A small but growing segment of the scientific community has conceded that reality, including matter and energy, is not material at all, but rather consists of quantum bits, i.e. digital information. They go on, predictably, to equate the cosmos with a computer, and liken God to the programmer of the universe (or multiverse). This is definitely a step up from grosser forms of materialism that require a plain rejection of the Divine, as it makes God implicit in the minutest of phenomenon, just as believers have always asserted. If we say that there is ultimately nothing but information, and therefore that information is All, we are, of course, making a modern pitch for pantheism.* However, as I have stated earlier, equating GOD with the Divine Mind (let alone an “almighty bit”) generally tends to negate the Suprapersonal character that we discover in Him through prayer, worship, love, gratitude, and other qualities that identify us as wholehearted persons. The rational pantheism of Spinoza has always been attractive to a certain type of thinker (e.g., Einstein), but it leaves out the transcendent nature of GOD intrinsic to monotheism and panentheism – types of faith that do not allow GOD to be merely equivalent to His creation.
*From this perspective, computation seems almost a theological process. It takes as its fodder the primeval choice between yes or no, the fundamental state of 1 or 0. After stripping away all externalities, all material embellishments, what remains is the purest state of existence: here/not here. Am/not am. In the Old Testament, when Moses asks the Creator, “Who are you?” the being says, in effect, “Am.” One bit. One almighty bit. Yes. One. Exist. It is the simplest statement possible.
All creation, from this perch, is made from this irreducible foundation. Every mountain, every star, the smallest salamander or woodland tick, each thought in our mind, each flight of a ball is but a web of elemental yes/nos woven together. If the theory of digital physics holds up, movement (f = ma), energy (E = mc²), gravity, dark matter, and antimatter can all be explained by elaborate programs of 1/0 decisions. Bits can be seen as a digital version of the “atoms” of classical Greece: the tiniest constituent of existence. But these new digital atoms are the basis not only of matter, as the Greeks thought, but of energy, motion, mind, and life.2
This passage is very helpful in demonstrating to naïve rationalists how something immaterial can be hiding in plain sight. But notice here how Kelley finally reduces life to a kind of cyber-materialism, one composed of bits rather than atoms. (And for the layman of classical Greece or modern Europe, what difference does it make?) Having sought God (as that is what all truth-seekers long for, whether they admit it or not) and found a slot for Him, they become enamored of their box, as by their lights it is greater than the god they have placed inside it.
Another problem is Kelley’s conception of reality as basically digital. While the quantum world may be broken down into finite bits, and hence may be fundamentally digital, most of our feelings and values, including our supersensory absolutes, are smooth, continuous, and potentially infinite, thus resembling analog signals. Reality is not always breakable. And GOD, the One, is both Unbroken and Non-Dual, beyond the ones and zeroes of this world.
We have seen, firstly, meaning as an example of how the supersensory is inextricably bound to the contexts in which we live our lives. Then we see, secondly, how some scientists regard the computability of matter as informing the very stuff of existence. Information implies not only an informed mind but an informing agent, to which the Qur’an can simply add:
And no one can inform you like Someone Who is Aware. (Q35:14)
وَلاَ يُنَبِّئُكَ مِثْلُ خَبِيرٍ
A third immaterial aspect of reality is quantum randomness. We could throw random mutation into the ring as well. What appears random to us, and so assumed to be purposeless or uncaused, may be totally intended by One Who delicately disposes of the finest details, as in Q31:16.
If there be a mustard’s seed in weight within a rock or in the heavens or on earth, AL-LAH will bring it forth. Indeed AL-LAH is Sensitive, Aware.
إِنْ تَكُنْ مِثْقَالَ حَبَّةٍ مِنْ خَرْدَلٍ فَتَكُنْ فِي صَخْرَةٍ أَوْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ أَوْ فِي الأَرْضِ يَأْتِ بِهَا اللَّهُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَطِيفٌ خَبِيرٌ
We can only guess how so-called random events could serve as subtle instruments of a Determining Power, imperceptibly nudging the universe along the path of, say, star formation or human evolution. Consider it an example of how GOD draws a translucent veil between His direct activity and its effects in this world. We take note of the veil, namely a limit to our understanding and even the possibility of understanding, and hopefully are then humble enough to refrain from inherently limiting assumptions about what lies beyond.
These indications – meaning, information, and randomness – are not proofs of GOD’s existence. As I have explained before, we cannot prove what is by definition unknowable, even if recognizable by analogy and metaphor. We may be able to derive an idea of infinity from what is numerically finite, but that would only be numerical infinity. Adding an infinite number of things to get to GOD does not work because a) GOD is not a thing, and b) He is infinitely infinite, i.e. infinite in ways beyond counting. We may ‘get’ GOD faster by not counting.
Like so much in this universe, however, meaning, information, and randomness may be welcomed as signs that point to GOD. Pointing is not arriving, nor is faith by itself a final destination, but faith will take us further than anything else once we have gotten our direction from His signs.
A stop sign does not prove that there is safety in the world. Still, it gives us a good reason to stop and act as if there is.
2 Kevin Kelley, ‘God is the Machine’ in Spiritual Information, ed. by Charles L. Harper, Jr., p. 233
The GOD You Already Know 