Rationality & Trascendence

Rationality & Transcendence

The universe is a complex system, made of nested complex systems A system is an organized set of components, that cooperate for any goal; components are generally systems themselves

In a simple system any component exhibits a beahavior that depends on its configuration

In a complex system every component exhibits a behavior that depends, beside its configuration, on the behavior of every other component

Rationality & Transcendence

A clockwork, an automobile, are simple systems A flower, a river basin, a forest, a family, are complex systems Simple systems are made by engineers, are designed “top down” (that is backward from functional requirements), while complex systems evolve “bottom up”, via self organizations that are ever more complex: they are autopoietic systems The best example of complex systems are living systems, that evolved starting from chemical/phisical aggregations, climbing the complexity ladder

Rationality & Transcendence The evolution of organisms is a process that has been accurately studied, in order to understand the laws of complexity For instance the role of context is fundamental for selforganization: the strains coming form the environment push a system to reorganize in more complex structures, not to soccumb

Entropy is a phisical parameter that measures the decreasing potential of a system to produce usable work, and a phisical law tells us that in an isolated system (such as the universe) entropy can only increase with time

Rationality & Transcendence Let us consider a metaphorical interpretation of this parameter The ability of producing work depends on the presence, inside the system, of an organization, an order, that anables differences, specializations A system made of components that are all equal has nothing more than any of its components

Difference of components is fundamental for evolution

Rationality & Transcendence Natural systems are never isolated, but exchange energy and information with their context For this reason they can violate the thermodynamics law seen before, and can increase their internal organization, create differences and specializations, aggregate new components if necessary for survival

This is what happens for living organisms, and for social organizations, another good example of complex systems

Rationality & Transcendence In the course of this evolution the “complexity chain” doesn't show any discontinuity: there is no need of a “magic moment” where an unnatural element is needed, at least at the current level of scientific knowledge The so-called “emersion” of new behaviors is nothing more than a recombination of behaviors of the components, or the aggregation of new ones At this point of this line of reasoning, Science and Reason tell us that the evolution of organisms does not need a design or a super-natural intervention But there are hints, signs, that this clean rational picture has some cracks, that it cannot explain all the issues that it raises

Rationality & Transcendence First sign. There is a well known mathematical theorem, solved by Goedel, that demostrates rationally that a logical system cannot define and explain all the correct rules that can be deducted by its axioms, it cannot be complete Said in other words, a system cannot define completely itself. In order to understand completely a system you have to get “out of it” and look at it from outside Kant had already pointed out that in order to define a boundary you have to have some knowledge of what is outside of it A finite system, for instance, cannot rationally define infinity. We do it

Rationality & Transcendence Another sign comes from the study of complexity

We have seen that the push to evolution comes always from the context: a system left to itself tends always to maintain its configuration. This does not explain the universe (that on the base of the most credited theories is finite and isolated), that globally deteriorates (its entropy increases) but locally has these islands of evolution

Probably there is a “context” for the universe, that causes this evolution. This context cannot be physical, otherwise the problem would only be pushed further off

Rationality & Transcendence A third sign comes from the presence of evil It is interesting the fact that this presence is used generally to negate the possibility of existence of a Being omnipotent and infinitely good: if God exists, knows everything, and can do anything, evil cannot exist The (normally untold) corollary of this line of reasoning is: if I were God I would have made a much better universe, where kids never fall in wells, mosquitos (and lawyers or whatever you pick) do not exist, and so on Let us turn this reasoning around, scientifically: let us start from distinguishing “natural” evil from “metaphisical” evil

Rationality & Transcendence A rational analysis tells us that natural evil cannot be considered evil, but is a necessary ingredient of evolution: if all systems could avoid any strain, there would not be organisms at all Natural catastrophes like quakes, floods, tsunamis, are the natural and correct behavior of an evolving earth. Without them we would not be here to lament them. A complex system MUST behave like this Same reason for diseases: they are just necessary elements of darwinian evolution, with selection of the strongest, search for cooperation, competition, and all that In effect, if creationists were right, if God had created all the living species together (lions and antelopes, and so on) we could rightly say that God could have easily avoid the creation of carnivores, of viruses, etc.

Rationality & Transcendence A completely different reasoning is that for metaphysical evil: in a purely physical world it cannot exist Metaphysical evil requires necessarily a responsibility, the free will of man Man as a pure complex system (that is what comes out of science, no doubt of this) cannot have free will, cannot even conceive it (remember Goedel) Physical world knows only determinism and (maybe, because not all scientists agree) chance

Rationality & Transcendence On the other side, if the rational universe had no determinism, we would not have science: Kant again sentenced that observant people should keep praying God “not” to continuously perform miracles In any case, to assign freedom and responsibility to a purely physical system (=person) is like assigning it to a car or to a water molecule: remember that science tells us that there is NO discontinuity in the complexity chain This is the stronger sign, in my view: responsibility and freedom do exist, and infact man is capable of doing evil actions, he is the only system that can do it

Rationality & Transcendence These signs, among others, tell me that a Transcendent Entity is necessary. An Entity not physical, external to the physical universe, that put in all of us a “spark” of transendence, that enables us to understand (even if with difficulty) the universe, and that renders us free. Unfortunately also to do evil