Einstein, God, and Dice

As most people know, Albert Einstein was a genius physicist who brought us the theories of Special and General Relativity, among other important contributions to science. It is hard to argue the case that Einstein could have been wrong about something, because so much of what he thought and wrote was right. His theories propelled our society into a new era of thinking and progress. However, the latter part of his life was rather uneventful, from a scientific standpoint anyway.

During his lifetime, the theory of quantum mechanics was introduced. This theory relied much on probabilistic chance and randomness at the sub-atomic particle level. It was this randomness and chance that Einstein disagreed with, wishing instead to believe in an ordered universe governed by the unbreakable laws of cosmology that seem to govern our heavens. Einstein believed in God, and a universe containing elegant physical laws created by God. He was quoted several times saying that "God does not play dice." This was his response to the idea of quantum mechanics. He spent the latter part of his life trying to disprove the theory of quantum mechanics, and died with this task unfinished.

In the years since his death, much progress has been made in validating the theory of quantum mechanics. It looks as if Einstein was wrong. The universe really does seem to work randomly at a sub-atomic level. It looks as though God does play dice. But if we take into consideration the notion that God may not be the romantic creator version painted by Christianity, it is easier to accept the fact that Einstein was wrong.

Let us ask:

Question: Does God play dice?

Einstein: No, God does not play dice.

Me: IGIT,Y!

The key to probability working is time. Given enough time, something with a probability of 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 % will certainly occur. Given enough time. So, it seems that all of the events and happenings in our universe can be explained by probability and time.

 

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