This short piece of writing explores the idea that signs of higher consciousness can be inferred in physical matter. In other words, that there is plausible proof of the existence of God or a higher intelligence in the universe.

These are my own opinions and in no way authoritative of the Baha'i Faith, for the official Baha'i Faith website visit www.bahai.org. You can also read a book Baha'u'llah wrote about the mystical ascent of the soul. See Baha'u'llah's Seven Valleys.

I am currently writing a fictional novel titled A Shade Near White.

Before any person on the earth could even contemplate their own very personal, and somewhat fleeting journey through life, the earth itself and before that the whole universe we live in, had to undertake its own unique and plainly beautiful journey towards the current time in history. Humanity is now a part of that story, indeed we may have been the goal and ongoing destination of the universe, a hidden unformed fruit, as it started out all those many billions of years earlier. Of course we know that for humanity and all biological life to have developed in the first place, the earth needed to go through successive stages in its development for conditions on the earth to be ready for life to emerge. If we look at the processes of planet building, they are transformative and interdependent. From a seemingly straightforward elliptical path in which the earth has made countless rhythmic cycles, it has evolved in stages. The development of the earth engenders direction and transformation; we can draw many symbolic parallels, of which throw light onto the reality of humankind's collective physical and spiritual journey. But has it been intentionally purposeful or has this development been no more than a series of chance events?

If we look at the development of life in the universe, even the casual observer can’t resist their inborn curiosity; they may ask themselves a few basic questions, which are both paradoxically simple, but also equally immense in scope. ‘How’ and ‘why’ did life as we experience it, come to be in the way that we observe?

The ‘how’, meaning the complex development of matter, from state to state, has been gradually revealed to us through humanity’s history and in particular more recently through advances in the sciences. As our knowledge of the physical universe has broadened, humanity has been able to probe deeply into the structure and reality of physical matter. Some basic assumptions that are now broadly acknowledged, are that pure matter or energy seems to be conforming to or structuring itself on a few very powerful underlying physical laws. Matter and energy are not static, they change state. The change in state has discernible effects on the form and physical attributes which matter displays. Matter has moved from very simple states in its early manifestations, at the dawn of time, to the complex and diverse states that we see today.

So, ‘how’ matter evolves, is well known, however ‘why’ has not been as important to science. Can we then infer, from purely physical knowledge about life, an underlying purpose or motive. The questions then might be ‘is life at all meaningful?’, ‘Does it have purpose or direction?’ If we look back to what we said about matter and energy, we can draw out ideas which point to inferred ‘meaning’ underlying both physical life, which refers to the entire universe, and in turn humanity as a integral part within it.

Looking at matter just after the big bang occurred; it went from extremely dense and hot in the beginning, to cooler and less dense as it expanded in space. As matter changed state, subatomic structure formed, based in laws of physics. Changing from more simple to diverse over time, molecular and mineral structure emerged as a result of the expanding complexity of atomic structure. As changes to matter occurred on the micro level, so also macro level change occurred, with gravity taking effect, allowing galaxies and star systems and their respective plants to form. Taking the concept of matter's development over time and following the respective changes in its state and complexity, we could infer that a concept of latent potentiality existed before any physical manifestations of matter occurred in the stream of time. The next concept one might suggest, is that creation has some form of goal orientation implicit within it. So if life in the universe exhibits goals, of which states of matter tend towards, are those goals hierarchical? With the concept of hierarchy, we could be led to believe that simpler structures form a foundation for more elaborate and complex structures, rising up in an ordered sequence. Indeed we can see, that from the subatomic level right through to the organically unified biological life forms we see on earth today, that differing states of matter are inter-dependant, and hierarchically structured, in a way that seems logical and rational. Not only does life in the universe seem beautifully rational and intelligently ordered, it seems to infer an overall purposeful direction.

Of course the key concepts that have been highlighted in the last paragraph are starting to verge away from purely factual ideas about matter to overarching concepts that point towards meaningful rationale behind matter or implicit in the very laws that structure matter in the universe. So wherever there is design, there is a designer.

According to the founder of the Baha’i Faith, ‘Baha’u’llah’, we find the question of ‘why’, put succinctly, came from God’s intention of revealing his reality to Creation and that by implication means humanity. Baha’u’llah states:

As regards thine assertions about the beginning of creation… … it hath been revealed by God, the lord of the worlds. Indeed He was a hidden treasure. This is the station that can never be described nor even alluded to. And in the station of ‘ I did wish to make Myself Known’.

Science tells us that the universe ‘time and space’ as we know it today, began at a definitive point of time. Science doesn’t try to answer what existed before time and space began, this is not really possible, beyond speculation. If we witnessed the creation of the universe, moment by moment, at its beginning, we might say the universe is now 5 minutes old and counting etc…, but Creation, which means, more than just space and time, in some form or another, has always existed. Baha’u’llah affirms this in the Tablet of Wisdom.

God was, and His creation had ever existed beneath His shelter from the beginning that hath no beginning, apart from its being preceded by a Firstness which cannot be regarded as firstness and originated by a cause inscrutable even unto all men of learning.

So the words ‘Firstness which cannot be regarded as a firstness’ may refer to the beginning of time. And with reference to the moment before time, the current theory of the Big Bang or simply explosion, states that space expanded from a point of infinite density, after that point or moment it became finite and was therefore expanding or exploding. Baha’u’llah likewise states:

That which hath been in existence had existed before, but not in the form thou seest today. The world of existence came into being through the heat generated from the interaction between the active force and that which is its recipient. These two are the same, yet they are different. Thus doth the Great Announcement inform thee about this glorious structure.

