COSMIC BLUEPRINT
This Eternal Vision, the Torah, the essential geometry of the space-time continuum, introduces the axiomatic and a priori relationships that become engraved upon space-time substrate. This is the Divine Will— or the unified irreducible “field” of geometrodynamics— which defines and directs, mold and sculpts the subsequent unfolding of Creation. It is primordial in both the religious and scientific paradigms. As such, it exerts an irrevocable and definitive influence on the configurational and existential possibilities of the universe. It is the limiting factor for any thing or any state (emotional, intellectual, spiritual) that will ever appear.
Thus, the general scheme of Creation—the possibility/probability patterns of both cosmological and ontological evolution—is built into the structure of the universe itself. This is similar to the way the architectural blueprints determine the final form of a house well before the first brick is laid. Although the final product is specified in the overall possibilities for integrating each type of building material into the structure or it is predetermined (i.e. the oak boards will either become part of the dining room floor or the kitchen cabinets, while the pine will be used for the bedroom closets), there is still an element of change (or randomness) regarding the particular “fate” of each brick—how it, specifically will fit into the final structure—on what row of masonry, in which wall, by which worker, on what day…[21]
Considering this description of the cosmological drama, it is possible to identify another correspondence between science and Torah.[22] Free will in Judaism parallels what Quantum Mechanics calls the inherent randomness of individual subatomic events, while determinism within a Torah framework is analogous to the overall probability patterns that can be predicted with 100% accuracy, though the outcome of individual events remains necessarily inscrutable.[23]
ADAPTATION…BUT TO WHAT?
From a Torah perspective, this unfolding of physical and spiritual reality is not arbitrary or haphazard. It is seen instead as a divinely choreographed process whereby Creation comes into greater conformity with, and more perfect expression of the underlying pattern of Divine Will.
From a scientific point of view, the phenomenon of cosmological and planetary evolution could be described as an unwinding of a thermodynamic[24] torsion that was built into the primordial universe. (Exactly how and why this particular pattern of geometry arose is beyond the scope of contemporary science.)
The Darwinian Theory of Evolution presents an explanation of the process whereby organisms change through time, so that descendants become progressively more suited to their environment or learn to adapt to a changing environment. The mechanisms of change postulated in this theory are a combination of mutation, natural selection and the survival of the fittest.
One reason the religious community objects to this theory is that it seems to deny any possibility of Divine contribution by reducing the entire odyssey of Creation to a blind, mechanical process. Many Darwinian theorists even make the brazenly materialistic claim that life forms change solely in response to desultory physical pressures and random environmental influences.
ENVIRONMENT = DIVINE WILL
After carefully examining this controversy, a rhetorical question remains:
What is this “environment” is not the original Will/Pattern/Geometry as it is projected into the relative realms of name and form, time and space? It is a living symbol, expressing in minute and perfect detail the vision that underlies and directs Creation.
So, when a species adapts to its environment, it is actually adapting to the Divine Will/Primordial Geometry that is manifest as that environment.
At this point, the mathematical arguments against Darwinian theory (based on the unwieldy time factor necessary for a purely random process of genetic mutation and recombination to yield the existing variety of life forms) can be eliminated. We are no longer working with a “random system,” but rather with one profoundly constrained by the underlying patterns of the universe.
A purely mathematical treatment of patterns of gene expression demonstrated the capacity of a large system to settle into distinct patterns. A gene system with 10,000 genes has 10 to the 30th possible combinations. Given certain simple assumptions about rules of regulatory interactions, the system spontaneously confines itself to 100 different patterns of activity. These represent the approximately 100 cell types in a complex organism. These are powerful, deep, underlying constraints that do not need natural selection… [Yet] Scientists were frustrated by their limited understanding of how an organism develops. Something determines symmetry in development, instructs cells where to move, how often to divide, what characteristics to express and when to die, but the details have not yet been spelled out…[25]
Thus, the empirical evidence of mainstream science contradicts any theory of evolution based entirely on random mutation. Rather, an “unidentified factor” seems to determine the “rules of regulatory interactions” that confine an evolutionary system to a relatively limited number of developmental options. Torah would describe this “unidentified factor” as Divine Will, while physics could explain it as the space-time matrix.
