A REALITY BEYOND SCIENCE

A well-researched look at the evolution of the cosmos and our place within it.

According to VandeCarr, science and faith are not incompatible. Rather, he asserts, much of what we consider scientific fact are things that we really accept on faith. As much as facts may be observable or provable, they can never be known to be absolutely true at all times. He cites mathematician Kurt Gödel’s discovery, published in 1931, that the infallibility of simple arithmetic cannot be proven–i.e., we can’t be positively certain that two plus three will always equal five. Similarly, our individual realities are constructed of the facts we believe to be true, and no one, at this time at least, can definitively read or know the individual reality of anyone else. VandeCarr argues that the evolution of the cosmos gave rise to life and human consciousness, both of which are products of the electromagnetic field, or EMF, one of the four fundamental forces of the universe. Some thinkers predict that, with the rate at which our technological capabilities are accelerating, we are not far from the threshold of a technological singularity, after which life on earth and what it means to be human will be radically different. VandeCarr proposes that, since physical matter can’t travel at light speed, intelligence (or mind, as he calls it) will, as a feature of the EMF, evolve to be able to influence and ultimately saturate the universe, and constitute what many conceive of as God. As far out as some of these assertions might seem, they are deeply grounded in current scientific thought about intelligence, quantum mechanics, probability and the origins of the universe. VandeCarr also presents these theories in a way that is readily accessible to the general reader, citing many sources and suggestions for further reading. The dialogue with a skeptical unnamed interlocutor that concludes the book further illuminates and clarifies the author’s arguments.

A mind-expanding read.