written by JOHN MARK MINES | DECISION-MAKING, INDECISION, FAITH
If you chase two rabbits, you will lose them both.
Native American Proverb
Is the Cat in the Hat?
Almost 100 years ago, there was a famous scientist named Erwin Schrödinger. He became famous for two reasons: his equation and his cat.
The equation came first. He developed a “partial differential equation that governs the wave function of a non-relativistic quantum-mechanical system,” whatever that means. The equation was so impressive that Schrödinger won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933.
But the equation had a problem: it didn’t actually represent reality.
Two years later, Schrödinger illustrated the problem with his equation. His thought experiment placed a fictional cat inside a box with a 50% chance of surviving. After an hour, you could open the box to observe the cat’s fate.
Naturally, the cat would be either alive or dead. However, according to Schrödinger’s equation, prior to the observation, the cat could be both alive and dead. This didn’t make any sense. Where did he go wrong?
It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superposition!
The problem is ignorance. While the box remains closed, we are blind. Mathematically, we address this ignorance by assigning each possibility with a probability. In this view, both extremes simultaneously exist. This state is called superposition.
su·per·po·si·tion /ˌso͞oərpəˈziSHən/
noun : the action of placing one thing on or above another, especially so that they coincide.
Einstein applauded Schrödinger’s assessment. The problem, as Einstein saw it, wasn’t with the equation, but with knowledge itself. “There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph,” he wrote, “and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks.” The camera is the problem, not the landscape.
In reality, the cat is never in a state of superposition. At all times, it is either alive or dead. The superposition, then, is caused by the box. Ignorance creates double vision.
Schrödinger’s equation deviates from reality because it captures our uncertainty. When we observe the cat directly, uncertainty vanishes. It is either alive or dead; never both. However, in a state of ignorance, we have to consider both options simultaneously.
Mathematically, this isn’t a problem. Practically, superposition pushes us towards the archnemesis of decision-making: indecision.
Teads or Hails?
Superposition is everywhere. It occurs anytime the outcome of an event is uncertain. Because we don’t know what will happen, we assign probabilities to possibilities. The problem is getting stuck in the middle.
Consider a simple coin flip. Like Schrödinger’s cat, there are only two outcomes: heads or tails. While the coin is in the air, it is in a state of superposition. Eventually, the coin settles into one state or the other.
Mathematically, each outcome is assigned a zero or one. Heads counts as zero, and tails counts as one. If you take the average of a million flips, that number should be approximately one-half.
Here’s where things get interesting. In statistics, this average is called the “expected value.” But one-half isn’t expected at all. Of the million flips, none of them produced one-half; they only showed zero or one. The “expected valued” is not just unlikely; it’s impossible.
ex·pect·ed val·ue /ikˈspektəd,ekˈspektəd ˈvalyo͞o/
noun : a predicted value of a variable, calculated as the sum of all possible values each multiplied by the probability of its occurrence.
This is the illusion of superposition, and why Schrödinger introduced the cat in the first place. When faced with uncertainty, superposition teaches us to pick something in the middle, like “teads” or “hails.” But these options are mathematical hallucinations. And they are always wrong.
Malcolm’s Stuck in the Middle
Beyond coins and cats, there are much deeper matters that are stuck in a state of superposition. One of them is the idea of God.
To us, God is in a state of superposition. Like the cat, he is either dead or alive. Unlike the cat, we can’t simply open the box and find out. We’re stuck in a perpetual state of superposition.
As a consequence of this superposition, to most of us, God isn’t alive or dead: he’s both.
Few would outright declare their faith in a living-dead God. Yet, a rising number of people claim faith without religion, or claim religion without faith. About a quarter of Canadians who identify as Christian claim they don’t believe in God.1 Another quarter who don’t identify with any religion still claim to believe in God.
Most “religiously unaffiliated” folks don’t claim that God is dead. While over a quarter of Americans are religiously unaffiliated, most don’t really believe in anything.2 Less than 20% of the unaffiliated claim to be atheist, that God has certainly left the building. For the others, God may not be alive, but he may not be dead either.
Turns out, God is like a coin flip: we see God as one-half. Few are so bold as to claim that God is strictly alive or dead. To most of us, he’s both.
While I’m not a theologist, these conclusions align with my anecdotal experience. Most people I know have some element of spirituality in their personal philosophies. They’re not as bold as Nietzsche to proclaim that God is dead, but they’re not exactly holding their breath for Judgement Day, either.
Faith is like a coin toss: being in the middle doesn’t win you any brownie points. The half-hearted don’t go to Heaven. Guessing teads or hails will always be wrong.
And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
Saint Paul
This is the challenge with superposition: the presence of possible outcomes pushes us toward the middle, making it harder to choose. The greater the uncertainty, the greater the opposing forces cancel each other out. But if you want to win the coin toss, or get into Heaven, you’ll have to choose.
But there’s a more sinister side to indecision: we actually like being there.
Blind by Choice
Superposition is a seductive illusion. It allows us to have our cake and eat it too. In ignorance, the cat is both alive and dead. As long as we don’t open the box, we don’t have to handle the truth. Ignorance is bliss.
But ignorance doesn’t come for free. In superposition, we stay in a dream-like world like the movie Inception. Life is like a coin that stays suspended in the air for all time. And we can keep it that way, as long as we keep our eyes closed.
Ignorance, then, can be manipulated to insulate ourselves from reality. This insulation robs us of empowerment, effectiveness, and choice. Avoiding the doctor’s office protects you from bad news, but not from disease. If knowledge is power, then superposition is poison.
When superposition is unavoidable, picking a path is the only way forward. To have a career, pick a profession. To have children, pick a biological partner. There’s no way around it: if you want to go to a Heaven, you have to believe in a God.
Fear of failure, missing out, or tragedy gives superposition its power. It tricks us into thinking that keeping our options available is preferable; in reality, indecision is the ultimate failure. Success, love, and faith all start with choice.
It’s true: if we pick a profession, spouse, or God, we might be wrong. But we might be right. Indecision, though, is always wrong. To move forward, open the box.
- https://globalnews.ca/news/153789/canadians-divided-on-whether-religion-does-more-harm-than-good-poll/ ↩︎
- https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2024/01/24/religious-nones-in-america-who-they-are-and-what-they-believe/#:~:text=Much%20of%20this%20profile%20comes,as%20%E2%80%9Cnothing%20in%20particular.%E2%80%9D ↩︎
