1. “The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.”
Emergence

2. Newton’s Laws

3. T. S. Eliot on time Time present and time past
Are perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
From Burnt Norton

4. Two Arrows of Time
Entropy
Emergence

5. From C. S. Lewis’ Perelandra
After earths, not better earths but beasts;
after beasts, not better beasts, but spirits.
After a falling, not a recovery but a new creation.
Out of the new creation, not a third
but the mode of change itself is changed for ever.

6. Benard Cells

8. Seven points It’s not a closed system. It’s a non-linear system.
It’s far from equilibrium.
It’s big enough.
There’s an iterative feedback mechanism at work.
It’s extremely sensitive to initial conditions.

9. The seventh point Those were computer simulations!
We could not have predicted these patterns from the equations alone, but we can compute them (with a sufficiently large computer).

10. The Logistic Equation

14. Important points Every point is determined by an equation.
Because of chaos, most points are unpredictable.
Pattern emerges from chaos.
All this happens because of non-linear iteration.

15. The mandelbrot set
The ultimate fractal
are complex numbers

16. The argument so far
Things in the real world can be unpredictable even when they are in principle determined by the laws of physics.
Complex structure emerges unpredictably when non-linear systems are iterated.

17. The big question
Is this the whole story??

18. Three answers
Dualism
Reductionism
Emergentism

19. Emergentism -- definition
Causes and explanations of higher-order events must be given in terms intrinsic to each particular level of natural reality.

20. Arguments in favor Logical consistency Life in a rational universe
Life in a moral universe
“Top-down” arguments, i.e. theology

21. Five flavors of theology
God = nature: pantheism
God is an emergent property of the universe.
God created the universe but stands outside it: deism.
God has two natures: temporal theism
Eschatological theism: the future is a causal agent on the present.