When I was about eight years old, our family went on a vacation to the beach. In front of our cabin was a boardwalk that led to a beachfront store. For a treat, I was given a small amount of money and allowed to walk to this store alone to buy a candy bar. When I went in, I saw a slot machine. Though I had never played a slot machine before, I was intrigued by its promises of easy money. It occurred to me that I could win enough to buy a hamburger. I put my money in, and I did win enough. Then I thought, well, if I just play a little more, I will have enough for a soft drink with my hamburger. The party was quickly over, however, and my gambling career with it. I lost not only my winnings but my original candy money. Through a child's eye, this did not seem fair, but it taught me that the promise of excitement and winnings from gambling was not a reliable one.
Every child, man, and woman yearns for a reliable, consistent source of good, and Christianity points the way to this source. As the Epistle of James declares: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17. Trust in this invariable source, in God, is basic to the teachings of Christian Science and directly opposite to reliance on the promises of gambling's allure.
It may seem a far stretch from my one gambling experience to some of the most intriguing discoveries of quantum physics, but bear with me. Part of the ongoing debate in current theories of physics is sometimes explained in terms that are common to games of chance. In their book The Matter Myth, Paul Davies and John Gribbin write that in quantum physics one "cannot be certain what any given electron will do. Only the betting odds can be given." The Matter Myth (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992), p. 209. Or theorists may say that atomic physics is like the weather. We can predict that the chance for rain is 50 percent, but that does not tell us whether or not it will rain. The most commonly recognized theory concerning uncertainty in quantum physics is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. In general terms, this principle states "that all measurable quantities are subject to unpredictable fluctuations, and hence to uncertainty in their values," according to Davies in his book The Mind of God.The Mind of God (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992), p. 30. Davies and Gribbin state, "Einstein found the concept of quantum indeterminism so shocking that he dismissed it with the retort that 'God does not play dice with the Universe!' . . ." The Matter Myth, p. 209. Einstein was not, however, able to establish through physics that there were deterministic laws ordering the world of quantum mechanics; nor have others. Davies and Gribbin conclude, ". . . it seems that God does play dice." Ibid.