As well as the universe exhibiting attributes which express logic and rationale, there is also the issue of causation and will, which then lead to ideas of self actuation and consciousness. These are human criteria of course, products of human intelligence and based on these limited definitions, it could still be argued that a consciousness that is self actuated, self aware, willful and purposeful exists as the cause and motive force of the universe. The seed of a speculative proof may lie in the definition of human created products or objects, their causes and in turn the attribution of ‘creative will’ to these objects, as a sign of the intelligence and self will.

If we take a human object like a computer, which is dependant, for its creation, upon a large amount of collective human intelligence. We have to ask, could something as complex as a computer ‘self create’ itself, without the intervention of human intelligence? The answer clearly would be ‘no’, even if a computer has some degree of self creating ability, now or in the future, it is linked by causation and therefore dependence back to human creation (intelligence) at some point.

We now have to look at the structure of human intelligence and its attributes. Human thought processes and abilities of abstraction, invention/creation exhibit certain key features. These were partially explored in earlier paragraphs, but in the context of inferred meaning in the evolution of the Universe. Including the aforementioned, with the inclusion of other attributes of intelligence, and in no particular order, some of these are latent potentiality, logical related linear sequence, interdependent hierarchy, memory, imaginative form visualisation, goal orientation, will, logical categorisation of object groups and self awareness.

The mind of humanity itself is the result of millions of years of evolution on the planet. Is then intelligence in humanity, a happy accident that resulted from the chance biological evolution of matter? If we look at the ability of the human mind to create, as an object or product, as we said before and for that matter the human body as a logical extension of the mind, did humanity as it exists today decide consciously to create its mind and body. The answer, as with the example of the computer, is ‘no’. The reason is again one of initial cause and will. We might say our parents brought us into existence and this is true, they possessed the will and were thus the cause of our existence. But the line of initial and continual causation, must be passed back generation by generation to the absolute beginning. This would be the likely first emergence of humanity as, at one time, no more physically, than a single celled amoeba. Clearly at this time humanity did not have the intelligence or will to bring itself into creation. It is only now with the discovery of DNA that humanity can manipulate its own creation. Of course the present argument is that DNA creates humanity, although this is true, DNA has no ability to will itself into existence either.

If a computer shows the signs of intelligent creation and we credit this creation to the acts of human will, can we also credit the creation of the universe, which is even greater in it complexity and organisation than any human created product with an act of will, intelligence and self aware consciousness.

So it would seem that humanity didn’t decide to become more adaptively intelligent for the sheer fun. It seems clear it was a potential capacity inherent within itself. So just as the whole universe, in its early form, evolved towards a potentiality inherent within, humanity too as the highest expression of this potential has evolved biologically, mentally, socially and culturally towards an inherent goal. Referring to all expressions of life in nature Baha’u’llah states.

Nature in its essence is the embodiment of my Name, the Maker, the Creator. Its manifestations are diversified by varying causes, and in this diversity there are signs for men of discernment. Nature is Gods Will and its expression in and through the contingent world. It is a dispensation of Providence ordained by the Ordainer, the All-Wise. Were anyone to affirm that it is the Will of God as manifested in the world of being, no one should question this assertion. It is endowed with a power whose reality men of learning fail to grasp. Indeed a man of insight can perceive naught therein save the effulgent splendour of Our Name, the Creator. Say: This is an existence which knoweth no decay, and Nature itself is lost in bewilderment before its revelations.

So it seems clear that God intended Creation to manifest itself in a way that grew towards higher and higher expressions of attributes which point towards its Creator. This should not be confused as a direct expression of the essence or true reality of God, but only as signs or attributes which express the inferred reality and beauty of its Creator. Indeed Creation has been formed not directly from the essence of God but indirectly through the agency of the Word of God. Now referring back to the idea of the first moment of creation Baha’u’llah states.

Such as communicate the generating influence and such as receive its impact are indeed created through the irresistible Word of God which is the Cause of the entire creation, while all else besides His Word are but the creatures and the effects thereof. Verily the Lord is the Expounder, the All-wise.

Although we also know the Word of God to be all the divinely revealed scripture from all the great religions, in this sense ‘Word’, means a reality that is transcendent above any physical attributes. So scripture in written form is like a gateway or entrance which points to a higher reality. And Baha’u’llah affirms this.

Know thou, moreover, that the Word of God – exalted be His glory – is higher and far superior to that which the senses can perceive, for it is sanctified from any property or substance. It transcendeth the limitations of known elements and is exalted above all the essential and recognised substances. It became manifest without any syllable or sound and is none but the Command of God which pervadeth all created things.

So again to recap, humanity as an integral part of creation, is the result of the ‘Word of God’. If we see God’s signs in physical creation, it is the entity/reality of the ‘Word’ not the direct Reality of God. Again Baha’u’llah referring to the ‘Word of God’ says:

It hath never been withheld from the world of being. It is Gods all-pervasive grace, from which all grace doth emanate. It is an entity far removed above all that hath been and shall be.

Now whether humanity perceives all life in the universe as the result of Gods will, or just a strange but wonderful accident that just happened to come about, is down to each individual to interpret. What we find in society today are various theories which account for the creation of life as we know it. The scientific explanations of nature lay the facts out in a fairly neutral way, without explaining why it all came about, i.e. through a conscious intention or through an unintentional but nicely arranged accident of circumstance. As people we can all lay our own understanding of over the top of scientific facts, in a broad conceptual net. Some will interpret from a religious/mystical way, while others in a more secular way. One thought most can agree on, is that the Universe is immense and logically beautiful in its infinity, and if there are still doubters of this thought, then let’s say it’s interesting and mysterious. If it was no more than chance, then we might ask who rolled the dice, if this is too much to presume, then how did the dice roll itself.

Copyright ©  Dimitri Tishler                                                                       top

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