Which Miracles Will Exist in a Religion of the Future?

NASA photograph of a galaxy cluster containing countless planets.

By and large, the critics have me pegged – but not completely. I do believe in miracles, but it’s a fairly selective list. So one question that readers have posed to me is, “Would your religion of the future allow for miracles? Without some supernatural presence and a prominence of scientific rationalism, what room is there for miracles? Well, loyal readers, allow me to expose what the future’s religion will ultimately herald as the true miracles of life.

There’s a subtle difference between what constitutes a miracle and what is simply a statistical rarity. I do not consider our existence on this planet a miracle because, given all the newly-forming variations of planets and stellar arrangements, there was bound to be a planet within the goldilocks zone of its star sooner or later. Given that new stellar formations are being created every moment inside this expanding universe, the likelihood of a planet like ours existing somewhere becomes statistically less impressive. While planets housing intelligent life are exceedingly rare (or at least, within the visible universe), the Anthropic Principle suggests that somewhere, at some time, this unlikely event was bound to happen. Undoubtedly, it must have happened in many more places than right here by this point. Because new stellar arrangements are being created all the time, the odds are thus fairly high that somewhere within the vast expanse of space exists another intelligent species like ours.

Our existence on this planet -- while exceedingly rare in the cosmos compared to the vast panoply of dead, lifeless planets – is not a miracle because it is simply a rarity. Our existence, now that’s a miracle! Likewise, the diversity of life on Earth, the persuasive illusion that it’s been designed, and other run-of-the-mill phenomena within a nearly-infinite universe are not fodder for prayer in a religion based on rationalism. So what could be?

Without further delay, then -- here are the miracles of a religion for our future.

1. The existence of something rather than nothing.

Among the oldest questions in all of philosophy and likely to never be answered is the question of why something exists…as opposed to nothing at all. Our existence is most often viewed as the result of some kind of cause, where the tendency is to draw back each event to its cause – all the way back to the beginning of time. This is natural, but a logical impossibility when considering the fact that we exist.

To be sure, the only way you’ll solve anything within science is to assume that a cause has preceded an observable reaction. Our collective knowledge-base is grounded within the tradition of causation, such that learning cause and effect is the foundation for all new learning.

When scientists observe an effect with an unknown cause, the assumption is that we simply don’t know the cause yet – not that a cause doesn’t exist. Events without a clear cause often encourage people to spiritualize the situation, as religious scholars have throughout history when presented with a question which cannot, for the moment, be answered. Even when an answer is not even conceivable, adherents to the scientific-rationalist worldview remain steadfast that something must have been the cause – and that we’ll someday find it if we just keep looking. I’m also in that camp.

However, because we don’t even have any kind of framework for imagining a world without causes, the sheer existence of something, even the universe itself, would undoubtedly be considered a miracle in any future religious tradition.

2. The precise strength of the “strong” force.

In physics parlance, the “strong force” is a term used to describe the way subatomic particles remain circling their respective nucleus instead of just whirling off in some random direction. The fact that subatomic particles (protons, etc.), often being of opposing charges, remain within the vicinity of a nucleus to be among the smallest building blocks of matter is something no physicist can yet account for. That the universe began with the strong force intact is nothing short of miraculous, given that it exists as a prerequisite for the formation of all matter to follow. The universe could just as easily have been a matter-less soup of scattered subatomic particles with no chance of forming anything at all. No worlds, no planets, no stars – nothing.

Because of the necessity of the strong force in forging everything in the universe atom-and-up, a secular, humanist and science-based religion of the future would surely glorify it as one of the preconditions for everything we know as matter – ergo, as the one of the bringers of being.

3. The precise strength of the “weak” force.

Again, revering one of the universe’s fundamental forces is not something to be ashamed of. The “weak” force is the name physicists have given to the phenomenon of radioactive decay for subatomic particles – the most life-inducing result of this force is the existence of a hydrogen fusion reaction which fuels stars. Hydrogen burns within stars to create something akin to a nuclear reactor, where fission drives the lifeblood of a star that, in turn, makes life on any goldilocks planet possible.

