual aspects of our lives.  Newtonian physics’ rationality does not leave any room for an understanding of the mysterious truths which guide our decisions and shape our personalities and experiences.  Quantum physics helps to explain through interconnectedness and openness the fact that we are not restricted to sight in order to have a life in which God is included.  Through these developments more human capabilities can be realized and utilized in order to build closer relationships with God, which will no doubt have positive consequences in the context of a modern world which seems to be believe it self to be devoid of Godly participation.