(April 11, 2014 at 8:25 am)Heywood Wrote: If I roll dice, the out come of the roll is completely random to me. However If I looked at the dice roll in sufficient detail....noting the initial point of contact, velocity, angular momentum, coefficient of friction, etc. the outcome becomes predictable. It would seem then that randomness is really just a function of ignorance.
This LaPlacian view holds true until you get to the quantum level. At the quantum level events happen which physicists tell us are fundamentally random. Fundamentally random is a hard pill to swallow when randomness appears to be a function of ignorance.
So who or what is throwing the dice for you atheists?
Quantum mechanics states intrinsic probability, and an element of random chance, not a purely random universe.
In contrast to earlier views of physics which assumed unknown variables gave the appearance of randomness, but implied the future could be in effect predicted with all the variables.
You're applying an historic "common sense" view of physics to quantum level events, slapping an Unmoved Mover on it, and making spurious claims about the whole thing, when the confusion is a product of the mischaracterization of what quantum mechanics states.
If everything were truly innately random, probability wouldn't exist.
This thread is ridiculous.