Theories give more of a picture, some insight into how it is that a law holds. .
What are these scientific theories? .
Two views.
One is that they are convenient fictions, compact reformulations of laws. .
The other is that they refer to real things quarks, electrons, the gravitational force that exist independently of us and our sensory equipment. .
Scientists regard theories as compelling understandings of the world, which correspond with observations, fit in broadly with other theories, and make sense. They must rest on strong logical foundations. In other words, science tries to find causal explanations for natural phenomena. .
Here comes the trouble: much in quantum theory goes against intuition and the theory claims that causal explanations are a delusion. Quantum theory has deeply disturbing implications. .
For one, it shattered traditional notions of causality. The SchrÖdinger equation with the mystical wavefunction, which unfolds all quantum phenomena, offers not certainties, as Newtonian mechanics did, but only an undulating wave of possibilities. Thus Quantum Mechanics explains things differently. Infact advocators of the theory have asserted that it isn't the job of science to explain anything at all. As a theory of what actually occurs in the measurement process, QM is useless. The only argument offered is that the measurement can not be analyzed by any conceivable theory. But as an algorithm for predicting the outcome of an enormous body of spectroscopic and scattering experiments, QM is astoundingly successful. .
Secondly, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle then showed that our knowledge of nature is fundamentally limited - as soon as we grasp one part, another part slips through our fingers. .
The founders of quantum physics wrestled with these issues. Einstein insisted that a more detailed, wholly deterministic theory must underlie the vagaries of quantum mechanics. Arguing that "God does not play dice," he designed imaginary, "thought" experiments to demonstrate the theory's "unreasonableness.