A "Reason" For All This

A relative of mine, who is an atheist scientist, once said, "The behavior of the electron is purely statistical, which gives a problem to anyone who thinks there is any 'reason' for all this."

An explanation of what he means. Scientists have noticed that the behavior of subatomic particles is in some way "statistical" or "random". For example, it is impossible for us to know the exact position and velocity of a particle at the same instant; if we know more of one, we know less of the other and vice versa. Furthermore, this is not a failure of the instruments we use to find these data; it is something inherent in the theory. This injects some uncertainty into our knowledge of the physical aspect of the universe. Not only are there things we don't know, there are things we can't know.

There are two main problems the aforementioned comment, though. First, it places the limits of knowledge in the mind of man and, second, it is a classic case of equivocation.

Our inability to measure nature exactly does not imply nature is itself random. Our scientific theories of Nature can only tell us so much. Claiming that what our theories can't tell us must be false or nonexistent is like the fisherman who claims what his net doesn't catch isn't fish. In fact, it is the very idea of the unknown that pushes Science forward. It is the apparent irregularity in nature that drives us to find the real regularity behind it. Our theories may simply not be sophisticated enough to fully explicate the real precision that Nature exhibits. We haven't dug deep enough.

But for the sake of argument, let's assume he is correct in saying that Nature is physically random. There is still a problem. He equivocates on the meaning of "randomness". He conflates epistemological randomness with physical randomness. He wants to say that Nature behaving randomly on a physical level implies that there is no overarching rhyme or reason to it. He wants to say that because my room is a mess it must have no occupant. Physical randomness (a messy room) says nothing about epistemological randomness (whether an occupant of the room or, say, God, exists).

Christianity of course places all full knowledge in God. He can know everything about Nature. We strive to know more and more as he allows, but we still have limits.