If your initial reaction to quantum mechanics is “This is beyond me. I can’t understand it,” then I assure you: you absolutely can (or at least you can understand the fundamentals of it, which describe how the particles that make up all matter in the universe behave). To be more accurate, you can understand the outcomes of quantum phenomena and that it is not possible for anyone to understand how these outcomes actually happen. For instance, quantum mechanics tells us that one thing can be in two or more places at the same time (quantum superposition), that particles can communicate with one another instantly over vast distances (quantum entanglement), and that particles can go through barriers (quantum tunneling).
We can prove that these “impossible” things happen.
Let’s apply this to you, personally.
You have around 35 trillion cells in your body. Each cell is composed of about 100 trillion atoms. That’s 3,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms in your body. Each atom is composed of three fundamental particles: electrons, gluons, and quarks (the latter two of which comprise the protons and neutrons in the nucleus of the atom). In all, you are made of about 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 fundamental particles. All of these particles are, for very short and intermittent periods of time, in states of superposition — which means that you are composed of particles doing the “impossible” (being in multiple places at once). (And, though not logically impossible yet still incredible, roughly 99.999999999999% of every atom is empty space, so only about .0000000000001% of you is actual particles — and yet you have consciousness, can change molecules you consume as food into other molecules + energy, can reproduce your own genetics with almost no loss of accuracy, etc.)
Why is it important to understand that the “impossible” not only exists around us but literally forms our being? Because that understanding of ourselves, the universe, and existence can point to God, and this belief potentially changes everything about our understanding of ourselves, the universe, and existence — all of it might have meaning, potentially eternal meaning.
Let’s look at some aspects of quantum mechanics and the universe more closely to show how the “impossible” is real, and why, as our proof of the “impossible” grows, God should not be discounted.
Quantum Entanglement
When Einstein referred to quantum entanglement as “spooky action at a distance,” he hit the nail on the head.
“Spooky” connotes the supernatural, and that is exactly what scientists have proved through quantum entanglement. They have proved, time and again, that the “supernatural” (a phenomenon outside the normal laws of logic) is real.
What is quantum entanglement? Two particles that are entangled with one another have a bond — not a physical bond, but a metaphysical bond (I say metaphysical in the sense that they absolutely have a bond but literally no one understands how this bond can exist or what it is). You can take entangled particles as far apart as you’d like (even theoretically the entire distance of the known universe apart — which is around 98 billion light years across), and, when you measure one of them, doing so will instantly force the other one to react as well.
This should be impossible.
Nothing can transmit causal information instantly across space as if there were no space between them. Nothing can move faster than the speed of light (this is an established natural law, and we don’t need to understand why for our purposes).
Yet, the “impossible” happens, which is why it’s “spooky.”
Quantum mechanics is part of the reason that the existence of the “supernatural” seems so obvious to me: we literally have proof of what could be considered a veritable miracle, and the evidence of the “supernatural” doesn’t stop with quantum entanglement either.
Quantum Superposition
When we’re not measuring subatomic particles (particles smaller than atoms, such as electrons), then each particle exists simultaneously in every possible place that it could exist.
Again, this should not be possible. It defies logical sense. If I told you that I can be in two places at once, you would tell me that I’m crazy. Except we have proof that a single subatomic particle is in two places at once. This topic is not beyond your comprehension. You know that one thing can’t be in two places at once, and yet we have definitive proof that one thing is in two places at once.
Don’t take my word for it. Look into quantum entanglement (or nonlocality, specifically) and superposition. When you fire a single photon, for instance, at two slits in a screen, it simultaneously goes through both slits in the screen (it either does this as two separate particles or as a wave, but both of those are impossible).
Theories of the Created Order
If I weren’t a Christian (convinced by the evidence that the incredibly improbable resurrection of Jesus actually happened), then I would believe in the simulation thesis. Simulation theory solves many of the problems of quantum mechanics: essentially, our world is just the display of backend software, so of course it doesn’t matter how far apart two particles are in the display because the particles don’t actually exist, and thus it can appear that measuring one instantly causes an outcome in another particle.
Yet even simulation theory requires a creator.
The evidence points in one direction: the origin of the universe, the origin of life, the essentially universal belief in the “supernatural” occurrence of free will that violates our understanding of inputs and outputs, and the proof of the “impossible” through quantum mechanics all suggest that a Creator is probable.
God of the (Growing) Gaps
Some have critiqued belief in God by saying that God is used to explain the unknown, and that, as science explains more about the world, what remains unknown declines. In short, the usefulness of God as an explanatory device for the unknown continually dwindles as the unknown dwindles.
The opposite, however, seems to be true.
We are actually becoming more certain that quantum phenomena are forever unknowable. For instance, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics that tells us that the more certainty we have about the position or speed of a particle, the less certainty we have about the other. So, as we more accurately understand a particle’s position, we necessarily understand less about its speed. This is not due to our own technological limitations. It is a fundamental principle that will always be true: as we learn more about one attribute, we will know less about the other.
The same has happened in physics. The more we have learned about classical physics (the laws that govern the movement of large things — stars, black holes, galaxies, etc), the more we have learned that we cannot truly understand how the laws that govern the small things (photos, electrons, etc) are possible.
You are, right now, composed of trillions upon trillions of particles that are inexplicably and seemingly impossibly in many places at once and yet giving you what science, despite all its advances, has never been able to replicate: life.