A philosophical worldview or belief system grounded on the 20th century discovery that Information, rather than Matter, is the fundamental substance of everything in the universe. It is intended to be the 21st century successor to the ancient worldviews of Materialism and Idealism. An Update from Bronze Age to Information Age. It's also a Theory – of – Everything that covers, not just matter & energy, but also Life & Mind & Love.
Post 152.March 22, 2026
The Origin of Everything
Consciousness is the Cause of Cosmos
David Rowland is an astrophysicist, who also contributed to theoretical physics, neuroscience, cardiology, endocrinology, neuro-physiology, and evolutionary biology. The abstruse pro-fessions of star-gazing and atom-gazing seem to lead pragmatic practitioners into impractical Philosophy, as in post 151. But he also writes on seemingly unrelated topics of Autism and Heart Surgery. So, I guess you could call someone with such a wide-ranging intellect a polymath. This post is limited to his small book on THE ORIGIN OF EVERYTHING, subtitled Uniting Science and Philosophy. The book covers related topics including Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Meta-physics. He writes clearly and succinctly, leaving the reader free to believe it or not. So I wrote many question marks in the margin, doubting some of his claims that border on pseudoscience.
He begins the book at the beginning of the physical world, as described by modern Astrophysicists & Cosmologists instead of ancient mythologists. But in the first chapter, he asserts that “science tells us what happens; philosophy tells us why”. And in the third paragraph, he notes that “Physics is an effect, not a cause”. So, as did Plato and Aristotle, in the early days of philo-sophy, he assumes that a metaphysical First Cause of the Cosmos is a necessary Axiom² upon which to base your reasoning from scientific facts to Bayesian beliefs³. But he refrains from naming or personifying the Cosmic Creator, hence avoiding the slippery slope into religious mythology.
Although he is wary of interpreting scientific evidence in support of religious doctrines, he doesn’t hesitate to go beyond mundane Physics to discuss Metaphysical concepts. For example, he forth-rightly declares his belief in notions we know, not by perception, but only by conception : by inference. “There is a nonphysicial⁴ form of primary energy that both created the universe and continues to interact with it in subtle ways”. That sounds like a slap in the face of traditional godless Materialism. But he stops short of treating that creative causal agent as a traditional humanoid God. Likewise, my own hypothesis of Enformationism⁵ has inferred the logical necessity of a philosophical First Cause, by which to explain how, but not why, the entropic space-time world we experience could suddenly come into existence, as described by modern Cosmology.
By postulating the existence of a causal force, similar to my own EnFormAction⁶, he takes a bold step in a mystical direction : “Understanding that this is so — [metaphysical causal power] — unravels cosmological mysteries, resolves the quantum enigma⁷, and explains how life evolved from inanimate matter, expands our understanding of DNA, fills in gaps in evolutionary theory, explains how humans acquired consciousness, and predicts future scientific discoveries”. If that sounds immodest, or unbelievable, please withhold judgement until you have seen how he arrives at such an audacious conclusion.
Since some of his philosophical concepts may seem mystical or supernatural, Rowland may appear to ascribe to anti-realism⁸. Yet, he notes that “science and philosophy are complementary disciplines, both seeking the same ultimate truths. . . . However, science became specialized and divided nature into compartments that are often disconnected. . . . Science studies how things happen. Philosophy explains why they happen. As such, philoso-phy is the science of the possible.”
1. David Rowland website https://www.davidrowland.ca/
2. Axiom : An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom
4. Nonphysical : Immaterial, incorporeal, intangible, and nonmaterial. spiritual, metaphysical, or ethereal. In my thesis, I use the term Meta-Physical to cover all of those unreal concepts.
5. Enformationism : A philosophical worldview or belief system grounded on the 20th century discovery that Information, rather than Matter, is the fundamental substance of everything in the universe. https://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page8.html
8. Anti-Realism : Anti-realism is the philosophical position that reality, or specific aspects of it (like morality, mathematics, or scientific entities), is not independent of our minds, language, or social practices. Contrary to realism, it argues that truth is verified by internal logic or human perception, rather than a mind-independent world. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=anti-realism+philosophy
Post 152 Continued . . . click Next
Holistic & Complex Systems The new properties that appear during a phase transition (e.g., the rigidity of ice versus liquid water's fluidity) are examples of emergence, where the collective behavior of a large number of particles results in system-level properties that individual particles do not possess. This concept is a fundamental aspect of complexity theory, which is mathematically compatible with a materialist and deterministic framework.
Complexity theory contrasts with determinism by showing that some complex systems can have emergent properties that are not reducible to the deterministic rules of their components, and these systems may not be predictable even if they are technically deterministic.. Determinism posits that all events are predetermined by prior causes, while complexity theory suggests that phenomena like consciousness and free will could emerge in complex systems where order and randomness interact
The Origin of Everything Science has mistaken consciousness for an effect when in truth it is a cause. Consciousness is the funda-mental principle of existence. We live in a consciousness based reality. Consciousness is at the root of existence, gravity, light, quantum mech-anics, life, and evolution. –From back cover of book–
David Rowland is a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and a philosopher in the original sense of the word, meaning "lover of wisdom". – Amazon Review–
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