I’ve always been interested in spirituality, mysticism, and even little green men but over the last year and half or so my appetite for spiritual knowledge has been a big one. I suppose this is fairly typical for a dude about to turn 40 and who seems to be going through a midlife crisis or a personal transition of some sort.

Anyway, I recently picked up a book called the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Mr. Dawkins is a well-known author, bioligist, and conscious thinker and he has written several best-selling books supporting Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, natural selection, and general atheism.

Although my experience has led me to a personal knowing that there is something greater at work in the Universe that lies well beyond the pure physicality that we observe as humans, I found his points and the presentation of his ideas to be super interesting. His writings are thorough, well-researched, and he sites many of the most reknowned scientists to support his ideas. I do sense an underlying anger and at times a disrespectful sarcasm in his words but overall he is an amdirable person from my point of view and I plan to read more of his books.

The basic argument that Mr. Dawkins presents is that there is no God, gods, or supernatural beings of any kind. He believes, and provides lots of support, in natural selection as opposed to any type of intelligent design to explain life and the entire universe. Essentially, he believes that living things evolved over long periods of time based in large part on the traits that seem to be most effective for a creature’s survival. Things were not designed nor created by some entity or deity but rather through a natural process that spans millenia.

Here’s what I found to be true for me while reading this book. His writings and ideas didn’t change my mind about my spirituality but rather they supported it. See, for me, I can totally support natural selection and evolution without it interfering with my beliefs around God. What Mr. Dawkins and Charles Darwin refer to as the theories of Natural Selection and Evolution I refer to as an Organizing Intelligence, divine creation, etc. To me we are in agreement and we are saying the same thing just with different labels. We get so caught up in the labels that we give things when in fact our language is highly limiting and often causes severe misunderstanding.

I believe there is a life force, physicists and scientists call this Quantum Energy, that runs through and gives life to everything in the Universe from people, to cats, to coral reefs, to rocks, and dirt. Mr. Dawkins doesn’t cover this energy in the book but rather he refers to Gene’s (not Wranglers) being the basic deciders of effective traits. Although the word “deciders” wasn’t his exact word, that is essentially the way he explains it. Gene’s, through long periods of time, determine what traits living organisms should continue to have or abandon. My take on this would be that genes seem to learn , which to me implies there is some type of intelligence that does the learning and continues to create based on that new knowledge.

Now, I’m no scientist. In fact I had to bust my ass to do well in biology. But, to me natural selection and evolution are creative processes that require some organizing intelligence in order to take shape. In fact, I’ll just take the liberty of drilling down further since this happens to be My Manifesto (Ha!). According to Quantum Physics and Science if you take a chunk of gold and begin to break it down into smaller pieces then utlimately you will wind up with gold atoms. These atoms can be broken down further still to tiny quantum particles until ultimately what’s left are just waves of particles and empty space. You can do the exact same thing to a tomato and you will ultimately find the same thing as you found in gold; just particles and waves of energy. However, these waves vibrate at different frequencies and these vibrations organize the waves and particles into a piece of gold or a tomato.

If I could have a chat with Mr. Dawkins one of the first questions I would have would be: If ultimately gold and tomatoes are made of the exact same thing then what is it that determines that this energy over here will organize itself into gold and that energy over there will organize itself into a tomato? Is it chance? Mr. Dawkins provides some very smart arguments against the Universe happening just out of “chance.”  My second question to Mr. Dawkins would be: If genes determine our traits in order to survive then what is it that determines that certain waves and particles will organize into genes instead of a slice of chocolate cake? Sure genes determine our traits but what makes the determination that certain quantum parts will form into genes?

At any rate, these are all thoughts that have been running through my head since opening his book. He states that there are no supernatural dieties or gods or at the very least there is no rational and reasonable proof of their existence. I believe that the mere fact that I am alive, I can hear music, I feel love, etc. is enough proof. Millions of flowers open up each day and swivel around to the Sun for nourishment. Some might call this Mother Nature, some might call it Science, and some might call it God. Aren’t we really talking about the same thing with different labels?