Part One of Quantum Physics & Thomistic Metaphysics, (Scientific American)

Two recent articles in Scientific American, merit the attention of Catholic philosophers of science. These two articles are "Unquantum Quantum" by David Tong (Scientific Am., Dec. 2012), and "Strange and Stringy", by Subir Sachdev, of the (Sci.Amer. Jan., 2013.) Ironically, the second article by Subir Sachdev would seem to contradict the first one, by David Tong, because Sachdev, with no reference, however, to Dr. Tong's article, claims to prove action at a distance. However, in view of Tong's evidences, which confirm the medieval position on the continuous nature of matter, there is no action at a distance, because all action, as of the discrete particles, such as electrons, takes place, of necessity, in the medium of continuous matter. Only the purely spiritual substances of the angels are able to act apart from, and free of, this continuous nature of matter. All inanimate, i.e., atomic structures, (forms), though constantly rearranging in obedience to the substantial form in which they inhere, absolutely require a substantial medium or substance in which to inhere as the accidental (or non-necessary, only relatively non-necessary) forms that they are. This metaphysical necessity, which is testable, repeatable and therefore scientific in the modernist sense, supplies the certitude that quantum theory lacks. For quantum theory claims to be based entirely on probability.

 

The approximation of all modern measurements, due to our state of fallen human nature, is one thing and does not take away the certitude supplied by the metaphysical principles of existence-essence, act-potency, form-matter and substance with its nine accidental properties. Probability, then, is just the uncertainty of the inductive method which must always leave open the possibility, or even probability of some thing or event that would alter, in some necessary or significant way, a physical model and its predictions. Such, for example, is the geophysical theory and model of uniformitarianism, that processes have always and will continue to operate as they do in the present. This theory was summed up by Scottish scientist James Hutton in the 1790's, when he dogmatically concluded that since he could find no vestige of a beginning, nor any prospect of an end, therefore..... But he should have read all of the great Roman poet Lucretius, because the epic, De Natura Rerum, very emphatically and clearly, while asserting the cyclic nature of the Order of Generation and Corruption, at the same time recognized the "fixity of species", and made it impossible for anyone to claim a transformation of species and remain in the domain of sanity.

 

But Charles Lyell, in the early 19th century, seemed to give scientific credibility to Hutton's theory by his Principles of Geology, based on newly discovered strata in the earth's crust with their innumerable fossils. "Read all about it" in the copious literature. See how Darwin was instructed by his predecessors and his peers to see a "record" of past ages in the strata-containing fossils. It is a long and fascinating story, nor is it free from political connections. The Whig party in England, with its goal as the permanent destruction of the monarchy, in league with similar anarchic-liberal factions in Europe, and the control exercised in all the universities and societies, such as the Royal Society of England - all these political and economic movements were intensely interested in what was going on in the sciences, as they still are! And here is the intrinsic connection between so-called theoretical science and Baconian utilitarian, experimental, empirical or technological sciences. These latter are constantly running up against that "fixity of species" that Lucretius recognized and that the latest experiments with the hapless fruit fly continue to prove.

Not only does uniformitarianism fail to account for this fixity of species, which is evidential fact, it also gives a false picture of earth history in its refusal to allow for catastrophic events that have altered earth's topography. The evidence for a universal deluge is ever growing. See the works of Protestant creationist Walt Brown and Catholic geophysicist, Guy Berthault, available on the internet. If the moderns had been faithful to their inductive method, they would have recognized the fixity of species which recurs in every variation on the stable form and which admits catastrophic events in earth's history - thus forcing some modification of Hutton's dictum, "no vestige of a beginning and no prospect of an end." In fact, this is both: A beginning is heralded by the very same process that presage an end: the Second Law of Thermodynamics. And so, too, in theoretical and experimental physics, as David Tong's article shows, there are certain fixities or constants that simply will not transform or change, such as the atomic structure and number and color unique to each element in the Periodic Table. 

That the elements intermingle and form compounds and evermore complex molecules is proof that they are not substances in themselves, but accidental forms of some larger substance in which they must inhere for their very existence. The elements, in their inanimate state, are properties of the very first created form, the substantial form of the universe, with all its accidental properties, created ex nihilo and in toto, on Day One of Creation Week. The natural laws that God established at Creation in each substantial form, constitute the Order of Creation and persist throughout all time without any substantial change. All changes affect only the accidental properties of the substantial form. The best example today is evolution and its claim that the substantial forms of "species" change over long eons of time into a different substantial form. They tell us that over these long ages of time, dinosaurs, for example, which are reptiles, changed their scales into feathers, their arms into wings, etc.. and so became birds. The evolutionist will tell you that he has evidences of this gradual transition. However, a close examination of these so-called evidences reveals their purely imaginative character. The fact is that this transition or transformation is as fictional as that from one of the primates into homo sapiens or true rational man. The primitive forms, such as Neanderthal Man, used as examples of this transformation, are proven to be every bit as human as contemporary man. The abnormalities of Neanderthal man are still found in contemporary man who still suffers from such diseases as rickets, arthritis, and other bone-altering conditions. Geographical isolation and inbreeding also cause various abnormalities such as those we see in the Australian Aborigines and the Pygmies of Africa.

The literature on this topic is immense and growing as the Protestant creationists continue their investigations in the areas of genetics and anthropology. Our Catholic contribution to this ongoing controversy must be mainly in the area of Aristotelian-Thomistic Metaphysics. This philosophy posits the fixity or stability of the Order of Creation. This Order of Creation is divinely revealed in Genesis 1-3 and specified most clearly in the Ten Commandments given to Moses, as narrated in the Book of Exodus. Furthermore, the stability of the Order of Creation is constantly exemplified and verified by the minor variational and accidental changes that preserve the integrity of the substantial form throughout time, which temporal dimension we signify as the Order of Generation. This Order of Generation would have persisted according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, even if Adam had not sinned. But Adam's fall, plus the catastrophic event of the Universal Flood, have undoubtedly caused the Second Law to be greatly accelerated in its operation. This is demonstrated by such spectacular evidences as the decline of the earth's magnetic field, and the increased number of mutations in the human genome. (See the landmark works of Thomas Barnes and John Sanford.)