Darwin’s great idea was that human beings were naturally selected by evolution over millions of years, rather than always being as we are now. This evolution was based on three features of life:
1. Generation. Species generate offspring that carry on their traits.
2. Variation. The traits of offspring vary, for example by mutation.
3. Selection. Offspring that survive are selected to continue the lineage.
Evolution is then an iterative process that explores patterns to discover what survives, not the manufacture of a product based on a blueprint. It was initially applied only to biological systems but it now seems that any active system that chooses from variable results can evolve, including social, geophysical, and technical systems (Bejan, 2023), so if even matter evolved, evolution is a universal principle like the second law of thermodynamics.
It is not generally recognized that quantum systems, as described by quantum theory, provide all the necessary conditions for evolution. For example, a photon of light finds the best path to a destination by evolution, because there is:
1. Generation. The photon wave actively generates offspring by instantiation.
2. Variation. Photon instances vary in properties like location and direction.
3. Selection. A physical event selects one instance to restart the photon lineage.
Hence, a photon cloud passing through Young’s slits to hit a screen point is an evolution, as one of many generated variants triggers a restart that selects how the photon is reborn. The result seems accidental but some instance always finds the best path, just as Darwinian evolution seems accidental but life always finds a way, if there is one.
Matter then began when extreme light from the big bang discovered how to produce electrons, a new entity species. The electron survived by its stability, as it is constantly bombarded by competitors for its physical niche, just as new species face competition in a biological niche. Stability then drives the evolution of matter as survival drives the evolution of species, because the future is what survives.
Quantum randomness then provides the variation in physical events necessary for physical evolution. In contrast, randomness is pointless in a clockwork universe as it causes errors in the machine, and who needs a clock that that gives random times? It is equally unhelpful in a designed universe because it interferes with the divine plan.
Einstein stated that God doesn’t play dice with the universe because a supreme power, divine or physical, has full control, but what if that was given away? It is then not God that plays dice with the universe but its participants, by their choices. That matter evolved doesn’t deny theology if evolution is the design.
Evolution is a process not a production line, so there are no divine shortcuts, as each step must cause the next, with no missing links. Life didn’t suddenly appear, as stars had to die to create the atoms like carbon that it needs. Even the atoms we can’t see had electron and quark precursors, that also came from what was before, namely light. Matter then evolved as life did, step-by-step, based on the principles of generation, variation, and selection. Science recognizes the evolution of life on earth but not the grand evolution behind it, as physics is still ruled by matter creationists.
If the earth is a freakish accident, we may be alone in the universe, but if it is a natural evolution, that is unlikely. Even if life is so far limited to our earth, the grand evolution behind it is ongoing, as stars still evolve matter to this day. The foundation for life was laid long ago, so in a big universe it will always occur because it can, as our earth shows. And life can produce conscious beings like us, so eventually the same will occur elsewhere, if it hasn’t already.