THE QUANTUM BELIEVER

I am a quantum believer.  Do I believe in God?  Am I an atheist?  Neither.  I repeat: I am a quantum believer. Yes, I will explain--or give you at least give some indication of what this enigmatic "faith" is.

Let's deal with the quantum part first.  As you may know, a photon will either manifest itself as a particle or a wave, depending on the experiment you devise and your observation of the results.  If you look for a photon with a detector, you will find a particle.  If you let photons, one at a time, pass through  one or the other of two slits onto a photoelectric plate, you will discover that each  photon passed through both slits. On the plate you will find an interference pattern, caused by photons which have manifested themselves as waves.  The two aspects are complementary; the photons will behave either as waves or particles but never both.    The type of experiment and your conscious observation of the results determine the results.  (Prior to this, a photon is a probability wave, a superposition of both states.)  Reality is thus connected to consciousness.  This is called the quantum enigma.  Nobody really understands the enigma--the probability wave can never be directly examined, but whatever is going on, well, goes on.

Now for the analogy. In  a quantum believer, belief and unbelief exist in silence in a superpostion state.  This state is too profound to be classified as either belief or disbelief; it is Belief with a capital B.  For the quantum believer, you can cause either the particle--atheism--or the wave--belief, to become manifest in our workaday world according to the question you ask.  Let us designate the quantum state as Consciousness--cosmic consciousness perhaps--and the atheist precipitate as Thomas l, and the believer as Thomas ll.  (Any name, of course, will do.)

Much as a scientist sets up either a particle or interference experiment, you ask Thomas some questions about faith to see what beliefs or unbeliefs appear.

For instance, if Thomas were Christian, you might ask:

Do you believe Jesus Christ is literally the only begotten Son of God?

If Thomas were Jewish, you might ask:

Did G-d  literally give Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai?

Or if Thomas were Muslim:

Do you believe the Koran is literally the word of Allah?

Of course not! If you ask such questions, Thomas l is precipitated, an adamant atheist.  He might rather rudely refer to such beliefs as SCFA, Santa Claus for Adults.

And if you ask the question,

How can God be both omnipotent and omniscient and allow the unfairness, suffering and sadness which are so widely distributed in this world?

Sometimes Thomas l will precipitate and answer:  God is neither omnipotent nor omniscient; He doesn't even exist.

But sometimes you'll get Thomas ll: God's omnipotence and omniscience are merely symbols and are admittedly ridiculous if taken literally.  Ancient peoples felt a grandeur inside while the grandeur that they witnessed outside was that of their so-called omnipotent and omniscient kings. Thus they attribute these adjectives to God.  ("God" is nothing more--or less-- than a symbol for this grandeur, consciousness, specifically cosmic consciousness.  One of the truths this grandeur reveals is that all is connected; all is one.  It also reveals that the only path to It is wisdom/love's. It can provide us with the greatest experience we can ever have; in this context, omnipotent and omniscient refer to the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, the overwhelming mystery, for which those two adjectives are literally woefully inadequate.)

Now suppose you ask a differnt question:

If literal belief in Jesus as the Son of God, is ridiculous; if believe in an all-powerful God in the face of suffering is riciulous; therefore, isn't faith ridiuclous?

Ask this question, and the wave, Thomas ll, becomes manifest.  Thomas ll, the closest of the two Thomases to the internal wavefunction, replies that faith, experienced and understood correctly, is the most important thing-nonthing of all.

And just what is it?

Thomas ll is silent.  It can't be put into words; it is too profound.

If it can't be put into words, how can we be sure it exists?

It can be experienced.  It can be hinted at with words and with music.  It is poetry, not prose.  As Emily Dickinson wrote: if I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry. She understood.

Whitman understood.  "Do I contradict myself?  Very well then, I contradict myself.  I am large, I contain multitudes."  The source of this largeness lies within, where all contradictions meet in unity; the inner reality is the coincidentia oppositorum.

Simon Weil also understood; she believed we could remain content with the prose world but for two factors: beauty and suffering.  Suffering destroys our prosy complacencies and keeps us searching.  Beauty gives us a few hints of utter transcendence.  For those who know these two aspects of life--and Thomas l and Thomas ll is well acquainted with both--Silence really is golden.

Physics teaches us that we can never directly experience the quantum enigma.  We can  try to explore the possibility wave with elementary particles, namely photons and other such particles.  Whenever  we attempt this. however., the system is disturbed and we get either a particle or a wave, never the hidden quantum mystery.  

Similarly, prose questions, as it were,  will disturb cosmic consciousness into worldly consciousness; you will wind up with either a Thomas l or a Thomas ll; you will never get One, the original, internal, enigmatic state that is independent of the body. (You can, however, get hints of this One, enough to quiet both Thomases. Many people, alas! remain either in the the atheist or fundamentalist state for their entire lives, and keep on talking and talking.)  It is said that those who think they understand the quantum enigma are  greatly mistaken.  Similarly, those who think they can explain consciousness, cosmic consciousness, are perhaps even more mistaken.  Those who think they have It most certainly don't.  

Jesus, a very wise man, understood this as is evident in the following parable.  (This most important parable is contained in a non-canonical Gospel, the Gospel of Thomas.  What irony!  One of Jesus's most important parables is completely ignored by mainstream Christianity!)

Jesus said: The kingdom of the [Father] is like a woman carrying a jar full of meal. While she was walking [on a] distant road, the handle of the jar broke (and) the meal poured out behind her on the road. She was unaware, she had not noticed the misfortune. When she came to her house, she put the jar down (and) found it empty

She thought she had everything.  That's why she lost It.

One last point: The prosaic Thomas l and the poet Thomas ll are two aspects of the same. individual.  The inner reality, however--as the woman in the parable eventually found out-- is not possessed by any individual alone.  It is yours as well as mine and is the same for both of us.  My Self is your Self.  This is the greatest mystery of all, the source of all religion. 

Oh what nonsense!

It isn't.  It is. Prose will never get It.

I repeat: depending on the question you ask me,  Thomas l or Thomas ll, neither of whom possess the answer,  will become manifest.  

The question I ask you, therefore,  is this: why waste time by questioning them?  Read great poetry.  Listen to great music.  Meditate. Expose yourself to the suffering of the world and try your best to comfort the afflicted.  Then you will know what I'm talking/not talking about.  Then you will know who you are.