Physicists are beginning to wonder if anything “physical,” such as waves, particles, or energy, exists at all.1 The universe may consist of nothing more than ideas and relationships—in other words non-physical, non-material things. The idea that there is something “material” that is somehow different than something non-material may be an illusion. Most people think of the physical world as a collection of tiny subatomic “particles” similar to itty-bitty billiard balls. These particle billiard balls, whether they are electrons, protons, quarks, gluons, bosons, etc., in turn act in “fields,” such as gravitational or electrical fields. In reality, this sort of atomistic conception of physical reality is hopelessly outdated. One problem is that the things that we think of as “particles” have a lot of strange properties. For example, they do not have well-defined locations at any moment in time. Objects do not influence each other just because they are in close physical proximity. That is simply an illusion caused by the crudeness of our physical senses.2 So, as strange as it sounds, the particles that you think of as making up your body may not actually be residing within your body at any particular moment. A scientist measuring the position of a particular subatomic particle in your body will always find that there is a very small, but real, probability that your body’s particles could be detected anywhere in the universe. In the phenomenon known as “quantum entanglement,”3 “entangled” particles either take on or give up the properties of the other molecules in a system of which they are a part.
Even more bizarre, they would retain those properties even if they were on opposite sides of the universe. Subatomic particles don’t need to be anywhere near each other in order to remain connected or in relationship to each other.
Something known as “Bell's theorem” has now been experimentally proven.4567 John Stuart Bell mathematically demonstrated in 1964 that if certain predictions of quantum theory are correct, then our world is non-local.
"Non-local" means that there exist interactions between particles and events that are too far apart in space and too close together in time for the events to be connected even by signals moving at the speed of light. (N.B. A brain, because it is physical in the traditional sense, can be thought of as “local,” while a mind, which is not physical, can be thought of as “non-local.”) Students have been taught for over a century that the speed of light is the hard limit to how fast everything can travel in the universe. While the speed of light is being measured with greater and greater precision and it is indeed a fixed constant, there is something that can exceed the speed of light. In fact, it can travel instantaneously across the universe. That something is information.
Experiments with entangled subatomic particles have shown that if one particle is disturbed, its entangled “mate” will react simultaneously to the change regardless of where or how far away it is. Even more amazing, that astonishing observation is already being put to practical use.8 While in the physical realm, the speed of light is the speed limit, information which may be stored or embodied in a physical medium, is not physical. For example, a concept like the ratio pi may be found throughout nature, but it also exists in minds and would exist if there were no brains or physical objects to embody it. Information, which is not a material thing, is not limited by the speed limits of the physical universe. (N.B. If some physical relationships can transcend time and space, how much more so must love, which is the defining relationship and characteristic of the Trinity, also transcend time and space, just as the Trinity itself does?)
Accepting that the universe is non-local and that “spooky action at distance” as Einstein called it, actually exists, is difficult for many. A possible explanation called “retrocausality” for “spooky action” other than non-locality has recently been proposed. It suggests that causes can travel backward in time.9 “Retrocausality,” though speculative, would explain why the universe appears non-local by replacing it with a universe where the vector of time does not always go forward. In other words, present events can have quantum effects in the past. Time on small quantum scales is known to be “symmetrical” allowing it to flow backwards and forwards; however, the arrow of time overwhelmingly tends to point in the forward direction due to the second law of thermodynamics (entropy). The energy balance of systems tends to point time in the direction of their least energy requiring state (or maximum entropy). This effect almost always points forward except in systems that have so little energy barrier that time can flow backward with little resistance.10 While these phenomena are fascinating and actually would prohibit time travel for anything larger than the smallest of subatomic particles, they do suggest that time for the sovereign and infinite God is not a barrier that cannot be overcome should he so choose, even within the rules that he established for this universe. Time is inherently mutable and directionless.
Regardless of what eventually becomes the accepted explanation for “spooky action at a distance,” time and distance as classically understood is no more. What remains are explanations where the basis of reality looks more and more like an infinite Mind than it does finite material stuff.
When we observe the universe, we do not see material things; rather, we simply see relationships among properties. “Objects” do not have intrinsic properties; instead, they have properties that come from their relationships with other “objects.” Relations among properties is all that exists. There is no such thing as material “stuff.” Actual objects are an artifact of the way our senses and brains perceive. We intuitively want to object to this. The material world seems “hard,” “finite,” “solid,” somehow qualitatively completely different from the fuzzy, mystical world of ideas. That is a misperception of the world of ideas. 2+2=4 is even harder, more solid and definite than any material object. It is inviolate. If our sensory perception of the world is governed by hard and fast rules, the perception of solid boundaries is just as firm. The creation of artificial virtual realities in things such as modern computer games is a good analogy. In the artificial reality, the computer figures are limited by designed rules programmed into their worlds by the programmer. If the computer figures actually had minds and self-consciousness of their own, they would perceive the limitations of their world with the same “solidity” and finality that we perceive our material universe. The walls in the virtual world of a computer avatar are just as solid as walls in the real world are to us. The reality, existence, and mental world of the computer programmer would be across a similar broad chasm for the computer figure as the one that now separates our world from the purely spiritual. Of course, what makes us different from the computer figure is that we have a mind and a supernatural soul which perceive these realities. To a computer figure, there can only be sound; but to a human mind, there can also be music, since the human mind can comprehend and understand, not just compute.
