Science has found that much of what takes place in the world is governed by random processes – by probabilities. This upset Einstein at one point, who said he refused to believe that God plays dice with the world. Yet we have increasingly been forced to deal with probabilistic means for measuring the world – the weather is a prime example. We simply cannot deal with all the factors which would provide a perfect forecast of the weather.
At first it was thought that this was simply a limitation of our ability to measure and track the countless factors in nature. But at subatomic levels, it was found that probability rules the day – and when Heisenberg announced his Uncertainty Principle, it caused Einstein’s outburst; because the good Albert could find no flaw in the reasoning, and yet could not accept the result. How perfectly human of him!
The Uncertainty Principle states, in crude terms, that the full nature of a particle may never be known, regardless of how measured. It is like this: to know fully the nature of a particle we must know, among other things, its mass and motion. However, it is not possible to know both at the same time. A measurement of mass alters the motion; and measurement of motion renders the mass unmeasurable.
This in itself would not be too surprising. The part which bothers everyone is that this uncertainty is shown to be not a function of the measurement, but a function of the particle itself! Nature is too slippery to be got hold of; and that revelation forever changed the nature of science.
Since that time, the implication of the Uncertaintly principle have been expanded to included particles which disappear from one spot to reappear at another; and particles which, having once collided, remain forever linked to one another, so that changing one affects the other at a distance. Things are not knowable with certainty, only with probability. This uncertainty appears to be a property of the universe.
Our need for certainty has led us to create, in our minds, models of the world which are more stable and predictable than the world itself. Most of our thinking consists of us playing with our mental models, instead of experiencing the real world. So we watch the world on our equivalent of television and don’t get exposed to its uncertainty. We remain one step removed from the world’s randomness at most times.
Religious dogma serves a similar purpose for us in putting us one step removed from God. Rather than experience the connection to all creation, we prefer to hang on to the stability of our everyday life. We stick to the rules. Our love for dogma is a creation of the human ego, which needs the illusion of stability and constancy to feel safe.
The human race has created numerous religious sects and groups out of its own ego-consciousness. In the case of most, there is a deity which is dedicated to the enforcement of a set of rigid rules. The deity is often wrathful and very strict; this is to provide a feeling of security that the rules will not be easily or frequently broken. The result is a religion which may be confining and restrictive, but which provides a means of social control. In many societies there continues to be a need for this to prevent chaos and anarchy. However, such societies are blocked from evolving because self-control has been replaced by external control. Such societies are often characterized by a belief in strong government as well, up to and including absolute monarchy or dictatorship, which may even occasionally assume a democratic guise.
The fear which the ego supplies is intended to be protective. People regularly surrender a portion of their freedom of action in order to gain safety and security. So to gain the illusion of certainty in an uncertain world, people settle for the illusion of freedom as well.
In this way, most people deal with the randomness of the world.
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