Is There a "Physics of Christianity"?

Physicist Frank Tipler: Has proposed a "Physics of Christianity" after a book by the same name.


It was philosopher George Santayana, in his Reason in Religion, who first noted that while "false physics" is compatible with false theology, true physics is fully compatible with true theology, or more exactly "true religion". If this is so, then Frank Tipler's theory of a "Physics of Christianity" must occupy center stage in terms of the latter! Or so he would have us believe!

But is it valid? Or to put it another way: Is Tipler's thesis sensible? If true, and that is a very BIG if as we'll see, it would mean that all the biblical miracles can be understood in terms of modern physics, and the most central event in Christianity - the Resurrection - can as well. What we'll do in this instalment is to begin to look closely at Tipler's theory, or better proposal (since actual theories are testable and his isn't) in terms of miracles, and then in later blogs examine problems of theodicy, then Tipler's theory of the afterlife, personal resurrection, "Heaven and Hell".

Before proceeding, after reading Tipler's book, The Physics of Christianity (Doubleday, 2007) I did come away regarding this as the last lifeline for hard core religious believers and bible punchers. Leave out all the bunkum concerning Anthony Flew's "conversion", or Lee Strobel's finding the light or any other distractions, this book is where "the bear sits with the buckwheat". For if Tipler's case is indeed made, as he insists, then Christianity has a solid physics basis to rest on, which will serve it in multifold ways - say against detractors.

But let's get to the nitty gritty. In his Chapter VIII, Tipler deals with the resurrection of Jesus head on. Let me say that, on reading his explanation, I was at first flabbergasted - to say the least! This is because he seems to have made a dramatic as "conversion" as Anthony Flew in eschewing his atheism for a nominal God belief. If one picks up Tipler's earlier work, The Physics of Immortality, and turns to page 310, one reads:

"....I emphasize again I do not think Jesus really rose from the dead. I think his body rotted in some grave. Furthermore, although I think that Jesus' disciples may have had a "vision" of him after his death, this "vision" was not in any sense an objective phenomenon. It could have been only a collective hallucination, had it occurred at all."

Contrast that with the following take in his Physics of Christianity (p. 199):

"De- materialization (vanishing from the appearance of his disciples) can be accomplished by electroweak quantum tunneling, which violates baryon number and lepton number conservation. The key reaction would be proton plus electron goes to neutrino plus antineutrino. This would convert all the matter in Jesus' body into neutrinos, which interact so weakly with matter that a person in a room with Jesus would see Jesus vanish".

Thus, what Tipler is really doing, is providing a physical basis for the resurrection, not a supernatural basis. (In other words, there's a definite natural explanation for Jesus de-materialzing)

Normal quantum mechanical tunneling can be represented as follows:

E
^
!
!--V
! !
! !
! !
! !
! !
! !_______________________>X


with the "barrier" at height (potential energy) V, we visualize a particle on the left side of the E(Energy) axis, "tunneling" over to the right side - where it may have wave function, U(x) ~sin (kx + phi), where phi denotes a phase angle.

Note that if the barrier is not too much higher than the incident energy, and if the mass is small, then tunnelling is significant. Note that the penetration of the barrier is a direct result of the wave nature of matter! In effect, this wave nature - which is uniquely quantum mechanical in origin- allows a higher energy barrier to be penetrated by a lower energy particle, something totally without parallel in classical, Newtonian physics!

Tipler's version majorly differs since it employs or assumes baryon annihilation, and its inverse, via electroweak quantum tunneling. These are computed (using a probability algorithm) to be controlled by the cosmological end state of the "Omega Point" or what he identifies with God as the "Final Singularity" and which is somehow pre-determined before all time. He gets this to fit with physics since in physics it's just as accurate to say that causation goes from future to past events: viz., the principle of least action, as from past to future.

In his book (ibid.) he argues:

"We must start with the probability that the tunneling process is so short that disciples would see it as 'instantaneous' (1/100 of a second). This probability is 10^-100. We must then raise this enormously small number to a power equal to the number of atoms in a human body,,....something like 10^29."

