Biologist Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D., author of A New Science of Life, has stimulated and even startled the scientific world by challenging mechanistic thinking in the life sciences. Dr. Sheldrake proposes a startling alternative to the idea that genetic programming is solely responsible for diversity of form, development of behavior and development of mind in living creatures.
The so-called "laws of nature" may actually be more like habits and instincts than immutable and inviolable laws. Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D., biologist and author, suggests that from this perspective all of creation may be viewed as a living organism. This ancient concept, he says, challenges the notion of the universe as a mechanism with God as the great mechanic.
Were there any "laws of the universe" at the time of the "big bang?" Oxford trained biologist Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D., author of The Presence of the Past, says that all laws developed as "habits" over time. Thus the universe and its laws can be seen to be continually evolving. In this view the theory of evolution can be applied to physics, chemistry and cosmology.
"So nature is essentially habit forming, and all aspects of nature, I think, are based on the principle of habit. Indeed, I'd go so far as to say that what we call the laws of nature are more like the habits of nature."
--Rupert Sheldrake
EXCERPT: The Presence of the Past
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