Enrico Fermi originally exhibited a “force with no range” during the 1930s which sparked a revolution within particle physics. Fermi’s force was later seen to have simply a minimal range and became known as the primary driving force in the formation of stars and planets. This small, then-weakly-detectable force has now been coupled with what physicist Michael Faraday had originally described as electromagnetism. What we now label as the “weak force” in particle physics is a running label for particles exhibiting beta-decay during the production of helium from hydrogen. The result? A sun, complete with thermonuclear power to give life a chance on a planet that’s just far enough away to reap the benefits and start cooking up life.

For a much more in-depth discussion about the miraculous precision of both these forces, and other "numbers" which are just precise enough to allow life to exist within this universe, see Martin Rees's excellent book, Just Six Numbers.

4. Evolution of the eukaryotic cell.

Darwinian evolution can account for much of the amazing diversity and complexity of life on this planet (see a related piece on how evolution can potentially explain its own origin), but one thing it explains poorly is emergent properties. A second crucial emergent property will be listed below, but let’s start with the first – the emergence of multi-cellular organisms after single-celled organisms. It’s not only a statistically rare event, but one so preposterously rare that it never should happen.

Think about probabilities and rolling dice. Even if you roll 3 sixes in a row, the odds are just as likely for you to roll another six. It’s not like you’re “due” for a number that’s not a six upon your next roll, or that the die is somehow influenced by your previous roles. In the same way, think about the cellular mechanics that precipitate the division of cellular compartments necessary for multi-cellular organisms. The precise mechanisms responsible for cellular division that creates more than just one complex cell are extremely unlikely to have evolved in unison. Oxford biologist Mark Ridley estimates in Mendel's Demon that single-celled bacteria held the only place in life’s chain for at least 1.5 billion years before the emergence of eukaryotic (that is, multi-) cells. Why the emergent nature of its evolution?

This miracle gives us very complex life. Complex life allows for sentient beings like ourselves to evolve. We can still chart this event as statistical happenstance and not a miracle, but the sheer preposterousness of its emergence within the continuum of all possible events is, to be sure, nothing short of miraculous.

5. The evolution of consciousness.

Another one of philosophy’s greatest problems – how are we conscious? How did we become conscious? One of life’s miracles is not that we are conscious, but that consciousness exists as a state of being.

People may be more or less alert, falling somewhere along a broad continuum of consciousness depending upon their level of awareness. Someone half asleep may be said to be less conscious, because neural networks within the brain that produce attentional awareness are less active. Sedating these areas artificially will produce decreased levels of consciousness – therefore we may infer that animals lacking the brain-matter setup humans have are simply less conscious, rather than completely non-conscious.

Consciousness is currently considered to be an emergent property, like the appearance and properties of fire. As a composite of three ingredients, fire consists of heat, oxygen and some kind of fuel which burns. By themselves, neither heat, oxygen, nor a piece of wood is fire. Even when combined in varying levels, “fire” is not present – but increased heat, a steady flow of oxygen and the presence of a flammable surface will produce the appearance of flames and a spike in heat. Consciousness, likewise, is not just the sum of its parts, but a gestalt of these parts which, together, create something more. The miracle is not that this happens – but that it can happen in this reality.

What other emergent properties are there in the cosmos, just waiting to be discovered and harnessed? Or fulfilled by errant genetic mutations and given form by evolution?

These are just five examples of what a future religion may consider miracles. These go past what just makes us human, but what allows life to actually function at all. Consciousness is a miracle because it is in the appreciation of life that so much more value is given to it – therefore not just a facet of being human, but in being given the ability for any conscious being to love life is miraculous. Worshipping aspects of humanity is misguided and as arbitrary as glorifying the genetic structure of our species – but consciousness is something that would undoubtedly be praised as miraculous by other sentient beings as well.

What else will future generations revere as miraculous, despite the advance of technology and knowledge? If guided by scientific rationalism and a wonder for that which allows life to flourish, what else will constitute a miracle to be repeatedly adorned and hailed as a gift to all of existence? Feel free to use the discussion section for this article to let me (and others!) know what you feel is miraculous enough to be considered as much within a religion of the future.