Morality, Science and Religion

     
Many religions take opposition to the quantum physics in which 
it was early on declared that the universe was inherently 
uncertain. Though this is not a correct interpretation of 
what Heisenberg's uncertainty conveys, it is confusing that
religions would take opposition to it, since uncertainty is
the essential element that leads to free-will. 

The clinging of religions (and science) to the idea of Newtonian 
absolutism is just as deplorable in the sense that it negates the 
opportunity of free-will and replaces it with a totalitarian morality.

The morality is a requirement of death for without death it might
be said that there is no need for morality, but this is not wholely
true since in our subjective memories there is a kind of birth,
life and death. The changing or affection of the state of these
memories defines a death of one interpretation of them, and the 
birth of another. There is in this sense a subjective morality
necesstiated by subjective 'deaths' which is distinct from the 
physical one necessitated by physical deaths.

It is a common misinterpretation of "evolution" that the process
of species optimization is carried out in a strictly random fasion. 
Many religions denounce evolution because they claim that there
was never enough time to try all the possible combinations. 
The process of evolution is more akin to a lock picker. There
is in his method an element of non-determinism and an element
of determinism combined with feedback and a goal. 

One serious problem with education in science is that 
science tends too much towards reductionism.  The student
is taught that empiricism is the true core of science and
this disposes of all use of metaphors.

Out of metaphors comes morality. Without metaphors the student
is taught a cold mechanistic subset of science that ultimately
degenerates into nothing short of vivisection; science without
morality. 

Metaphors are very important to science. Particularly in theoretical
stages where general principles are discovered. I think Einstein
was aware of this in his confrontations with Bohr. Pure reductionism
is as corrupt as pure reduction to absurdity. We need both discriminations
and non-descriminations to get a full picture of nature.

 Quantum Physics is not Physics 
Quantum physics is about making distinctions, resolution, identity,
context, the relationship between the big and the small and the 
few and the many. These are _very_ general ideas which we expect any
rational thinking being, to master and utilize with understanding
in making decisions. 

Quantum physics is not physics. It is a field of inquiry into the 
nature of information, communications,... which extends itself to
all fields as Norbert Wiener and Edwin Jaynes seem to have surmised.

Yet relatively little is understood about these concepts in the 
context of quantum physics as is evident in its many 
opposing interpretations: Copenhagen, Many-Worlds, ... 

That's a very dangerous situation. Here we have scientists exploring
the application of these very general ideas without in general 
considering their broader meanings to philosophy. To be fair, many
physicists have expanded their thinking to consider the meaning
beyond physics (Schrodinger, Bohm, Einstein,...), but few physicists 
promote this effort. 

Despite this attenuation of the philosophical implications, many
"new agers" have incorporated many of the quantum mechanical 
interpretations into a kind of polytheistic holism. While this 
is entertaining in terms of the Hollywood movies that come out
of it, it also has a negative effect (McLuhan) in terms of instilling
very unstable outlooks on life into people with weak grasp
of what is being communicated in a chop-shop manner. 

Like Napolean at Waterloo, if the physicists do not temporarily delay
their rapid invasion into nature in order to consolidate their 
interpretations, they will lead us all into losing a war of philosophies.

A more systemic approach is called for. It is clear that quantum 
physics at the fundamental level is dealing with concepts of communications,
information, control and decision. These concepts are important in
the operation of any complex system whether organic or inorganic.

For instance, cryptography is extremely important to the operation
of any system in terms of distinguishing signals and preventing them
from being intercepted by some subversive subsystem. It is a very
specific application to apply crytography to say an ecommerce system
but in complete generality, crytography is important in biological 
systems in terms of its immune system. We can see how the body requires
that its codes not be compromised in terms of cancer (where the
codes that identify 'friendly' cells is broken by the bodies own
subversive cells acting as undercover moles) or in terms of external
invaders like viruses, or in terms of neurological diseases where
it is very imporatant to have signals that do not get crossed. 
The distinction of cryptography from signal coding is not far removed.
In cryptography the goal is to get a signal from one place to another
without being intercepted, while signal coding is chiefly concerned
with a signal getting from one place to another without being dispersive
or intercepted. That quantum cryptography is a field at all, suggests
that it has something to say about the fundamental idea of signals
reaching their destinations intact and coherent. And this is a very
general application of quantum physics to the needs of a leviathan
in terms of its immune system. 

We need to interpret quantum physics correctly in order to understand 
the communications that takes place in the mind and body, how it defends 
itself and how it stays healthy from a systemic point of view in terms 
of those general ideas of distinguishment, identity, entanglement, interference,... 
as distinct from their usual interpretations in the context of physics.

Quantum physics is not physics. It is a field of inquiry into the 
nature of information, communications,... which extends itself to
all fields as Norbert Wiener and Edwin Jaynes seem to have surmised.

It is a dangerous prospect that quantum concepts will lead us to
explore philosophical issues like morality. Many people not interpreting
correctly what is happening in quantum physics, will come out with
some wild half-thought-out "moral mechanics" and claim that it is
based on nature's own laws, and such a thing has happened many times
already. As long as we do not understand the whole picture, no such
claims can be made, and it would not be in the interest of many to
be subjugated to any such theory even if it were rationally derived. 

But it is in the course of rational inquiry that we head in the direction
of truth no matter where it takes us. We will have to consider such issues
eventually and it is best to be prepared, to some extent, for the 
consequences of our inquiring; both positive and negative. Survival
is a stability or sane approach to the complementary concepts of
instinct and inquiry.