Overview

The known laws of nature are insufficient(ly 'rich' or 'deep') to provide for the existence of true free will . However, a certain type of meta-causality that we term acausality could, if it underlies the physical nature of the interactions within a brain, enable true free-willed descisions to be taken. The existence of such a phenomenon has ramifications for physics, cosmology, mathematics and philosophy.

We will see that we must go beyond present science in our explorations of the mental realm of the human mind and of the concepts/phenomena which arise therein: especially free will, meaning and purpose. The reality we will find is however not contradictory to that revealed by the scientific endeavor. Rather, what we find is supplementary to known science, indicative of a deeper richness to the fabric of reality as indicated by the human mind than has as yet been discovered by science in its investigations of the inanimate universe.

We will explore the parallel between the nature, emergence, and significance of free-willed consciousness, and the nature, emergence, and significance of the universe and life. On the way we will relate the underlying themes of the creation and Eden accounts, and of free willed-consciousness, not only to fundamental moral and philosophical questions but also to the concept of human creativity in general, as well as to some of the central ideas of many disciplines: philosophy, quantum physics, metaphysics, cosmology, kabbalah, and mathematics.

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Hedging, we could write instead: We will show why we feel that the known laws of nature are insufficient(ly 'rich' or 'deep') to provide for the existence of what we consider to be true free will.

Summary of the Book

One of the most mysterious elements of modern physics concerns the nature of reality at the microscopic level and of the universe as a whole, particularly the rather metaphysical 'measurement problem' of quantum physics. We will find that our investigations of the nature of morally-relevant free will, and specifically the postulation of an acausal type of basis for free willed consciousness allow us to make some possible contributions to this issue, and to relate the type of free will which is capable of being morally relevant to processes of quantum physics and through it to cosmology.

We will find other points where the nature of free will as we define it has relevance to questions of the nature of existence, to the possible relationship of kabbalistic and cosmological concepts, to the anthropic principle, to the relationship between entropy, human creativity, the prevention of the possible eventual 'heat death' of the universe, and to other matters of cosmological significance.

In exploring various paths in these fields, we will always find ourselves led back to the issue of free-willed moral consciousness, and to the creation and Eden accounts.

Our understanding of the nature of free will also helps shed light on one of the central issues in philosophy: the 'mind body' problem. We will find that the acausal nature of free will which grants it the possibility of being relevant to moral responsibility also endows it with the role of the 'ghost in the machine' of philosophy, sparking across the gap between the mental realm of thought and emotion, and the realm of the brain and the rest of the physical universe.

We shall find this issue to be of relevance in discussions of the nature of consciousness, the evolution of consciousness, the question of the mental or material nature of the universe, human transcendence, and even to the nature of mathematical truth.

Among the philosophical issues explored are the source of moral obligation, objective vs. subjective morality, and the problem of evil. Kabbalistic topics concepts such as tzimtzum, shvirat hakelim, and the connection between the spiritual and physical realms are related to concepts of physics - the ideas of symmetry, the unity of the laws of nature, and the nature of physical reality - and to those of cosmology: the design of the big bang, and the origin, age, and heat death of the universe. In mathematics, logic and artificial intelligence we dip briefly into Godel's incompleteness theorem, the concept of mathematical truth, randomness, and the nature of creativity; in metaphysics we consider the design of the universe, purpose and meaning, and the emergence of existence from non-existence.

In addition, we shall develop an understanding of the creation and Eden accounts focusing on their being centrally concerned with the themes of existence, free will and MRMP (moral responsibility, meaning and purpose). This, together with our understanding of the nature of free will in turn enable us to see the two accounts as closely connected thematically rather than as obscure and perplexingly contradictory cosmogonies .

We also explore other questions which are central to the creation and Eden accounts such as: why the emergence of humanity is the culmination of creation; why each act of creation is seen by God as "good" (and the creation as a whole is seen by God as "very good"); why Adam is said to have been created 'in the image of God'; why he ate of the tree; whether or not prior to eating he had free will to choose whether or not to eat of the tree; why he is called 'Adam'; why Eve was created separately and how her role fulfilled her design as a 'helpmeet' for Adam; why the Eden account is juxtaposed to the creation account; why the accounts have the literary form they do; and the relationship of the two accounts to the rest of the Bible.

