The above question was asked by religious apologist Dinesh D’Souza during a debate with Christopher Hitchens. The overall context makes what he meant clearer:
“The universe obeys laws… If you think about it, that’s very strange. If I’m driving my car, I can follow laws: I see a stop sign, I come to a halt. How does matter obey laws? How does the electron know what to do?”
Although this type of argument is ridiculous, it is not uncommon. Because laws in the legal sense are prescriptive rather than descriptive, there are some who assume scientific laws are as well. Thus, the electron must somehow be made to follow the laws of nature – and why it does so in that case requires an explanation. But of course the electron does not obey the laws of physics in the same way that we obey traffic laws. The laws of nature do not inform nature on how to behave; rather, they inform us on how nature in fact behaves. They describe the regularities that we find in nature.
There is a deeper question here, however – one that is somewhat more reasonable than asking how the electron knows what to do – and it concerns the existence of the regularities themselves. Why is it, some ask, that there are laws of nature at all? Some see in this fact a reason to believe in a creator who planned the universe this way. Perhaps that's what D’Souza had in mind.
But the laws merely describe the way things happen to be. Scientists observe nature and come up with laws that allow us to predict, at least to some extent, what will happen in given situations. The universe is at least near-deterministic (that is, at the level of ordinary objects, at least, it behaves in an essentially deterministic way, so that if you have the same cause, you get the same effect). If the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics is correct, then at bottom the universe is not causally deterministic, and an electron (among other things) in fact behaves somewhat randomly. Thus, using an electron as his example probably wasn’t the best idea D’Souza has ever had.
Whether the universe is causally deterministic or not, there is no basis for asking why, in any ultimate sense, it is the way it is. Scientists can search for more fundamental laws, of course, but eventually they will reach some brute fact or facts about reality: that is just the way things are, period. If the universe is completely deterministic, then that just means that the principle “same cause, same effect” is true. If not, then that means the principle isn’t strictly true. And if the universe were considerably more random than quantum mechanics suggests, then that would mean we would not be able to come up with as many laws, and would be less able to predict things. But no matter what, to suppose that a creator is needed as an explanation makes no sense. To insist that an explanation is needed is to maintain that any regularity in how things behave could not simply be the way reality happens to be – and that just doesn’t follow.
What’s worse, a creator cannot possibly provide the supposed explanation anyway. For a creator would himself have to behave in an at least somewhat lawful manner in order to do anything – and thus there would have to be laws that applied to him. To posit a creator as an ultimate explanation for the existence of laws therefore doesn’t work – it merely passes the buck.
Religionists ignore this because they view the mind and its behavior as “magical” – as requiring no explanation whatsoever. This – as I point out in the final chapter of The Truth about God – is the central mistake made by the religious (and unfortunately still unconsciously made even by most non-religious people). That is why D’Souza casually mentions the example of his stopping at a stop sign, as if that is not in need of any explanation.
“The universe obeys laws… If you think about it, that’s very strange. If I’m driving my car, I can follow laws: I see a stop sign, I come to a halt. How does matter obey laws? How does the electron know what to do?”
Although this type of argument is ridiculous, it is not uncommon. Because laws in the legal sense are prescriptive rather than descriptive, there are some who assume scientific laws are as well. Thus, the electron must somehow be made to follow the laws of nature – and why it does so in that case requires an explanation. But of course the electron does not obey the laws of physics in the same way that we obey traffic laws. The laws of nature do not inform nature on how to behave; rather, they inform us on how nature in fact behaves. They describe the regularities that we find in nature.
There is a deeper question here, however – one that is somewhat more reasonable than asking how the electron knows what to do – and it concerns the existence of the regularities themselves. Why is it, some ask, that there are laws of nature at all? Some see in this fact a reason to believe in a creator who planned the universe this way. Perhaps that's what D’Souza had in mind.
But the laws merely describe the way things happen to be. Scientists observe nature and come up with laws that allow us to predict, at least to some extent, what will happen in given situations. The universe is at least near-deterministic (that is, at the level of ordinary objects, at least, it behaves in an essentially deterministic way, so that if you have the same cause, you get the same effect). If the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics is correct, then at bottom the universe is not causally deterministic, and an electron (among other things) in fact behaves somewhat randomly. Thus, using an electron as his example probably wasn’t the best idea D’Souza has ever had.
Whether the universe is causally deterministic or not, there is no basis for asking why, in any ultimate sense, it is the way it is. Scientists can search for more fundamental laws, of course, but eventually they will reach some brute fact or facts about reality: that is just the way things are, period. If the universe is completely deterministic, then that just means that the principle “same cause, same effect” is true. If not, then that means the principle isn’t strictly true. And if the universe were considerably more random than quantum mechanics suggests, then that would mean we would not be able to come up with as many laws, and would be less able to predict things. But no matter what, to suppose that a creator is needed as an explanation makes no sense. To insist that an explanation is needed is to maintain that any regularity in how things behave could not simply be the way reality happens to be – and that just doesn’t follow.
What’s worse, a creator cannot possibly provide the supposed explanation anyway. For a creator would himself have to behave in an at least somewhat lawful manner in order to do anything – and thus there would have to be laws that applied to him. To posit a creator as an ultimate explanation for the existence of laws therefore doesn’t work – it merely passes the buck.
Religionists ignore this because they view the mind and its behavior as “magical” – as requiring no explanation whatsoever. This – as I point out in the final chapter of The Truth about God – is the central mistake made by the religious (and unfortunately still unconsciously made even by most non-religious people). That is why D’Souza casually mentions the example of his stopping at a stop sign, as if that is not in need of any explanation.
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