The idea that “matter” does not exist is far from a new one to scientists. Here is a quote from the great early 20th century physicist and quantum pioneer Max Planck,11
Gentlemen, as a physicist who all his life, within the most sober and rational science, has been devoted to the study of matter, I am certain to be free of the suspicion of being a dreamer, and so I say after my research on the atom; matter as such does not exist.
All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force that brings the parts of the atom in vibration, and keeps the smallest solar system of the universe together. As there in the entire universe does not exist an intelligent force, nor an eternal force- man has not yet succeeded in inventing the perpetuum mobile- so must we assume behind this force the existence of a conscious intelligent spirit. This spirit is the basis of all matter. The visible but impermanent matter is not the reality and truth- because without spirit, matter wouldn’t exist at all- but the invisible, immortal spirit is the truth. Because every spirit belongs to a being, we are forced to assume it to be a spiritual being. Because spiritual beings do not come about by themselves, but must be created, I will not hesitate in fact, to call this secretive creator, like people of all cultures through millennia has done, God. Thereby moves the physicist who dealt with matter, from the realm of stuff to the realm of the spirit. And so is our task ended, and we must then pass on the research into the hands of the philosophers.12
The idea that reality is not material, but mental is not solipsism. The ideas are real; our minds are real. Ideas have an existence outside of our individual minds, the interactions between them are real, and everything exists within Being—the divine Mind itself. In contrast, unreal things are those that contradict the reality found within not only our individual minds, but the divine Mind. Sin is the highest example of an unreal thing. Of course sin does have real effects, but it is strictly a negative reality, for it is the negation of Truth. It is similar to the reality of the vacuum or the reality of the profound physical nothingness that preceded the Big Bang. A vacuum may even have effects, drawing things toward it for example, but it is only the filling of a void. It creates nothing; it only destroys.
The deeper we go, the more things look like the Trinity, whose relationships with each other define who and what they are—Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Humans are also defined by their relationships to each other: fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, friends, etc. The universe at its most fundamental level is defined by mathematical relationships, while the Trinity at its most fundamental level is defined by relationships between infinite persons.
The universe doesn’t have to be this way. Physical bodies could have limited or no interaction. They could just sit, inert and static. The connecting force between divine and human persons is love. Loneliness is the greatest misery and the reality of hell. This is just as would be expected of any person made in the image of the divine Trinity. Without other persons, without love, persons, whether human or divine, are empty shells that can hardly be said to exist at all.
Meinard Kuhlmann, “What is Real?”, Scientific American, August 2013, 40-47.
Lee Smolin, “Space: the Final Illusion,” Scientific American, April 4, 2019, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/space-the-final-illusion/.
"Quantum Entanglement,” Wikipedia, accessed March 4, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement.
John Clauser, et al, “Proposed Experiment to Test Hidden-Variable Theories” Physical Review Letters, October 13, 1969, https://www.johnclauser.com/_files/ugd/36ef59_05bf40eb0ab4457cac6bf6b0dc8d7077.pdf.
“Quantum Tunneling Time is Measured Using Ultracold Atoms,” Physics World, July 22, 2020, https://physicsworld.com/a/quantum-tunnelling-time-is-measured-using-ultracold-atoms/.
“Does Relativity Lie at the Source of Quantum Exoticism,” Eureka Alert, April 2, 2020, https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/fopu-drl040220.php.
Gilles Brassard, “Profile of John Clauser, Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger: 2022 Nobel laureates in Physics,” PNAS, https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2304809120.
Dan Hurley, “The Quantum Internet Will Blow Your Mind. Here’s What It Will Look Like,” Discover Magazine, October 3, 2020, https://www.discovermagazine.com/technology/the-quantum-internet-will-blow-your-mind-heres-what-it-will-look-like?utm_source=pocket-newtab.
Lisa Zyga, “Physicists provide support for retrocausal quantum theory, in which the future influences the past,” Phys.Org, July 5, 2017, https://phys.org/news/2017-07-physicists-retrocausal-quantum-theory-future.html.
Rubino, et al, “Quantum superposition of thermodynamic evolutions with opposing time’s arrows,” Nature, November 26, 2021, https://www.nature.com/articles/s42005-021-00759-1.
“Max Planck,” Wikipedia, accessed March 4, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Planck.
“Max Planck On the Force Behind the Universe,” Uncommon Descent, February 7, 2021, https://uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/max-planck-on-the-force-behind-the-universe/.