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, 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 from a blueprint. It initially applied only to biological systems, but it now seems that any active system that selects from variable results can evolve, including social, geophysical, and technical systems (Bejan, 2023). Evolution could then be a universal principle, like the second law of thermodynamics.
It is interesting then that quantum systems, as described by quantum theory, satisfy all the requirements of evolution. For example, a photon of light finds the best path to a destination using:
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.
A photon cloud passing through two slits to hit a screen point is then an evolution, as one of many 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 finds a way, if there is one.
Matter then began when extreme light from the big bang managed 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 is then necessary for physical evolution, but it is pointless in a clockwork universe, as it causes errors in the machine. Why build a clock that gives random times? It is equally unhelpful in a designed universe because it interferes with the divine plan.
This explains why Einstein said that God doesn’t play dice with the universe, because a supreme power, divine or physical, should have full control. But what if it gave that control 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, and there are no divine shortcuts. Each step must cause the next, with no missing links, so life didn’t just suddenly appear, as stars had to die to create the atoms like carbon that it needs. Even atoms 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.