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The Material and Nonmaterial World
Most scientists subscribe to naturalism, the belief that everything has a natural explanation,
usually regardless of whatever other explanations there may be.
For instance, I'm a naturalist in the above sense, but I believe there is such thing as a miracle,
by which I mean an event having a natural cause, but for many, a supernatural significance.
In other words, you can be an atheist, a Christian, or a Buddhist, and still be a naturalist.
It's tempting to assume that naturalism requires materialism, the belief that matter is the only kind of reality. That's not the case.
No one would claim that the square root of two is a supernatural entity. Nor could anyone reasonably call it a material entity.
It's a natural entity.
Every physical science studies matter. Yet every physical science also casts the world in mathematical
language in such a way that solving the mathematics will answer questions about the world. That this
is possible suggests, as the late Carl Sagan said, that "there is some resonance between the human mind
and the way the world works."
This is quite plausible, because the human mind is a product of the universe it attempts to apprehend.
The two are inherently compatible.
You could even argue that the universe does not consist of solid particles, but centers
of interacting force fields. Indeed, one major and fertile theory of matter asserts
that matter consists of vibrating strings and membranes of energy; that the ultimate
properties of the universe are determined by frequencies and harmonics.
Life is self-replicating, self-referencing chemistry. Life is a natural phenomenon.
Intelligence is nonmaterial. Intelligence is an aspect of nature and is usually diffuse,
seen in the general behavior of various systems throughout the cosmos -- as in an ant
colony, which as a whole, behaves like an intelligent organism, or in the mutually balancing
interactions among stars forming the elegant structures of clusters and galaxies.
Human beings are living beings. Human beings are also intelligent beings in whom intelligence
is self-referencing and autonomous.
Humanity is a natural phenomenon, and like the sun and stars, most likely has a role to play in the destiny of the universe.
Richard W. Fox works as a university lecturer in physics and astronomy at Governors State University near Chicago, Illinois.
Email: Richard W. Fox
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