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• Thursday, October 2, 2008 07:17 AM

  Schroedinger's Cat

  You know, every time the secular utopians start talking about the ridiculousness of religion and how bizarre its ideas are, I want to ask them to explain, in detail, how they feel about Schroedinger's Cat. If there was ever a bizarre, ridiculous-sounding theory, which makes no sense whatsoever to anyone not initiated into the mystical discipline it springs from, it's that one. And yet, the folks who aren't scientists are just supposed to relax and take it all on faith, just because science says it's so.

  This is simply not true. If you are willing to learn a bit of mathematics and sit still for a few hours, a physics teacher can walk you through every single step of the theory that leads up to the paradox of Schoedinger's Cat. You can question every step, you can ask for all of the underlying assumptions to be explained. There is absolutely no "faith" involved. In fact, if you find that it requires faith to accept a scientific theory, then you are doing it wrong. Science doesn't work that way.

  Now, try sitting down with the theologian of your choice and have him explain the underlying assumptions of his religion to you with a similar degree of rigor. In fact, try getting him to even admit that there are any assumptions involved in religion, let alone subjecting those assumptions to any kind of reality check. Try getting him to consider changing or abandoning his religion because it doesn't add up--this is something that happens to scientific theories all the time.

  —MollyDunlop Read MollyDunlop's other letters
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