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Science, Metaphysics, and Reductionism
When issues of science and religion are discussed only from a religious point of view, often they are discounted by many scientists and scientifically minded individuals. On the other hand, when a position espousing what might be called scientific materialism is presented such as that described in the book, "Consilience", there is a negative response by many towards a view which completely omits any recognition of the obvious spiritual aspects of human beings, or which makes attempts to explain them simply as products of biological evolution. However, it seems that a more careful, objective reading of the evidence can reveal that it is possible to demonstrate that one can approach the subject of science and religion using scientific arguments and points of logic to arrive at a position where the transcendent aspects of reality are made coherent with established science by advancing logically to more fundamental planes of reductionism.
Scientific evidence can be garnered to conceptualize a level of reductionism at a plane further back to a "time" prior to the Big Bang. Scientific interpretations imply that nothing existed before the Big Bang which is clearly illogical since it postulates that the event, which is often viewed as having originated at a dimensionless point, developed from nothing; no primary principle.
On another issue, with the necessity of excluding any ideas not established in contemporary science, an "axiom" was created to the effect that randomness must have been the only permissible organizing "force" in the universe. Thus, according to that view, all strucures such as atoms, life forms, and human attributes such as spirituality, love of the arts, scientific curiousity, and creativity must have arisen by unending, convoluted, mechanical advances of random trials and errors. However, mathematical calculations from serious scientific investigations have provided compelling data to show that the necessary, precise chemical and genetic steps required for advanced life to develop could not have evolved randomly within the estimated 3.5 billion years of life's relatively short existence on earth. There is the additional scientific interpretation that identical precise structures such as atoms of elements must have also formed "randomly" throughout the universe. One is compelled to ask, then, what else can be a result of such "randomness"?
Purely from logical and scientific arguments, it can be concluded that there must have been a primary principle prior to the Big Bang which, however, probably did not have mass or dimensions, such as more familiar physical primary principles, and perhaps resembled realities such as dreams or thoughts. An uncontested premise is that consciousness is real which is readily confirmed since it is subject to direct observation and it is a reality with which we are all familiar. Finally, there is the observation of the existence of human's spirituality, aspects of which are known as humanism, such as the ability to love including the love of ideas, and the appreciation of beauty. One can readily find confirmation of that by considering the altruistic passions of such humans as Ludwig Beethoven, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, and William Shakespeare.
On making use of the scientific arguments and logical deductions, one comes to the conclusion that there should exist a cosmic matrix, the existence of which will enable explanations of phenomena not explainable by bare scientific materialism. If one accepts that there is such a matrix, then it can be seen as being fundamental to the Big Bang as a determining primary principle. It would follow then that spirituality, or humanism, which exist in Homo sapiens is not an effect, or product of biological evolution, but rather must have originated from the cause, the primary principle.
Thus, by use of reductionist arguments, based on logic and scientific evidence, it is possible to advance to a level of reductionism which provides evidence that there exists a cosmic matrix or organizing bias. The dialog brings one closer to accepting the possibility of the existence of a primal, organizing force.
The desire for intellectual exploration has as one of its major goals the understanding of reality in the universe or cosmos Development of science was a logical progression from philosophical inquiry to become a a very powerful intellectual method for discovering new information about nature and the universe by incorporating the use of the formal experimental method whereby examinations of phenomena could be carried out under controlled conditions often in a laboratory, and by following certain established, logical rules of evidence.
Later developments in the formation of modern science led increasingly to examinations of the fine structures of life and matter; as an example the cellular nature of life was confirmed by the invented technology, the microscope. Further scientific exploration resulted in the confirmation of archaic views that there existed an even finer, atomistic miniature nature which, however, was even beyond the power of the microscope to make visible. By observing characterstics of that which was visible, such as the results of chemical reactions, hybrids from plant breedings, radioactivity, and so on, it became possible to deduce paradigms for the natures of the invisible fine structures which allowed for the development of theoretical bases for such fields as chemistry, genetics and molecular biology, and physics. Thus, concepts such as atomic and molecular structure, the existence and nature of genes, and the existence and nature of Black Holes could be deduced; modern science had arrived.
However, as successful as science had become in explaining physical phenomena, both areas of investigation of the very small, the elementary particles, and of the very large have encountered observations not explainable by established laws of physics. For the elementary particles, separate characteristics from those of classical physics have been observed and are studied under separate empirical rules of quantum mechanics. For the large objects, and the universe as a whole, many questions cannot be answered including the basic one: How did the Big Bang come about?
The progress of increased organization towards more complex structures in the biological world is explained by science as being the result of random interactions of matter. Preservation of the randomness concept was a necessary consequence of the dependence on reductionist proofs throughout science. Thus, for example, in explaining the formation and evolutionary development of living systems, in order to preserve reductionism, the idea of randomness was the only "driving force" which was allowed as an explanation. That kind of discipline served well to separate science from superstitions, but based on certain observations such as the formation and puzzling rapid progression of the development of life forms, one cannot but wonder whether what has become a dogmatic adherence to randomness as being the only permissible " vital force" in complex structure formation may not have become a superstition in its own right.
Thus, ultimately, that emphasizes the valid philosophical question of whether there must not be another alternative, a matrix which determines the unique structures of atoms when they are formed from cooling of the primal energy. A concept called self-organization which is increasingly referred to in science, although as yet just a name without a proposed mechanism, becomes even more significant when one begins to consider the formation and evolution of life forms. As mentioned earlier, there are increasing amounts of carefully done, published scientific studies which present calculations to indicate that advanced life forms could not have developed by evolution dependent on random trials and errors in the relatively short time period of life on earth(estimated to be 3.5 billion years) because of the very numerous, precise, sequential chemical steps required and the very large numbers of trials and errors of gene types most of which were non-viable mutations.
That does not contradict the broader, qualitative aspects of Darwinian evolution and dates of fossil evidence confirming the direction of it going from the simple to the complex. However, the rapid rate of the process of evolution and apparent short-cuts strongly suggest that randomness may not have been the driving process and that some kind of force, or dynamic template, sometimes tentatively labelled as a self-organizing force had been involved whose influence had been observed elsewhere as for example in "random" atom formation.
Both physical and biological evolution consist of long sustained drives towards the development of increasingly complex systems possessing increased performance potentials. That is truly remarkable when it is considered that advanced life forms are more ordered than simpler forms and its components, and should by definition have lower entropies. However, the Second Law of Thermodynamics states that in spontaneous processes entropy is increased. Thus, this suggests additionally the possibility of a thermodynamic argument to prove that evolution is not a spontaneous, or random process.
Thus, when the totality of evidence is considered, one cannot escape the conclusion that there should exist an additional realm or matrix in the universe which can explain the anomalies and gaps in addition to the preferences which one encounters in contemporary scientific descriptions since they cannot explain all phenomena. For example, the human penchant for culture and the humanities cannot be rationalized as developing from randomness. Rather, they appear to be primal qualities and not products. Thus, the consideration of a matrix, a self-organizing force perhaps of a primal consciousness, seems to explain many unanswered questions including the bases of human nature. The possibility is raised that recognition of a non-dimensional precursor reality and cosmic matrix should enhance further useful dialog towards resolving conflicts between physical cosmology and metaphysics.