Several issues which arise in connection with contemporary science and its implications for the creation and Eden accounts are also discussed, such as: the question of the existence of God; the big bang and evolution theories; the origin of the universe and its age; the origin of humanity and the amount of time humans have been in existence; all this with the common thread being that of free-willed consciousness and moral activity forming a tapestry of physics and metaphysics against the background of the creation and Eden accounts in Genesis.

In the final sections of the book we will find that after clarifying the acausal nature of free will we are also in a better position to confront some of the major issues of general and Jewish religious philosophy

Cosmogony = a history of the origin and development of the cosmos.

Introduction

Are we in control of our own destiny? Does our existence have “meaning”, a purpose? [Is there more to us than just our bodies - and if so does some aspect of our selves survive death?] à

Clearly without free will we would be mere puppets, and so would not bear moral responsibility for the actions our bodies execute. However there is difficulty in defining the concept of free will in accordance with known scientific and philosophical principles. As a result philosophers reject the conception of human freedom, moral responsibility, meaning and purpose; consequently the meaning assigned to these fundamental metaphysical concepts by philosophers is not quite the same as our intuitive understanding of them. Their definitions are tailored by scientists and philosophers to fit the laws of nature and the rigor of ordinary logic, and in the process lose what to our intuitive understanding may be their very essence.

In this book we travel the reverse road. Rather than trying to fit these concepts into the frame of the accepted laws of nature and logic, we first define the type of free will, moral responsibility, meaning and purpose which we feel is reflective of our deepest intuitions. We then determine what must be true about the nature of reality in order for these concepts to be valid as we intuit them, and attempt to extrapolate to discover what are the ramifications of this reality to physics, cosmology and philosophy.

Generations of thinkers have struggled with such questions and have devoted lifetimes to investigating enigmas such as the origin of the universe, the origins and nature of humanity, the basis of moral obligation, the meaning of life and the purpose of existence. Various cultures and individuals have over the millennia explored different approaches to these issues, and often the paths taken seem mutually incompatible.

Our own cultural heritage on these issues and concepts includes perspectives as diverse as those of science and of metaphysics, of the Bible and of philosophy, of mysticism and of mathematics. However these disciplines deal so differently with these issues that accepting their relevance, and certainly integrating them into a coherent world-view, is often difficult or even declared to be impossible.

In this work we shall endeavor to fashion a partial integration of some of these approaches. We will especially explore the idea of free willed consciousness and its ramifications, finding it to be a pivotal factor for many key concepts and a unifying theme underlying the various perspectives on these issues.

The earliest surviving treatment of these themes is perhaps found in the Bible. The creation and Eden accounts - the opening chapters of Genesis (the first book of the Bible) - deal with the origin of the universe, humanity, free will and moral obligation. These accounts have contributed greatly to our cultural conceptions and beliefs on these matters and shall play a prominent role in our discussions.

Although these issues are treated rather differently by science and by Genesis, we shall attempt the development of a perspective from which the scientific origin theory and the creation account are complementary rather than contradictory.

Understanding the creation and Eden accounts in the context of our discussions on free will and universal purpose can aid us in appreciating the meaning of these accounts, and in discerning a logic behind the juxtaposition of two such very different accounts. These connections will also help motivate the otherwise perplexing implications in Genesis that the universe was created not so long ago and that the first human being lived only thousands rather than hundreds of thousands - or even millions - of years ago.

Besides the various insights and speculations on philosophy metaphysics and Genesis, a number of original ideas are presented regarding the nature of free will and its relevance to various fundamental issues in physics, philosophy and metaphysics.

