A few weeks ago, while searching for another book in the shelves of my local library, I serendipitously noticed a book with an intriguing, presumptuous title: The God Theory, by astrophysicist Bernard Haish.
Since I’ve come to believe in opening up to my intuitive faculties I first looked quickly at the book and then began reading, noting to my surprise that the author’s intention was very similar to my own, on this blog and in the book I am expecting to publish based on these ideas.
What really appeals to me about Haish’s perspective is that he addresses the false dichotomy between spirituality and science, and directly goes after the scientific preconceptions about what is and is not “scientific”—opening his own view on reality to anything and everything.
He directly addresses the current scientific bias against anything that smacks of mysticism, pointing out that many physicists including Einstein expressed ideas that resonate with Eastern philosophy.
He goes on to take on the other false polarity of evolution versus fundamentalism or Intelligent Design by expanding the notion of what God may be beyond the material, and ultimately beyond our own ability to comprehend or conceptualize nature in the absolute sense.
He writes, for example, “I suggest that the evolution of living things may occur through a combination of strictly physical, deterministic processes, and a nonphysical tendency toward order and information.”
For Haish, and for me, this opens up the Pandora’s box that material science refuses to address, but that we both sense is an inevitable area for both inquiry and hopefully discovery: mind or consciousness.
Haish has the courage to deal directly with a possibility that few scientists, much less physicists, would risk their careers on—that “there exist realms of reality beyond the presently known particles and forces of modern physics”—a profoundly mystical concept that he embraces to open the door to a speculative inquiry into what these realms may represent.
He goes on to present a complex theory of physics called “the zero-point field inertia hypothesis,” that as I understand it provides an alternative concept for the existence and movement of mass—unlike Newton’s cause and effect theory Haish claims to prove or strongly suggest that the motion of mass, and its very existence, is a function of a “zero-point field” – or perhaps more easily thought of as space.
Like the mystics, he claims to scientifically suggest that there must be something that isn’t (the unmanifested in our material sense) that can know what is (information, reality, the manifested).
I don’t want to misinterpret or distort Haish’s theory which is elegantly stated—he goes on to connect modern physics to ancient wisdom like the Kabbalah, suggesting that the being that uttered “Let there be Light” was beyond gender or form (uttered is itself an abstraction) but that indeed this phrase refers to levels of being beyond our comprehension, beyond the speed of light, beyond the notions of time and space, that even preceded the creation of the heavens and the earth, by a few cosmic days.
He suggests that as the Kabbalah also says, the Absolute was even beyond light, and light itself is beyond time and space, connecting this ancient text with Einstein’s General Relativity.
He writes, addressing God-limiting theorists like Hawking and Dawkins, that “my theory, in short, proposes that we regard the laws of physics [and mathematics] as the manifestation of God’s ideas, not the limits of God’s creative potential.] I might add, since the very “concept” of God is unlimited and infinite.
I don’t pretend to follow or understand all of the notions propounded based on modern physics; Haish’s credentials are impressive and he hasn’t been excommunicated by the scientific establishment.
What I love about Haish’s work is that it resonates with my own ideas that the experience of science itself points unmistakably to forces beyond the known material reality that imply intelligence.
To bastardize his concept—God can’t be a dummy if we look at the manifestation of the laws of mathematics and physics.
In this blog and my book I approach this possibility not from physics but from our experience with computers—where we actually live every day with the reality of a programmer’s mind or consciousness “operating” through material reality (software) and interacting with us to creatively manifest new “content.”
I suggest that software is created “in our Image” just as we in a sense represent one of creation’s evolutionary manifestations through our own “being.”
This becomes starkly apparent when we examine DNA as a complex system of meaning (software) that can be “decoded”, but which preceded our appearance on the planet and which we presumably did not create ourselves. It “evolved” based on some sort of conscious energy—unless you take the view of material science that the intentional manifestation of life toward order and self expression emanated from an electrical storm hitting an inanimate ooze as a totally random event.
Haish thinks that the age of pure scientific materialism is coming to an end and I believe that this is the essential “shift” in our deeply held beliefs that is happening on the planet today—as described by another great writer, Eckhart Tolle, whose books also seem to pop into peoples’ hands serendipitously at tipping points in their lives.
“The God Theory posits the existence of an infinite, timeless consciousness that, in religious terms, can be called ‘One God.’ In principle, this God is the same for all religions…. It is worthy to note that Kabbalah clearly—and wisely—cautions that all descriptions of God are necessarily wrong.”
The exciting thing to me is that another renowned scientist has reached the limits of intellectual inquiry in terms of describing reality and recognized the need to transcend material presuppositions and open all such investigation up to an examination of our own “field” of understanding—consciousness itself.
For those who can reach this perspective in other ways, through faith, yoga, meditation, charity or whatever, this book may be superfluous. But for many of us who have been conditioned by and form our belief systems according to the “religion of science” a book like this can open us to other possibilities.
For me, this process was triggered by a profound understanding of computer software as consciousness manifesting beyond matter. For Haish it apparently came through his investigation of cosmic laws and principles. For others, it may happen in ways we cannot yet imagine…
Intelligent Life 
Tom – I appreciate your summarizing what’shisnames shtick, which convinces me even more that nuts are nuts. You quoted/wrote: ” “there exist realms of reality beyond the presently known particles and forces of modern physics”—a profoundly mystical concept that he embraces to open the door to a speculative inquiry into what these realms may represent.”
Now what the hell is profoundlymystical about that? Answer: Nothing. That there might exists other realms of reality cannot be denied, since we don’t know and cannot deny what we don’t know as being beyond the realm of possibility. But is that mystical or simply a statement of fact. Answer: A statement of fact.
Give up the ghost!
What I deem mystical about it, and this is just a short quote from what I find an interesting book, is the suggestion that this nonmaterial realm is intelligent and primary with respect to matter itself. I find this interesting and profound; and since this writer is an astrophysicist of some renown who is actively working on gathering more evidence of these ideas, perhaps ultimately we will know more about these realms. If you think otherwise, that is your right and you may well be correct.