Books exploring the philosophical
implications of science by contemporary scientists tend to fall into two
categories: those that assert and explore the implications of scientific
reductionism and those that explore the implications of quantum physics.  Neither is directly relevant o a Pagan
world view, and both can be used to attack it.  Now Stuart Kauffman’s Reinventing the Sacred offers us a
powerful volume deeply friendly to Pagan sensibilities.

Books rooted in the traditional scientific worldview, such as Jacques Monod’s Chance
and Necessity, assert that at its core everything can be reduced to the motions and
connections of particles. That ultimately all knowledge can be reduced to
physics.  Our universe is a
meaningless one, our values the imaginings of minds that themselves are the
results of invariant scientific laws.

The second, such as Fritjof Capra’s The
Tao of Physics,   explore similarities between the
quantum world and the outlooks of Asian religious thought, particularly
Buddhism and other NonDual outlooks. 
Far from reductionistic, nevertheless the material world around us tends
to be seen as a realm of illusion, masking a “truer” reality.  Like the reductionists, our messy world
of individuality, creativity, and beauty gets second billing.Kauffman offers a perspective that
incorporates the insights of both reductionistic science and the implications
of the quantum realm, while shifting our primary attention to the world in
which we live as the primary location of the Sacred.  This alone makes it of interest to Pagans curious as to how
the discoveries of modern science might relate to a Pagan world-view.

By contrast, Kauffman, one of the leading thinkers on emergent order theory, offers an account that focuses on this world we human being experience as a place of incredible wonder. Relying mostly on research in biology,
Kauffman argues our world, and probably the universe, is a place of unending
creativity, from the most basic chemistry in interstellar clouds to human
culture.  It cannot be understood
reductionistically, but is a self-organizing creative force that does not
violate the laws of physics, but is not controlled by them.  Agency, value, and creativity are as
fundamental to our world as the insights of physicists.

Kauffman makes his argument from entirely within the scientific perspective, using it to offer the best criticism of reductionism I have ever read.   Nor does his critique require bringing in extra-scientific concepts.  His discussion of hos morality emerges from evolutionary processes is a good introduction to a fascinating topic.  He takes the time to treat “Creation Science” as a genuine scientific argument, and shows how on scientific grounds it is rebutted.   All these strengths and more await the reader.

Less satisfying is his treatment of spiriuality..  He ignored experience and assumes aspects of existence that can not yet be explained scientifically, such as consciousness itself, will in time be understood without reference to deities of any sort.  Yet his personal outlook is pantheistc in many respects, and whether we agree with him on these issues or not is irrelevant to my mind.  His book is that good.