COSMIC RESONANCE: ANOTHER POINTER TO THE TRANSCENDENT

Have you ever heard of “cosmic resonance?” In A Grand Cosmic Resonance, Melissa Cain Travis, defines this term she created as the harmony of how “the abstract truths of mathematics apply to physical reality and mankind’s corresponding intellectual capacities” (Christian Research Journal, Vol 41/Number 01, 25).

Let me try to illustrate. A triangle invariably contains 180^o. I discovered that each time I would add a line to the three lines of a triangle, I would also add 180^o. In other words, if I turn a triangle into a rectangle by adding a single line, it them has 360^o. If I then add a line to the rectangle, changing it into a pentagon, it will then have 540^o. This is not only a truth about mathematics, but it is also a truth about triangles, rectangles, and pentagons in the real world. However, it is also more than that. There is also a mind is involved that has the apparatus to comprehend this grand association between math and reality.

The British physicist Paul Davies marvels at this triune compatibility between math, the material world, and the intellect. According to Travis, Davies claims that this association:

·       “demands explanation, for it is not clear that we have any absolute right to expect that the world should be well described by mathematics.” “Why,” he asks, “should the mathematical approach prove so fruitful if it does not uncover some real property of nature.” (23)

Why is math so fine-tuned to this world? Math is not something that we merely create. It also has a life of its own, by which it discovers things, like how many degrees an octagon has without even measuring one.

Add to this design that fact that our minds are somehow equipped to understand these two realms. Does the theory of evolution have the explanatory power to explain this? Davies doubts it:

·       “One of the oddities of human intelligence is that its level of advancement seems like a case of overkill. While a modicum of intelligence does have a good survival value, it is far from clear how such qualities as the ability to do advanced mathematics…ever evolved by natural selection. These higher intellectual functions are a world away from survival “in the jungle.” Many of them were manifested explicitly only recently, long after man had become the dominant mammal and had secured a stable ecological niche.” (24)

However, this is only the beginning of evolution’s problems. This theory must also account for the natural development of mathematics, logic, reason, and the consciousness, which underlie our abilities. It must also account for the existence of our comprehensible universe and its unchanging order that makes discovery possible. Travis adds:

·       Davies considers currently available naturalistic explanations, as well as theistic ones, “either ridiculous or hopelessly inadequate.” (24)

Atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel has admitted, “I don’t want there to be a God. I don’t want to the universe to be like that.” Nevertheless, he admits that the Darwinian approach will never be able to explain this harmonious triune confluence:

·       “…a much more radical departure from the familiar forms of naturalistic explanation” is needed. (24)

Nevertheless, for Nagel, God is off-the-table. However, for others, He is center-stage. Travis cites Albert Einstein:

·       Einstein admitted to having “a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds.” In several of his writings, he spoke of his “rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.” (22)

Romanian philosopher and mathematician Maurice Solovine claimed:

·       “I have never found a better expression than ‘religious’ for this trust in the rational nature of reality and of its peculiar accessibility to the human mind…one should expect a chaotic world which cannot be grasped by the mind in any way.” (22)

However, the search for naturalistic explanations reigns in the halls of science, where any dissent can be harshly punished. Just ask Thomas Nagel!