a perfect design

I cannot believe God plays dice with the universe.

— Albert Einstein

I once came across a display in an exhibit called Mathematica at the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) that left me in awe.

It consisted of two large panels of glass with evenly spaced horizontal rods running through them. Beneath each column of rods was a rectangular chimney with its two dark sides perpendicular to the glass.

A red line on the glass had the shape of a bell curve — a curve that rises slowly at first, then rapidly to a peak. It descends just as quickly before ending in a perfectly symmetric pattern.

At the top center of the case, hard dark balls fell one at a time onto the rods, bouncing from one to another. A ball hitting the rod directly beneath the opening was equally likely to bounce left or right. It was less likely to hit a second, lower rod, and less likely still to bounce in the same direction two or more times in a row.

I understood this. No human or machine controlled the balls’ motion. They fell at random. Yet this perfectly random motion filled the chimneys in the perfect pattern of a bell curve.

A bell curve was created by chance.

That astounded me. Mindless, inanimate matter moving by chance created an elegant form. It did so every time the chimneys were emptied into a hidden well and the balls started falling against the rods again.

I became overwhelmed with a realization that has stayed with me ever since:

Chance is not chaos.

Isaac Newton worked out the clockwork of the heavens. He believed that it could not exist without a clockmaker.

And he’s right.

All the patterns of nature result from mega-trillions of random events. The myriad cells in the human brain ultimately act randomly and are the product of random gene mutations, giving rise to a pattern, a history of decisions, a life, and a soul.

The material and the nonmaterial have been wedded from the beginning of the universe. Metaphysically, the properties of an entity are simply the patterns formed by the boundary that separates it from other entities, allowing it to be distinguished. A general property embracing a multitude of entities crosses its boundaries, making them indistinguishable and invisible to sensory perception, which operates by discriminating boundaries.

General properties are thus invisible to the senses. An example of a general property is the square root of two. Another example is the binomial distribution, which can be generalized and made concrete by drawing a bell curve.

General properties are perceived through general properties of brain cells, commonly known as thoughts. Thoughts that lead to successful interaction with the world are considered true. There are infinitely many general properties, but the only valid ones for us are those that allow us to interact successfully with the material world. The internal laws of thought (logic) are the preferences evolution has given our minds.

Since evolution acts through the world, we assume that logic is a valid guide in interacting with the world. Thoughts range far beyond the particulars of the world, which means, on the one hand, that thoughts can follow along useless or dangerous lines, but on the other, that thoughts can lead to innovation, and the creation of new realities.

Intelligence is inherent; there are signs of it everywhere. But it’s rare for intelligence to be internalized in individual organisms, so we need not assume their presence every time we see signs of intelligence, as in the clockwork of the heavens.

Yet, we exist in nature. Because nature’s intelligence is internalized in us, it is inescapable to conclude that we have an important role to play in the destiny of the universe.

It’s not guaranteed that we will survive to play such a role. Life may triumph in the universe and still perish on Earth. But while our potential doesn’t make us immune to the perils of the universe, it does give us reason to believe in ourselves, reason to accept human desires as reflective of tendencies inherent in nature.

Yes, chance is not chaos. God tells us that.

And I, for one, am listening.