(November 20, 2021 at 3:38 pm)Klorophyll Wrote:(November 19, 2021 at 6:17 pm)HappySkeptic Wrote: By that I mean that individual events are random,
You probably should've mentioned that this is only one possible interpretation of quantum mechanics. John Bell showed that, in theory, there can be hidden determinism behind the curtains, that sets up how things should play out, giving room to manoeuvre for the theist. It's only when the hidden variables are local that they conflict with the predictions of QM.
But QM is, in fact, both local and non-causal.
The only way to rescue hidden determinism, given the violations of Bell's inequalities, is for there to be a type of super-determinism (which would mean there is no free will). of course, if that is the case, then there is also no way to actually do any testing at all, since all tests are pre-determined as well as their outcomes. So it is *far* more reasonable to accept non-causality and locality.
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(November 20, 2021 at 3:05 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: I’m not confusing anything with any other. You, and no one but you, has decided that the world must be a particular way for your god to exist. That makes your mistake, about the way the world is according to physics, a necessary component of your beliefs.
Carry on.
You're doing it again. I am only saying that the world can be sufficient to make an agument for God, not that it must be in some particular way.
(November 19, 2021 at 8:02 pm)Jehanne Wrote: In other words, the Correspondence Principle:
And if, according to this principle, causality is preserved at the macroscopic level (relativistic causality), doesn't this mean that the apparent violation of causality in quantum field theory is just that, apparent...?
Nope. For example, assume there are completely random dice. Individual outcomes are uncaused, but the averages are reliable. That is a type of causality for the averages, just like what happens in QM.
It is a fairly basic fact about QM that the averages of observables obey classical mechanics.
Quote:Correct me if I'm wrong: We know that any observation or measurement in QM is limited because of the uncertainty principle, and because of that, we can't observe the underlying causal structure that governs the behavior of subatomic particles.
No, it actually means there is no underlying causal structure. This is a basic aspect of how science is done: if it cannot be detected, even in theory, it is meaningless to say it exists.