DESCRIPTION: This is one of 9 articles that Prof. Michal Heller, Templeton Award winner, has published in SPCh (in addition, he has published 8 book reviews). The article concerns the role of chance in the evolution of the Universe. In the Author's opinion, chance (randomness) does not undermine the structure of the Universe encoded in the laws of nature, but is a necessary element of this structure, an element built, in a non-linear way, into the dynamic architecture of the whole. Moreover, random events do not contradict the mathematical ordering of the Universe, as they are themselves mathematical in nature. The author of the article also suggests that the mathematical structure of the Universe echoes the Mind of God, which, together with the previous statements, indicates that random events are an important part of that Mind. "If we take the position that the mathematical structure of the Universe is an embodiment of the Creative Mind of God (theMind of God , as Einstein used to say), then it is consistent to conclude that chance events are an important part of that Mind. The ideology that opposes God to chance (which destroys or violates God's plan) is essentially a modern version of Manichaeism, a heresy from the first centuries of Christianity, which saw in matter a principle of evil and a force opposing God. Such ideologies include the now widespread concept known as ‘Intelligent Design’. Its proponents seek to remove, or at least minimise, the role of chance in biological and cosmological evolution, and do so often with (overt or veiled) religious motives. This ideology not only resurrects the old theological errors of Manichaeism, but also contradicts the scientific understanding of the Universe" (p. 24). In view of the continuing debate between proponents of evolutionary theory and supporters of the concept of ‘intelligent design’, this short text is an attempt to show the role of chance from a scientific rather than an ideological point of view. The author opposes both the reduction of evolution to a pure game of chance and religious interpretations that seek to supplement the scientific theory of evolution with elements of ‘intelligent design’. Both of these extremes, according to Heller, are based on a misunderstanding, consisting mainly of a misunderstanding of the role of chance in the structure and evolution of the Universe.
SUMMARY: 1 Introduction. 2 The non-linear universe. 3. Chance and randomness. 4. Probability at the fundamental level. 5. The message.
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