Richard John Di Rocco

The vital role of entropy and information in the origin of life from non-living matter, and the evolution of living matter once it was established on Earth, are examined in this chapter. The origin of human and animal learning and memory in the signal transduction mechanisms of pre-Cambrian single-celled organisms of the primordial oceans is described. This phenomenon offers one of the strongest examples of conserved cell and molecular mechanisms in biology. The subsequent rise of multicellular organisms during the Cambrian explosion approximately 500 million years ago is discussed in the context of predator-prey relationships among the invertebrate animals that were living at that time. The predator-prey dynamic provided the intense selective pressure for the evolution of neural networks that were optimized for effective escape and predatory behaviors, as well as for the mechanisms of synaptic plasticity that underlie learning and memory. The rise of the vertebrates, and mechanisms of learning in birds and mammals, is described as the prelude to the emergence of the modern human mind with its amazing cognitive fluidity that gave rise to creativity, the power of abstraction and symbolic thought. The dawn of human meta-awareness in Homo sapiens sapiens, the human who knows he knows, is described and its implications for the emergence of existential fear is discussed. One of the consequences of increased intelligence, besides its ability to magnify fear of the unknown, is the corresponding compulsion to provide explanations for phenomena that are not understood. This characteristic of modern human thinking has been referred to as the cognitive imperative, and it is manifested in the magical thinking of early Homo sapiens, as well as contemporary children. Existential dread, the fear of annihilation of the ego at death, is discussed as the likely driving force for the emergence of mythology as proto-religious dogma that provided a sense of comfort and reduction of anxiety in our human ancestors, as well as in contemporary humans. A theory of the origin of evil in human behavior is offered, in which the overvaluation by humans of the hypothetical constructs that we generate to explain the unknown provides a powerful impetus for genocide and global war. We are the only animals that kill members of our own species to defend ideas, because we fear the loss of the security that our constructs of reality provide.

As the title implies, this chapter will review the main conclusions of the preceding chapters as a prelude to consideration of the essential ontological question concerning the existence of God. We begin with “The Metaphysical Poem of Parmenides”, which in its own right provides an intriguing basis for belief in a necessary Being that is the source of all being. The main philosophical arguments for the existence of God are briefly presented, beginning with St. Augustine’s original “Argument from Truth”, which is then followed in historical order by Boethius’ “Argument for the Necessity of a Supreme Good”, and detailed explanation of St. Anselm’s “Ontological Argument”. The five arguments of St. Thomas are then mentioned with particular attention given to “The Argument of the First Cause” and “The Argument of Contingency”, which together lead to the existence of a Necessary Being that is the Self-Sufficient First Cause all that exists. St. Thomas’s “Argument of the First Cause” and “Argument of Contingency” are re-evaluated in the context of the existence of an eternal multiverse, in which case we must ask whether such an entity could be the Necessary Being that is the sufficient cause of itself. We then show why the interdependent collection of pocket or bubble universes that comprise the eternal multiverse cannot be the sufficient cause of itself; and why the parallel argument that atheists make against the self-sufficiency of God as the Necessary Being is answered by the Modified Argument from Truth, described herein. We show the essential role played by the existence of infinite and eternal Consilient Truth, and the epistemology of Dewy and Bentley which posits that knowledge, per se, has no existence of its own but rather must exist in mind knowing truth. This argument leads to the existence of an eternal mind that knows eternal Consilient Truth.

A review is presented of the highlights of the natural history of the universe from the inception of space-time known as the Big Bang. The implications of this knowledge are presented in subsequent chapters that discuss cosmology, and the origin of life and sapient mind from inanimate matter. The present chapter begins an overview of classical physics with brief mention of the vital contributions of Galileo’s early studies of motion, which laid the groundwork for Newton’s far-reaching mechanics and co-discovery of Calculus. The grand achievements of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century physics, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, are then discussed with particular attention paid to the related concepts of entropy and information that are essential to consideration of the origin and evolution of life and mind in later chapters. After mention of James Clerk Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism, consideration is given to some of the key elements of quantum physics, in particular, the paradox presented by the simultaneous wave-particle duality of light and matter. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the phenomenon of quantum entanglement, which in its most extreme form claims that everything is connected and has a coherent unitary nature at the deepest level of reality.

The modern human mind confronts many existential questions as it contemplates the vast external reality of the universe in which it exists, and the internal reality of its own perception, thought and self-awareness. Humanity is faced with many unanswered questions about the origin of the universe, life and mind. Most significantly, owing to our faculty of advanced intelligence, humans are confronted with the daunting implications of mortality, and this is the stuff of which existential crises are made. Defense mechanisms protect against the fear of the ego’s annihilation in death, but fear of the ultimate unknown also provides motivation in the quest for understanding. This is inherently disquieting because it requires an admission of profound ignorance. Humility in the face of the unknown is essential, however, because without it the questions that lead to learning go unasked and unanswered. This chapter provides a broad overview of the scope of the epistemological, ontological and scientific questions that are addressed in succeeding chapters in the search for ultimate meaning.

