#928 Quantum Unitarity and the Ascension of Jesus
February 23, 2025Doctor Craig, I have a question concerning quantum unitarity and the ascension of Christ.
I'm not sure if you would know, but if you don't, unitarity shows that the total summation of all probabilities in a quantum system is always equal to one. This ensures that information cannot leave this universe, which challenges cosmological theories like Lee Smolin's theory of universes forming through blackholes, which implies that the information of the core that collapsed into a blackhole could escape into the baby universe.
Problem is, it seems that this conflicts with the ascension, where Christ's body (including the information of his body) left this universe. It seems this violates unitarity.
I have a few solutions, though none seem fully satisfying:
1). The body didn't really leave: it remains in this reality, rather it sort of disintegrated and Christ rejoins with it at the parousia. This seems to me the most likely one.
2). It is still here: the universe is not completely a closed system. Rather it is part of a larger closed system like Heaven. This seems a bit as hoc.
If you have any solutions, please tell me.
Sincerely,
Diego
Nigeria
Dr. craig’s response
A
You are quite right to reject the two alternatives you mention, Diego. But there is a much more obvious explanation: The ascension of Jesus was a miracle! That is to say, God, as a transcendent being, can do things which are beyond the capacities of nature to accomplish.
So your question, while unusual, is really just an instance of the old question of the possibility of miracles. The question is not whether miracles like Jesus’ ascension are possible on a naturalistic worldview, according to which nature is all that exists. The question is whether miracles are possible on a theistic worldview, according to which there is a transcendent being who created the world and established its laws. As their Creator, God can do things which nature, left to its own devices, cannot do.
So God is not bound by quantum unitarity but can cause an event that results in a loss of information in the universe. It would be misleading to say that this “violates unitarity.” That sort of language is a vestige of the construal of miracles as “violations of the laws of nature.” When God causes a naturally impossible event (like information loss), He does not break nature’s laws because the laws of nature apply only if no supernatural factor is intervening. So the laws prescribing quantum unitarity predict what will happen only in the absence of the action of a supernatural agent.
For more on the question of miracles, you might want to look at Reasonable Faith, 3rd ed. (Crossway: 2008).
- William Lane Craig