The Reason I Believe in God

A distributed controls problem is one where a number of independent agents (say, robots) need to cooperatively solve a problem. Communication is typically limited, so each robot must make decisions on its own using incomplete and potentially imperfect information. The rule that governs how these decisions are made is called a distributed control law. In distributed controls, we try to develop control laws that guarantee that the overall system behaves like we want it to, even when there is uncertainty about the environment.

Think of ants as an example - they all operate more or less independently, and while they can communicate, there is not a strong enough communication channel for all the information about the growing colony to be transmitted to each ant. Thus, the ants have incomplete information. There is some kind of biological control law running on each ant that "tells" it what to do - pick up this pebble and move it outside. Attack this intruder. Etc. The control law that guides ants is incredibly sophisticated in comparison to anything we've been able to duplicate. The fact that ants are able to produce a colony with such limited communication and with so little "brain power" is absolutely fascinating.

We would like to build distributed systems to accomplish complex tasks, but it is very difficult. Engineers and scientists haven't even come close to producing systems as sophisticated as ant colonies - we get excited when we make ground robots drive around in formation or share information in a useful way. We have a long way to go before we can build armies of independent robots that can build buildings or fight battles. The tools needed to analyze and design complex distributed control systems simply haven't been discovered yet.

I like to think of the universe as one big distributed controls problem. Suppose we were to start from scratch and design a simulation governed by scores of tiny, independent control laws (ie. laws of physics). As a requirement, all the individual control laws must be designed so that when they are combined, stable structures emerge and evolve. Over time, these "stable structures" must become increasingly complex. Some of these structures must develop the capacity to reason, to design experiments and explore the nature of the "universe" that we created for them. Essentially, we would be designing the laws to govern a new universe, laws that would allow the same kind of complexity that exists in our own universe.

The problem is incomprehensibly difficult. Seemingly impossible, even. The thousands of individual laws must be developed just right, so that when they begin interacting everything works out like it should. Any slight deviation by any single law could destroy the stability of the entire system. The new universe would have to be a masterpiece of engineering and mathematics, a giant machine so complicated and intricate that no human being could fully comprehend it.

The miraculous, awe-inspiring, humbling reality is that our own universe is such a machine. The natural laws happen to combine just right, and because they do, we can exist. We exist because there is an incomprehensibly complex machine that allows us to exist. We are the emergent complexity.

Now, to the heart of the matter. Where did the wonderful, ordered laws of the universe come from? There is no clear answer to this question. It is possible that they always existed in their present form, that the natural laws are simply reality. It is possible that they had no beginning, that they just are. This is at least as reasonable as believing that a higher intelligence created them. After all, a preexisting God with enough intelligence to create our universe must certainly be more complex than the universe itself. If it is hard to comprehend how the order in our universe always existed, it should be equally hard to comprehend the existence of a God capable of creating it.

Nevertheless, I am still inclined to believe in a God. Something inside me, biological, spiritual, or whatever, pushes me in that direction. For some reason, it is easier for me to imagine the preexistence of a complex being who created the laws than to imagine the preexistence of complex laws. My reasons don't make strict logical sense, they don't prove anything. But they do provide a way to express my awe, wonder, and reverence toward the universe.

The real irony is that I believe in God not because a complex universe exists. I believe in God because laws exist that allow the universe to exist without a God!