I find the references to "God" (e.g., "...why did God choose to do it that way and not some other way?") to be both distracting and unhelpful working through the text itself. It signals to my brain (possibly incorrectly) that either (1) the author is trying to inject an unwarranted religious idea into an otherwise potentially helpful explanation in a devious way, or (2) the author has sadly mis-chosen a loaded term that doesn't add anything helpful to the explanation at all, and instead detracts from working through it because it creates the nagging question in my head of, "Is he really suggesting that God (whatever that may be in the reader's mind) chose to do this?".
A better option (for just the chosen example) would be: "... why does the Universe do it that way and not some other way?".
Oh, okay. Thank you so much for pointing that out to me. I somewhat assumed as much, and I honestly wasn't intending to create anything remotely ad hominem in my critique. Since it's not so common in hardly anything I typically read, it just stuck out strangely (I am only just digging into understanding QM/QP).
Some of them are no doubt serious; I seem to remember a study showing that mathematicians are more likely to be theist than atheist.
In my experience, "Why did God pick X?" and the like is shorthand for, "Is there a classification/uniqueness theorem that says X is the only possible solution to the problem?", which is how it is used here.
Again, thanks for drawing out the shorthand. I personally prefer reading the "is there a classification/uniqueness theorem that says..." over "why did God choose to...". It requires zero cycles to process the intent of the first version, while the second makes me stop each time and wonder which one the author means.
I actually find it very illustrative. It is a way of saying that something is just what it is, and we can't really say why. It is both succinct and rooted in culture, thus rather easily understandable. Using such metaphor is similar to writing poetry: you can compress a pack of thoughts and emotions in just a few words. And you can replace "God" with whatever you want if you're that much biased.
This is actually quite a projection on your end. Saying "God" != "something is just what it is, and we can't really say why." It is typically, from an investigatory and cultural-historical standpoint, a curiosity-stopper, not an explanation (or even a signifier of an explanation). It is equivalent to stating "magic" (ignoring for just this moment the generational and historical bit offered as explanation for the term's usage).
Including references to "God" in an attempted explanation of quantum mechanics is not "easily understandable". Moreover, it's rootedness in culture brings with it myriad histories that impact the way a reader understands what a writer intends. Explaining quantum mechanics by anthropomorphising a God-construct who "chose" to make something one way versus some other way is distracting to readers who do not inject God-construct into their own explanations specifically to avoid making understanding more difficult on the reader.
I can accept that this is a practice from the author's field and generation and still find it distracting and unhelpful without that equating to me being "that much biased." God does not elicit a mentally neutral concept that compresses "a pack of thoughts and emotions in just a few words" when discussing quantum mechanics. It would still be better for the author to not use "God", insofar as it eliminates mysterious language from his explanation, thus reducing the overhead of his reader needing to substitute a non-loaded term (especially when dealing with the sciences, where injecting the term "God" has a history rooted in Western culture of not being too helpful and enlightening).
I can accept it being a practice among the community. That, however, does not imply it is an easily understood, necessary, or sufficient shorthand.
A better option (for just the chosen example) would be: "... why does the Universe do it that way and not some other way?".