I had heard the film, “What the Bleep do we know” was a mind-blowing experience, tho’ I wasn’t clear on whether it was a dramatic film or a documentary. It turns out to be the worst of both worlds: a sort of simplistic-story, poorl- acted, interspersed-with-silly-animations dramatic film, intercut with unidentified scientists spouting, not so much any kind of scientific information, but rather their opinions about the implications of their scientific theories, and what they suggest to them about the falseness of Christian religious ideas, about which they have at best a rudimentary knowledge. Should a theologian with no scientific training approach them to pontificate on quantum theory, they would be just as disgusted as I am at their dismissals of the God of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. It appears they have never heard the proposition God is Love but instead have based their perceptions of Christianity on the spoutings of television preachers. And so they can assure us in good authority that God (understood in some new, quantum way) cannot possibly concern himself with the “sins” (the word is uttered with contempt) of individuals or of the entire planet. As if it never occurred to the Jews or the Christians that the universe was vast, and that God was vaster still and that what we believe is therefore all the more paradoxical than, it seems, some minds can imagine. The opening seconds of the film set the scene “In the beginning was the Void” (we enjoy appropriating religious ideas) “and it was teeming with possibility” (I’m sorry, did you say “Void” and “teeming” in the same sentence?! Once a Void teems with anything it is not a Void!---sloppy, sloppy, sloppy!)
The scientific terms and theories are presented as mantras and never elucidated or explained in any way. They seem to think that just repeating the terms, showing pictures of people who may be scientists, and having funny little animated characters impersonate quarks will convince people of all the lovely propositions they learned once upon a time in their EST weekends. “You create your own reality.” The movie can be reduced to a bumper sticker: "because of quantum theory, we create reality.” There is not a single proposition –scientific or philosophical--that is argued or illustrated in any way. One of the scientists (uh, since they are never identified, or credentialed, I cannot say more than, one of the younger, unbearded male scientists) stated that when he began his day by “creating it” “strange things” happened. He neither clarified what this “creating” of his day entailed (thinking about it? planning it? some kind of chanting it into existence that we poor bleeps can’t be entrusted to know?) nor what any of the startling occurrences might be: did red lights turn green for him, as I have heard happens to many evangelicals who like to pray while driving?
Instead of going into any detail about Quantum Theory or even subatomic particles, they content themselves with animations and illustrations. I have read The Dancing Wu Li Masters, so I have some ideas about these things, and enjoy hearing them described in the simplified terms I can understand (no math! please!). The NOVA episode “The Elegant Universe” did an excellent job of presenting string theory in all its strange inexplicability. And all these ideas make my jaw drop in wonder and awe and make me no less sure that there is an intelligence underlying and infusing all that we think of as matter, whether it be dark matter, or the infinite reaches of empty space. Advice: watch this episode of NOVA and skip the facile gnosticism cloaked as scientific discovery of What the Bleep Do We Know.