Tipler goes on to admit that if (as ordinary application of probability to random processes goes) then de-materialization will be observed by not a single person (not a single de-materialized atom will be observed). Well, this is reasonable, given we are being asked to expect that an original vanishingly small probability is suddenly enhanced by 129 orders of magnitude! This is like one minute having a monkey sit in front of a typewriter, with the odds of composing just a basic poem nearly 10^-100 (10 followed by 100 zeroes) and then in the next instant fully compose the entire Edgar Allan Poe poem 'The Raven' without one mistake (probability = 1).

How does Tipler get around this? Well, by mandating that the computed probability is no longer unrelated to the universe at large, but actually pre-determined by it, such that (ibid.) "the universe requires the de-materialization -materialization of Jesus to have occurred in order for the universe to evolve to the Omega Point. "

He adds, "then the probability is not a gigantically small number...but 1"

Well, uh yes, because you essentially jimmied the context to do away with all random probabilities in exchange for a certainty!

While we're on it, let's deal with this "Omega Point". Like it or not, the evidence (dark energy causing accelerated expansion of the universe) shows Tipler’s Omega Point cannot come into being the way he perceives it, and – if he wants to retain it at all- he will have to make it compatible with an indefinitely expanding (curvature k= 0, or 'flat') universe, and final “heat death”.

Tipler insists that Hawking “proved” this cannot happen, since otherwise black holes would evaporate, and information would be lost forever, violating “unitarity”. However, more recent findings disclose this is a crock. Indeed, since 1997 the general consensus of physicists is that the so-called “Hawking paradox” has been solved, information can be preserved and Hawking radiation is not entirely “thermal” but receives quantum fixes or corrections. In any case, Tipler’s invocation of “black hole evaporation” to nix indefinite cosmic expansion no longer holds up.

For an excellent insight into this, I recommend readers get hold of the BBC production ‘The Hawking Paradox’. It is interesting seeing how even the “cosmic master” himself has had to eat a bit of humble pie (though the story is he is working on a way to preserve his hypothesis. Most serious physicists, like Leonard Susskind, doubt this will occur, or at least Hawking will emerge from his enclave anytime soon with that wicked, elfish grin and holler 'Boo! I did it!')

Now, since the cosmos will gradually die out as its heat sinks overwhelm sources, it follows that life cannot be co-temporal or co-existent with it, as Tipler wishes to believe. More than likely, all life will perish long before the final cold whimper of the cosmos. Hence, there will be NO “omniscience” at any final singularity or Omega Point (since there won’t be any singularity to begin with) nor will there be any “omnipresence” by the end of time. In any case, the cavalier usage of such terms outside their normative religious context must cause one to look askance at Tipler’s whole thesis.

Of course, with the abolition of the Omega Point, there is also the abolition of Tipler’s version of omnipotence – and obviously also, “life everlasting” - meaning no personal resurrections at all for any sentient beings like humans.

Despite those few impediments, we move on to how Tipler explains "the eight nature miracles of Jesus". He is blunt, asserting (page 200) they can all also be accomplished via the electroweak quantum tunneling process.

To quote Tipler (ibid.):

"For example, walking on water could be accomplished by directing a neutrino beam created just below Jesus' feet downward. If we ourselves knew how to do this we'd have the perfect rocket!"

Okay, let's back up! What he's saying is that a suitable downward neutrino beam would be the equivalent of a rocket exhaust. Fair enough. So how many would we need and where would they come from? Well, the upper limit of the tau neutrino is estimated at 35 MeV (millions of electron volts where 1 eV = 1.6 x 10^-19 J). Essentially, if there are 10^29 protons say, in a human body, we'd need the equivalent mass of neutrinos directed downward to provide an upthrust just equal to the weight of a man ...to appear to be walking on water without falling into it.

Since a single proton has ~ 938.5 MeV, then that means 26.8 tau neutrinos is needed for every proton. In all, we'd need something like 2.7 x 10^30 neutrinos ...or more than are observed from the Sun in one month! So, if we understand this, Jesus could just automatically marshall all the neutrinos from the Sun for one month to be able to walk on water ...for maybe what....one minute?

Of course, if readers believe this is Tipler's biggest problem, they haven't yet seen how he deals with the problem of evil!

To come....!