\u201cThe Mystery of the Orderliness of the Universe.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s drawn considerable mockery from certain atheists. \u00a0One in particular, a dogmatic fellow with scientific pretensions who\u2019s based in Florida, from which he\u2019s been periodically spewing contempt for me for about five years now, has pronounced what I wrote \u201cchildish.\u201d \u00a0He reserves his\u00a0particular\u00a0scorn, though, for the penultimate sentence of my column, which concludes by expressing the suspicion \u201cthat, in fact, the universe isn\u2019t merely brute, mindless matter, but is suffused throughout with mind or consciousness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t make any particular effort to accurately understand what I was getting at, but immediately connected it with what he regards as \u201cNew Age\u201d nonsense. \u00a0(In fact, the hypothesis that I entertain on this matter\u00a0is distinct\u00a0from the idea he\u2019s mocking. \u00a0But I doubt that he would care much.) \u00a0It\u2019s the kind of thing, he sneered, that represents \u201cdeep insight\u201d in my shallow little mind. \u00a0My column reveals me to be \u201ccarrying on the proud tradition of the willfully ignorant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whatever.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I happened, just a few minutes ago, to be doing a little background reading on Freeman Dyson, a very prominent Anglo-American mathematical physicist who has interested me for many years. \u00a0(I recommend his book Disturbing the Universe<\/em>, among other things.) \u00a0And, while doing so, I came across this remark from Professor Dyson:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, to worship God means to recognize that mind and intelligence are woven into the fabric of our universe in a way that altogether surpasses our comprehension.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, that seems rather like what I<\/em> said.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, it also sounds rather like what my column had already quoted the Nobel physics laureate Eugene Wigner as saying:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWigner, however, although he had been raised as a secular Jew, eventually developed an interest in the Vedanta philosophical school of Hinduism, and especially in its teaching that the universe is pervaded throughout by mind. \u2018It was not possible,\u2019 he wrote, reflecting on his work in quantum theory, \u2018to formulate the laws in a fully consistent way without reference to consciousness.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m small potatoes, obviously. \u00a0But it takes remarkable\u00a0self-confidence, I think, not merely to disagree with Freeman Dyson and Eugene Wigner but to dismiss both of them as, implicitly, \u201cchildish,\u201d shallow, unscientific, and \u201cwillfully ignorant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I published a Deseret News column last Thursday entitled \u201cThe Mystery of the Orderliness of the Universe.\u201d \u00a0 It\u2019s drawn considerable mockery from certain atheists. \u00a0One in particular, a dogmatic fellow with scientific pretensions who\u2019s based in Florida, from which he\u2019s been periodically spewing contempt for me for about five years now, has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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