Chaos and Order

Chaos is infinitely complex Order

David Bohm

Cited in Mystical Hours

Wayne Teasdale gives us a larger view of this seemingly cryptic comment by the physicist David Bohm in these words:

“David Bohm, visionary physicist and author of the groundbreaking book, Wholeness, and the Imperfect Order, made this extraordinary observation in an n interview with Michael Toms on New Dimensions Radio. Chaos may truly be an incredibly subtle order, so infinitely complex that physics and mathematics cannot fully describe its laws. Like the ungraspable nature of the Divine, the order of chaos flits in and out of our ability to comprehend it. Applying this rich insight to human life, the question arises: Do you discern the Divine Order in life’s chaos? What does it mean to you?”

I can truly appreciate this complex concept because it is one that is often brought up in theological dialogues and its contentious battles with atheism… The whole question of divine control or a rational design looms large; as there are both rational and atheist scientists and cosmologists who see everything from the Big Bang to the everyday workings of nature as being random, arbitrary, and capricious…. much like the description of the God image that occupies the earlier books of the Hebrew Testament.

While that reductionist and somewhat cynical outlook does not rob science and cosmology of their sense of awe and wonder, many hesitate to attribute the ordering and functioning of the universe to any “grand plan” or “creative or intelligent design.” (a term that has been unfortunately co-opted by the Religious Right, so as much as I would favor using it, I will refrain to avoid using it., and then being considered a scientifically uniformed believer.)

One of the arguments about the exquisite design of the universe is the measurement of the speed of the Big Bang; and how its exact speed of unfolding or expansion could not be any more exact so that it could sustain life on earth. A degree colder or hotter would make Earth less inhabitable!

Carl Sagan, the famous astronomer, sought to bravely and insightfully connected science and spirituality in these words:

“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.

When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.”

You can release yourself from the necessity of having an anthropomorphic “God,” and allow the dimensions of living in a more panentheistic universe to be your more reliable guide towards answering or understanding the questions of existence. Then the observation of Bohm, at least for me, makes sense spiritually and theologically. Within the structure of the Cosmos, (Kosmos and Kaos are the Greek words for Order and Chaos) there exists an infinite variety of possibilities for life; and for all the dimensions, shapes, and possibilities of existence on our planet or within any sort of solar system.

A system of cells or planets contain within them a variety of potentials and possibilities for function and purpose. This seeming chaos can appear to be random, and without a “method to its madness” and yet what it declares is the myriad choices within a flexible, adaptable, and multi-level or multidimensional infinite order. God “works in mysterious ways, [his] wonders to behold”… and I feel that we can be assured that God, as the divine source, functions graciously and marvelously in ways we cannot fully comprehend, classify, or control.