The Universe is Not a Miracle
Wednesday, August 28
Good morning.
Today’s excerpt is from the final chapter of Sean Carroll’s The Big Picture:
The universe is not a miracle. It simply is, unguided and unsustained, manifesting the patterns of nature with scrupulous regularity. Over billions of years it has evolved naturally, from a state of low entropy toward increasing complexity, and it will eventually wind down to a featureless equilibrium. We are the miracle, we human beings. Not a break-the-laws-of-physics kind of miracle; a miracle in that it is wondrous and amazing how such complex, aware, creative, caring creatures could have arisen in perfect accordance with those laws. Our lives are finite, unpredictable, and immeasurably precious. Our emergence has brought meaning and mattering into the world.
The human brain is sometimes described as the most complex structure in the universe.1 It is a thinking, caring force that is, somehow, the product of unthinking, uncaring forces.
The universe may not be a miracle, but its creation of the human mind sure is.
Or, at least, among what little of the universe we’ve observed so far.
Kinda think our boi is working on a weird definition of miracle, given that he then describes the universe as something arguably miraculous