The Divine Universe

From the atom to the galaxy, and everything in between, there is evidence of design. From Newton till the twentieth century – the era of ‘modern’ science – scientists saw the universe as a complex machine. Since Einstein and Max Planck, however, relativity and quantum theory have led to a radical revision of scientists’ perception of nature and the universe – what might be called ‘post-modern’ science. Early last century Julian Huxley said, “Nature is not only weird, it is weirder than we can possibly imagine.” I don’t think he would revise that statement today.

Today, scientists are more and more seeing the universe as a living organism rather than a machine.
Since Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is expanding, cosmologists have realized that it is also evolving over time: becoming ever more complex. Quantum theory holds that this complexification is a process of infinitely small, random events. Physicists deal, not with simple cause and effect, but probabilities. The probability of the Universe developing as it has is incalculably small. It depends on extremely finely tuned initial ratios between the strength of energy fields and certain other physical factors.

After fourteen billion years of such random events, bringing increased order out of chaos, thinking organisms have emerged and with them what we call intelligence. But what is intelligence? Psychologists measure intelligence experimentally as an individual’s ability to make deductions from given data, but it is more than the use of formal logic. It includes memory and intuition; it overlaps with the direct perception of patterns, of beauty and ugliness, harmony and discord.

Most people associate mind and intelligence only with humans and tend to regard humankind as separate from the rest of nature, a different order of being. But there are many people who do not think this way. Australian and American aborigines and mystics like Saint Francis and Teilhard de Chardin, for example, see the whole of nature as an interrelated community. Today scientists recognise that humankind is an integral part of the universe. We are of the earth, a product of cosmic process. We are not outside observers, alien invaders or an added extra; our species is a transient phenomenon in a cosmic evolutionary process.

Many scientists recognise mind, not simply as electric currents in the brain cells and nervous system, but as something that exists in its own right. Even plants seem clever and ingenious in their tricks of survival and the promotion of their genes. There is no detectable trace of intelligence in a rock, but no one has identified a definable cut-off point. Earth, and humankind in particular, may be the cosmic centre of gravity for mind, or may not be. There may be other concentrations in other places in the universe in similar or possibly in very different life forms. It is not unreasonable to suppose mind is distributed throughout the universe, albeit very unequally, the way matter is. Some scientists have coined the term ‘psi field’, as in psychology and psyche: an energy that there is at present no means of observing experimentally or measuring quantitatively.

It seems mind is a cosmic phenomenon that we cannot locate precisely. It is everywhere. Some have suggested that a cosmic “mind” directs the process of complexification. The uncertainty and randomness observed by particle physicists does not eliminate the notion of direction and even purpose; it only indicates nature’s infinite flexibility and potential. Anything can happen, though with varying degrees of probability. The probability of thinking beings made of matter emerging through random events out of the total chaos of the primordial universe is incalculably small, and it took fourteen billion years; but it has happened.

Religious believers generally embrace the notion of transcendent intelligence, though wisdom is a more popular word. Monotheists believe in an infinitely wise God. Hindus believe in a transcendent power that is infinitely wise and just, whose judgments are experienced as karma. They believe that the individual evolves through a succession of incarnations that advance forward or decline backward according to the disposition and conduct of the individual.

This introduces the notion of something that overrules the mind. We call it the will. The will is not a rational faculty that deals with data; it is something that generates motion, action. All action is either creative or destructive. Some people speak of positive and negative energy. It seems that the energy of the universe is, on balance, positive and creative. The cosmic mind seems set upon self-creation, not destruction and, although increasing entropy is an inherent tendency in nature, the opposite, increasing order, has been the overriding phenomenon since the beginning.

According to Darwin, biological evolution results from adaptation to environmental change. Those members of a species in which random changes in genetic code fit them better for their environment thrive and reproduce more than less lucky ones. But recent research in France has revealed a new, mysterious evolutionary driver that is not related to environmental change. The formation of the bones of the skull is largely dependent on the changing shape of one particular bone near the spine. This coincides with changes in the form, posture and behaviour of the higher primates and, ultimately, Homo sapiens. The adoption of the upright position, for example, has been found to be unrelated to the environmental changes in Africa that were previously thought to be the cause. It occurred simultaneously world wide. It is also hard to prove that the development of larger brains, and with them enhanced consciousness and intelligence, bestowed any real advantage.

The process of advancing levels of consciousness and mental power cannot be attributed simply to environmental advantage. It is easier in fact to link moral sense with adaptation to the environment than pure intelligence. The ‘altruism’ and social responsibility of ants, for example, has been a major factor in their success. There is something else driving evolution.

It is as though heightening of consciousness is something the universe values and promotes for its own sake. It could be argued that mystics are the highest development of evolution. Intelligence, or thinking power, is only a stage of development towards the direct perception, deep insight and intuition of the mystic. The universe manifests its greatest sense of its own reality in humankind, but this is an ongoing process. It is not over yet. We are not Mother Earth’s last word.

Ultimate total self-awareness and wisdom belong to God, embodied in a yet-to-be-perfected universe. The universe is in the process of becoming what it truly is – the embodiment of the mind of God: the Cosmic Christ, the Logos.