Evolutionary Magic

The basis of my philosophy is evolution. Matter evolves, life evolves, even consciousness and self-consciousness evolve. Everything evolves.

That in and of itself is not a particularly bold statement. The scientific evidence for evolution is overwhelming, so much so that only the most close-minded of the close-minded deny its reality.

Evolution’s Real Question: What Powers It?

The only real question then, since we using evolution as our starting point, and ignoring those who still think it’s a hoax, is to debate the force or mechanism behind evolution.

Is it as modern science contends, all just random accidents, or is there some kind of intelligent intention pushing it forward? I’m going to go with the latter, and by that I don’t mean intelligent design which places a God outside the evolutionary process as the ultimate mastermind.

When I speak of intelligent intention, I’m referring to an intelligence inherent in the evolutionary process itself. It’s a process that is both intelligent and purposeful.

I wrote my short book, The Magical Universe: Answering the Call of Climate Change for Personal and Global Transformation to make this argument in more detail.

There are just too many coincidences and fine tunings in the universe’s 13.8 billion-year evolutionary journey to think it all could have happened randomly.

The Universe has Intelligence and Intention

I find the most compelling evidence for this position in the earliest stages of the universe story in the progressive creation and development of matter.

I think it is the most compelling because according to modern science, matter is just dumb stuff, so how could it act with any intelligent intention, yet it does, and not just once.

First, the Bigger Picture

But before giving you an example of the magic of matter, I want to first take a brief and broader perspective to give you the big picture of the universe’s inherent intelligence.

It is rather curious how subatomic particles form. First, quarks form from what some scientists believe are vibrating strings. Eventually different kinds of quarks combine in different ways to create protons and neutrons which in turn create the first nuclei.

Just that is rather astonishing. It’s as if on some level these amazing little particles knew what to do. How could stupid matter do this?

But of course this is just the beginning of the story. Some 380,000 years later it just so happens the universe cools down enough so that a positively charged nucleus can grab onto a negatively charged electron, and create the first atom, the basic building block for everything else to come in the universe story.

Holons or Whole/Parts

Author Arthur Koestler used the term holons to describe these particles. A holon is something that is simultaneously a whole, in and of itself, as well as part of a larger whole. In other words, holons can be understood as constituent part-wholes of a hierarchy.

In short, what we have just described. Quarks are whole entities in and of themselves, yet become part of a neutron and proton. These two particles are whole entities in themselves yet come together to form a nucleus. This in turn combines with an electron to form an atom, which then combines to form molecules which then combine to form cells, and so it goes. Such an efficient and elegant way to create a universe.

In addition, the atoms get compressed together by gravity eventually igniting to create the first stars. Some of these stars were so huge that when they collapsed in on themselves in their death throes, a supernova (massive explosion) occurred, not only creating most of the elements in the periodic table, but also then spewing those elements all over the universe to create the next generation of stars, planets and life.

These explosions were so bright they could light up a galaxy. We are the result of those elements created in the belly of those stars. We literally are made up of stardust.

The above led physicist Freeman Dyson to say,

“The more I examine the universe and the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known we were coming.”

So, if it is all accidental and random chance, we are an unbelievably lucky species.

The Magic of Matter

But earlier on in this article, I mentioned that it was the earliest instances of the creation of matter that are the most miraculous.

Let me give just one example. Maybe in future articles I’ll give more. I have a bunch in my book.

After the inflation period that some have called the second big bang that occurred fractions of fractions of fractions of seconds after the first Big Bang, the universe expanded from the equivalent of an inch to the known universe today. In reality, according to astronomer, Ken Croswell, it expanded from a trillionth the size of a proton to ten times the size of a beach ball.

There are a lot of interesting things about this event, like traveling faster than the speed of light, but there is something else I want to focus on.

After this explosion, the universe slowly began to cool down and the radiation created in the expansion, started to decay, creating particles of matter and anti-matter in pairs.

After these pairs were created they would separate and fly off on their own. Later on, when they collided with their opposite, they would annihilate each other.

As the universe continued to cool, it soon became too cool to create any more of these particle pairs. Now, the only activity was watching these particles collide and destroy themselves.

We would think if the particles were created in pairs and destroyed in pairs, pretty soon all the particles would have destroyed each other, leaving nothing on which to build a universe.

The Universe Exhibiting Its Intelligence?

However, the intelligence of the universe, or perhaps just another “coincidence” to some, just happened to create an extra particle of matter for every billion particles of anti-matter it created.

So, when all these particles had destroyed themselves, the universe was left with that one-billionth of extra matter, and it was from these extra particles that our universe and we were created.

Cosmologist, Brian Swimme, points out the significance of this,

“Henceforth, instead of having its existence vanish (italics mine) with any interaction, a particle could persist and could even enter enduring relationships. A proton and a neutron joined together. Two protons and two neutrons, two protons and one neutron. Such primal enduring partnerships entered existence for the first time. The first stable ground of the universe made its appearance. All future growth whether that of stars or of planets or of continents, would find its strength from the world’s first foundation.”

This is just one small example that someone could explain away as mere coincidence or just random good luck, but when you have a number of these occurrences, then it gets much harder to make that argument. It could even lead someone to stand back, scratch their heads, and enter into a state of wonder about the universe and themselves.

When that happens, and one can stay with it, then begins a very exciting journey into themselves and into the heart of creation itself.

 

To learn more about the magic of the universe: Click this link: The Magical Universe. 

Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash