Einstein and Bohr: Don’t tell God what to do!

Alastair Rae adds a wrinkle to a famous comment by Einstein:

When Einstein said that ‘God does not play dice’, Bohr is said to have replied, ‘Don’t tell God what to do!’ [Quantum Physics: Illusion or Reality, Alastair Rae, Cambridge University Press, Canto Edition, 1994, page 22]

He notes that there’s some doubt as to the ‘historical accuracy’ of this exchange, but there’s an important point to be raised about Bohr’s response. I don’t know that Bohr was much more disciplined in his metaphysical thought than Einstein was, but Bohr seems more clearheaded than Einstein in metaphysical matters, at least from a Thomistic viewpoint. St. Thomas told us that metaphysics uses the specific sciences, and that would certainly include the most fundamental of physical sciences — physics.

Metaphysics uses the specific sciences, not slavishly as Kant did with Newtonian dynamics. It was Kant, and not Newton, who derived a metaphysical system founded upon the parameters and operational principles of Newtonian dynamics and the absolute time and space in which that dynamics was set.

Metaphysics uses the specific sciences to discipline itself to reality. When a philosopher or anyone else tries to understand reality using too many a priori principles, he’s essentially trying to impose his speculations upon reality. The proper use of knowledge from the specific sciences will supply the dose of reality which fights against this wrongful human tendency.

“Don’t tell God what to do!” Wise words though there might be some doubt whether Bohr actually said them and much doubt as to whether he would have understood the full significance of that advice.

Listen to God. Listen to His direct words in the Bible and pay close attention to the Story and the stories He tells in that Holy Work. Listen to God in the traditional worship and prayer practices of His Church. Listen to God in your experiences of His world and in the results of hard thought and contemplation and empirical research as recorded in the best works of men.

Don’t tell God what to do, listen to Him when He speaks in the Bible and when He speaks in the experiments and theories of quantum physics. Listen to Him most of all as He narrates that story which is your life.