Contents:
The Author
Craig E. Duncan has a mechanical engineering degree from Penn State with a minor in art. He has worked as a software developer and graphic designer in the IT industry, including earning the Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) certification. Craig also helped promote XML Web service protocols and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to key members of the FAA for what is now known as System Wide Information Management (SWIM) in the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). He enjoys playing classical guitar for fun.
One of Craig’s goals is to become a leading Systems Philosopher. In addition, he wants to help pioneer the use of concepts from information theory and control engineering (which are part of the formal sciences) in theology, bringing the study of God into the 21st century—or 58th century if you prefer to follow the Hebrew calendar. Craig sees himself as a Spiritual Engineer, building “big bridges” of information which will help people decide to accept God’s salvation (Yeshua/Jesus) as well as reassuring current believers that their faith is rational and not blind. He looks up to people who stand on the shoulders of giants, and has chosen to stand “in the shoulder” of a fractal Giant, the emerging body of Christ. Craig hopes someday you will find it (if you have not yet) with the lovers, the dreamers, and himself.
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”— 1 Corinthians 3:16
The Book
God’s Rainbow Connection: Fractal Code and Resurrection introduces many new ideas, beginning with a fractal periodic table of repeating “elements” or concepts in the Bible. Then it proposes a hybrid origin of life theory which describes how encoded cellular agency is a middle ground between Intelligent Design due to repeated external interventions by God and a version of evolution that is only caused by unguided random accidents. This new theory is a synthesis which follows the dialectical method often attributed to philosopher G. W. F. Hegel and it helps to resolve what some people perceive as a conflict between religion and science.
The theory is called “Conscious Emergence” and it is primarily based on recent scientific discoveries, such as those at the smallest scale like quantum delayed-choice experiments, quantum-critical biochemistry, and quantum tunneling in DNA repair. It also includes discoveries at the largest scales. For example, there is new evidence that the universe is holographic and has been undergoing a relatively slow and steady expansion compared to the currently popular model of a short period of rapid cosmic inflation after the Big Bang. Along with unexpected patterns that are aligned with the solar system in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), this has theological implications.
The book then discusses what the author calls “Fractal Information Trimonism” (FIT) and how code—which is something that symbolically represents something else—in fractal patterns appears to be the long-awaited missing link between mind and body, solving an almost 400-year-old problem in philosophy! Essentially, FIT combines ideas from the field of information theory and from three classical rationalist philosophers (René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz) to create a self-similar, triple-aspect monism. In addition, it shows that the physical, “organizational”, and mental aspects of information can be mapped to the Christian concept of the Trinity.
Then new observations based on FIT are made, including the fact that when someone claims only material things exist, it results in a “materialist’s paradox” because they are putting their idea into an encoded format which contains “symbolic meaning” beyond the physical. After that, the book covers how consciousness appears to be certain patterns of “information in formation” and how neurons in the brain surprisingly use the same kind of mathematical operation which is found in quantum mechanics, holography, and control system analysis. This math is known as a Fourier transform and it converts a signal into its component frequencies, similar to how a prism reveals that white light is composed of a hidden rainbow of colors.
“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore. We must be over the rainbow!”— Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Next, the book describes the first significant improvement to the watchmaker analogy in over 2,000 years! It points out that rather than watches being complex (which is subjective), it is actually their intrinsic ability to encode information containing symbolic meaning—similar to living organisms with DNA—and objectively display it on their face that allows the existence of teleology, purpose, and ultimately God to be inferred. This is because so far, every digital code humans know the origin of has come from a conscious mind and a prize which is potentially worth 10 million dollars if an exception can be found is still unclaimed.
Then the book explains that watches and living organisms also depend on non-random error-correcting systems governed by non-physical control engineering principles acting similar to a corrective “spirit.” For example, the various DNA repair mechanisms found in cells apparently rely on logical comparisons to help create an emergent low-level “logical loop” of feedback that is necessary for life. According to the most recent science, the interdependent relationships between its parts, code, and logic could not have been formed gradually by the purely materialistic version of evolution known as neo-Darwinism. Not only that, but the repair systems encoded in the DNA (which also happens to be protected by them) have grown increasingly more complicated and effective in more complex organisms, proving evolution involves an additional “principle of error minimization” beyond natural selection.
Interestingly, the fact that some of these DNA error-correcting systems depend on quantum tunneling means the genetic code can be indirectly linked to some of the laws of physics. In addition, the logical loop they help form can be used as the foundation for indirectly connecting the regulatory systems in our cells—such as neurons in our brains that also follow the principle of error minimization in order to make better predictions—with the human desire to be truthful and behave ethically. The author calls this concept a “Biological Jacob’s Ladder” (BJL) and it is a fractal cybernetic system which applies to cells, individuals, and societies. It includes a new “principle of choice maximization” similar to the ideas of German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who proposed that reason is the source of morality. While it is not a “theory of everything”, aspects of the BJL show how Plato’s trancendental ideas of beauty, truth, and goodness can be unified in living beings. Plus it additionally ties together the three traditional branches of philosophy (which are physics, logic, and ethics) dating back to the ancient Greeks!
Finally, the book describes “deep parallels” between control engineering and the Bible, like how repairing a broken hologram can be used to show that Jesus’ resurrection is plausible from a scientific perspective. Since the universe appears to be holographic and holograms are encoded redundantly, this means it would be possible for God to use logic and restore any of the pieces which are missing, including raising Jesus from the dead. If you want to learn even more about what is essentially a new high-tech version of the gospel, you can also read a little bit about it near the bottom of the book’s Summary page.
“Each person has been ‘given enough rope to hang themselves.’ However, by following God’s instructions and Jesus’ example, we can weave our ropes together into a safety net that is big enough to catch everyone who chooses to jump into it.”— Craig E. Duncan