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The arguments presented are intended to be quite general, but as they are about intuitive rather than objective concepts, they may not conform to the intuitions of all readers. And, since one cannot prove one's intuitions in these matters to be superior to those of another, these arguments can be viewed more as the author's personal view, or as reflective of a view held by many people, rather than a statement of what the author believes to be a universally accepted objective fact.

Furthermore, we do not claim that this type of free will exists - we merely present what to us seems to be the ramifications of the existence of the type of free will which would support the key metaphysical concepts of moral responsibility, meaning and purpose (MRMP).

Discovering how the approaches of science and the Bible are related is also one of the subjects of the author's upcoming book "A Garden of Edens: the Many Faces of Genesis".

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Epilogue

The universe is a wondrous place to those capable of wonder, and the depth and sophistication of its workings and underlying principles are matched only by their simplicity and beauty.

Speculations into the meaning of existence and contemplation of the night sky do not lead to a unique conclusion. Investigation of the mysteries of the universe has different effects on people's beliefs, and the conclusions reached as a result of such contemplation often mirror the particular prior beliefs of those individuals.

From the perspective explored here, humanity is unique - among all that is as yet known in the universe, from fundamental particles to galaxies, from amoebas to the largest of creatures, only humanity posesses a free-willed consciousness and a moral sense. This, together with the intelligence to comprehend - to some degree at least - the implications and of its actions, bestows on humanity the unique burden and privelege of moral responsibility.

As far as we can imagine the 'outsider' perspective of a creator of this universe, the only actions which would be non-determined, non-random, perhaps even unforeseeable, are those which result from free-willed activity. The only events not resulting from the input of this creator, but rather originating outside the realm of activity for which the creator was directly responsible, are free-willed events. As a result, human intuition can consider only moral activity of this type as meaningful and purposive from the creator's outsider perspective.

From the kabbalisitic perspective, the universe derives from a prior blueprint of spiritual forms, is a concretization of these in physical terms, a shadow cast into the realm of space-time-matter-energy. Interactions among the forms of the spiritual realm are determined by that which is beyond the physical - free-willed moral choice.

In our interpretation of quantum metaphysics, it is free-willed moral consciousness which brings full physical reality to the universe, mirroring the bringing into existence of the cosmos as a whole via the free-willed choice of the creator to create.

By its very nature free will is unmodelable, non-physical, and possibly forever beyond scientific analysis. Indeed the self-causative nature of free-will reflects the nature of existence itself, and of the coming into existence of the universe.

According to the Biblical accounts and their mystical interpretations, it was free willed choice on the part of the creator which led to the creation of the universe, and this creation was achieved at the price of a voluntary withdrawal of the divine from the realm which would thereupon become material existence, and with a premeditated shattering of the monopoly of divine will to endow humanity with an independent will.

This shattering and withdrawal and the concomitant reduction in the apparent unity and symmetry of the divine as perceived from within the universe, are reflected by cosmology in similar processes of symmetry breaking within the evolution of the physical cosmos. From the creation of existence, the universe underwent an apparent progressive decrease in symmetry, descending into the chaos of entropic increase. Simultaneously however it evolved in a highly organized mode, an evolutionary direction designed to produce life and eventually moral beings - though the actual emergence of free-willed moral consciousness is beyond the parameters of scientific description.

The human mind is beyond the purely physical, and via creative activity can perhaps reverse the entropic dissipation of the universe into chaos. In addition, the transcendental nature of the human mind manifests itself in the ability to perceive via the intuition truths not accessible to material devices, whether mathematical truths - as shown by Godel - or the fundamental moral truths such as the existence of a good and an evil.

The universe was deliberately created incomplete and imperfect. All in the universe other than moral beings are subject to causality, however humans by virtue of their free will and creativity can add to the net-zero situation of the universe, and raise its spiritual level to the intended level of perfection just as human creativity can counter the dissipitative effect of entropy.

Until the emergence of creative moral beings, our intuition leads us to conclude that the universe was without meaning and purpose from the creator's perspective. Quantum metaphysics indicates that true existence is initiated with the emergence of moral beings, and from the outsider perspective of the creator it is only then that there is meaning to this existence, purpose to the creation.

