The philosophical idea that things are real because God observes them is quite an old one and does no require an appeal to quantum theory.

I find any discussion of quantum theory as if it told us something about the real world less than enlightening. First of all it is still a contingent theory. Secondly such things as “collapsed waveforms” are descriptions of how the mathematics is interpreted within the model. It’s a bit like using geometry in the context of building a house. Talking about points having no size, lines having no width and planes having no thickness is all very Euclid, but it has no useful meaning in the particular context.

In the end all theories of how the world works are phenomenological. After all, string theorists don’t expect us to think that particles really are little bits of string.

This, I think is the trouble with the classic post-modern position: each individual observer collapses their own reality, and this, as you say, is a lonely and isolating place. One thought-experiment that comes into play here is that of Quantum Suicide and the idea of Quantum Immortality, but I want to deal with that in the next post, as it requires us to think about the Many Worlds Interpretation too.

I wonder this because it has implications for an understanding of God as observer/creator. If, in fact, one external observer is sufficient to “create” a large-scale reality, I’d agree it provides remarkable evidence of God as “creator and sustainer” on levels we’d never before imagined. However, could human reality instead prove to be a collection of individually observed micro-events? If so, we would find ourselves in a hopelessly isolated position, confined to our own observations and entirely excluded from those of others. Now there’s a nightmare I hope science never asks me to stare down!