Rumors of transcendence in physics
Abstract
There are several hints in physics of a domain of external reality transcendent to three-dimensional space and time. This paper calls attention to several of these intimations of a real world beyond the natural order. Examples are the complex state functions in configuration space of quantum mechanics, the singularity at the birth of the universe, the anthropic principle, the role of chance in evolution, and the unaccountable fruitfulness of mathematics for physics. None of these examples touch on the existence or activity of God, but they do suggest that external reality may be much richer than the natural world which it is the task of physics to describe.
- Publication:
-
American Journal of Physics
- Pub Date:
- October 1984
- DOI:
- 10.1119/1.13901
- Bibcode:
- 1984AmJPh..52..877P
- Keywords:
-
- 01.70.+w;
- Philosophy of science