From the Biblical perspective therefore, it is this stage of moral emergence which heralds the onset of existence: prior physical development from the big bang itself onward is not directly of relevance to the creation and Eden accounts, nor is the emergence of earlier life-forms - whether amoebas, or dinosaurs, or the great apes.

Quantum randomness determines the stage of the emergence of a moral being as representing the jump-off point at which a teleoderived moral universe can begin to function autonomously, allowing self-operation of the universe via its laws of nature. Thus the emergence of a moral being is the initial state of self-operation, and therefore the first stage of the universe's true existence. In the context of Genesis, this means that the account of the creation would not be complete without an account of the emergence of a moral being - as indeed is described in the Garden of Eden account.

It is the concept of free-willed consciousness which allows these ideas to come to the fore, and which provides the perspective to a deeper understanding of various topics in Jewish thought: from the meaning within the Biblical perspective according to Maimonides of the existence of the inanimate and non-human animate world, to a resolution of the paradox presented by the undeniable development of the immutable and pre-prescribed Jewish law, and an understanding of the book of Kohelet as an integrated whole.

The fundamental nature of the universe as a mental construct, the nature of time in the universe, as well as the emergence of the universe into physical reality are all inextricably ralated to the nature of consciousness, and particularly to free-willed consciousness.

The creation and Eden accounts and their juxtaposition symbolizes all this and more, presenting ideas in the literary form of allegorical-imagery appropriate to that which is beyond rational description, that which is not encompassible within scientific discourse.

We have seen how considerations of quantum physics, meaning, purpose and free will lead to an understanding of the structure of the opening chapters of Genesis: an account of a carefully considered purposive creation of the universe, followed by an account of the emergence of the first moral being, and then a continuous record of the moral activity of these beings and their descendants.

When pondering the secrets of nature and of the Bible, the mind steeped in the culture and society which continues unbroken from that society which was first presented with the creation and Eden accounts, sees all as an integrated whole, particularly as the creator of the universe is also the author of the creation and Eden accounts. From the perspective of such a mind, it is this picture of the underlying reality of existence, and this understanding of the creation and Eden accounts, which emerges from contemplation of the universe and its mysteries.

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Footnotes

Hedging, we could write instead: We will show why we feel that the known laws of nature are insufficient(ly 'rich' or 'deep') to provide for the existence of what we consider to be true free will.

Cosmogony = a complete history of the origin and development of the cosmos.

The arguments presented are intended to be quite general, but as they are about intuitive rather than objective concepts, they may not conform to the intuitions of all readers. And, since one cannot prove one's intuitions in these matters to be superior to those of another, these arguments can be viewed more as the author's personal view, or as reflective of a view held by many people, rather than a statement of what the author believes to be a universally accepted objective fact.

Furthermore, we do not claim that this type of free will exists - we merely present what to us seems to be the ramifications of the existence of the type of free will which would support the key metaphysical concepts of moral responsibility, meaning and purpose (MRMP).

Discovering how the approaches of science and the Bible are related is also one of the subjects of the author's upcoming book "A Garden of Edens: the Many Faces of Genesis".

Different Ways to Read the Book

Although the book is meant to be read in its entirety as various parts reflect upon each other, many parts can stand alone; those interested in particular topics can use the guide provided at the end of the introduction to choose the sections of particular interest to them.

Note: There are several interrelated themes in the book; the reader with particular interests can focus on specific sections and leave others out.

•  Parts I, III, IV, V: the heart of the book: Free-willed consciousness: Discussions involving physics, cosmology, quantum metaphysics, philosophy.

•  Part II (only one chapter) is about the context of Biblical narratives.

•  The rest of the book applies the concept developed in Parts I-V to an understanding of:

•  Part VI: Genesis in the context of the big bang and evolutionary theories. (Insert ref to Inst Un and Edens books).

•  Part VII religious/Jewish theology:

•  Part VIII moral and religious philosophy

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