Science and religion seek an explanation for the basis of reality, but neither has the ability to objectively decide the ultimate question concerning God’s existence. Theism and atheism are both based on faith; and, in the absence of convincing arguments, proponents of each have polarized in the heat of debate. The essential ontological question about God has been overshadowed by irrelevant arguments. The literal truth of the Bible, as well as the effectiveness of science as a method of understanding natural phenomena, have become proxy issues that are completely irrelevant to the existence of God. Consilience, which posits the unitary nature and coherence of all knowledge (Knowledge is known truth), assures us that the reconciliation of science and religion is possible insofar as practitioners of each discover the truth in varying degrees. A key insight provided by John Dewey’s and Arthur Bentley’s theory of knowledge, as described in “Knowing and the Known”, is that the apprehension of truth by finite mind is always limited and imperfect. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that as scientists, philosophers and theologians make progress incrementally in the understanding of ultimate truth, the statements they each make should increasingly demonstrate elements of correspondence. Until then it is clear that agnosticism offers an honest starting point in consideration of the question whether the universe the sufficient cause of itself, or whether it bears an imprint of a transcendental cause from beyond its spatial and temporal dimensions.

This chapter offers a review of the basic elements of cosmology, or what we know about the origin and evolution of the universe and how we know it. An early Static Theory about the universe, first propounded by Sir James Jeans and latter championed by Fred Hoyle, which described the universe as eternal and unchanging on the macro level, is contrasted to the Big Bang Theory, which described space and time as having a beginning approximately 13.7 billion years ago. The emergence of the Big Bang Theory as the consensus view of physicists and cosmologists is reviewed, and some more recent questions and theories in the field of cosmology are raised. Among these is the concept of an eternally cycling universe, in which each phase or cycle begins with a Big Bang and ends in a Big Crunch that is driven by the gravitational slowing of the expansion of space and its eventual collapse into a singularity that gives rise to another cycle in a Big Bang and collapse ad infinitum. Alternatively, the concept that our vast universe may be only one of infinitely many that collectively comprise the postulated eternal multiverse is presented. If the eternal multiverse is proven to exist, its eternal nature poses certain ontological questions such as whether it can be the sufficient cause of itself or whether a higher-dimensional transcendental cause is the source of all being.

How is truth discovered and proved? One approach to answering this question begins by focusing the question more narrowly to ask whether new mathematics is invented or discovered. Opinions differ on the answer to this question, but everyone agrees that “new mathematics” must be expressed in the form of true mathematical statements. Are statements of mathematical truth discovered or invented? When the question is posed this way, it is clear that mathematical truth may be discovered, but never invented. This follows from the fact that true statements can be proved using deductive reasoning that leads from a statement already known to be true to the hypothesized mathematical truth which is to be proved. The key point about a sequence of deductive logical statements is that the conclusion is necessarily true if the premises of the argument are true. Mathematical truth, indeed all truth, must exist before it is discovered. It exists eternally and cannot be invented. In what does necessary eternal truth have its existence, in what does it subsist? The answer to this question has profound implications for the search for ultimate meaning. The misapprehension that new mathematics is invented derives from the impression of a creative event when new ideas arise in the mind of the mathematician by spontaneous insight. Spontaneous insight will be examined as the end-product of inductive reasoning. What philosophers, psychologists and neurobiologists have said about inductive reasoning will be explored at length in this chapter in an effort to answer the questions, “what is truth” and “how is it discovered and proved”.

The field of abiogenesis explores the mystery concerning how life arose on Earth from non-living matter. We must assume that this happened in accordance with the laws of physics and chemistry. How chemical evolution led to the appearance of self-replicating polynucleotides has not been determined, but significant progress has been made. Uncertainty likewise remains concerning how the enzyme-driven reactions of metabolism arose, as well as how metabolic reactions and polynucleotide-based genetic mechanisms of inheritance were encapsulated together within the membranes of the first cells. This chapter examines a broad outline of molecular biology, and how this information provides retrospective insight into life’s beginning by asking what kind of beginning is consistent with life’s current state of affairs. Information gleaned from this exercise is then integrated with information derived from a prospective exercise that asks how self-replicating polynucleotides, could have formed from simpler organic building blocks on the basis of first principles. One of the great problems of abiogenesis is captured in the question concerning whether genes or metabolism came first. Arguments have been made in favor of independent beginnings, but this provides no insight regarding how they were integrated in cells to yield the modern state of affairs. How would it all come together? A third possibility requires that the genes needed for the production of enzymes that catalyze metabolic reactions, and metabolism that provides the energy necessary for the production of enzymes, co-evolved from simpler antecedent processes that were always integrated.

This book argues that God can be found within the edifice of the scientific understanding of physics, cosmology, biology and philosophy. It is a rewarding read that asks the Big Questions which humans have pondered since the dawn of the modern human mind, including: Why and how does the universe exist? From where do the laws of physics come? How did life and mind arise from inanimate matter on Earth? Science and religion have a common interest in the answers to such questions, yet many scientists and believers have been at odds for centuries. The author and contributors present a program for moving beyond the vastly different perspectives of reality offered by science and religion. Historical proofs for the existence of God are considered in light of the possibility that the universe may be only one in an eternal multiverse that contains an infinite number of other universes. Readers will find a modification of St. Augustine’s Argument from Truth for the existence of the necessary, self-sufficient being commonly referred to as God. This book is suited to all with an interest in the crossing points of science and religion, providing much food for thought and reflection. If in the end, you cannot accede to philosophy’s proofs, or theism’s invitation to faith, perhaps you will nevertheless say ‘yes’ to the amazing universe in which we live.