Constructing the Meta-Religion: Mapping Concepts from Eastern and Western Religion onto the Story of a Self-Organizing Universe

The cosmic religion is a meta-narrative with the power to unify the secular and spiritual worlds.

This 6000-word essay presents a foundation for a universal religion by mapping spiritual concepts from Eastern and Western religious philosophy onto the narrative of a self-organizing cosmos. Your feedback and ideas will be used to further shape and optimize the Meta-Religion. Become a paid subscriber to unlock the full article and support the Road to Omega project.

In the history of human thought, no single idea is as far-reaching or profound as the concept of a self-organizing universe that inevitably produces life, consciousness, and culture as it moves along a trajectory toward a maximally-complex and maximally-aware state of existence — an Omega Point, as its been called in the philosophy and theology literature.

In a previous post, Waking Up the Universe, we explored this idea from beginning to end and discovered that the cosmos does not seem to be a meaningless machine steadily winding down, but rather a creative, evolving entity that is always becoming more organized, functional, and alive. The “theory of everything” we have been searching for turns out to be a story of everything. It is a tale of cosmic becoming, and life — also known as adaptive complexity — is at the center of the saga.

When we explore the details of this story, nature’s secrets begin to reveal themselves at a dizzying rate. We suddenly see the history of the universe not as a series of random events, but as an intelligible and semi-predictable process of progressive evolution and knowledge creation. Through a series of nested emergences — so far generating matter, life, mind, and culture — nature is continually developing, learning, and transcending itself.

In this vision, the universe is not only growing more complex over time; it is also growing more aware. This awakening of the world’s inanimate matter is happening on Earth, through the creation of a growing number of conscious agents. While every living organism is part of the collective intelligence that is our biosphere, our species represents the current pinnacle of nature’s awareness, as humans are the only known form of adaptive complexity that possesses self-awareness, and now, an awareness of the cosmic self-organization process that we are an integral part of.

This paradigm challenges us to reconsider our relationship to nature. We are called to see ourselves not as mere observers of an indifferent universe, but as active participants in a grand and majestic story of cosmic awakening. As self-aware systems with agency and free choice, we are the stewards of the self-organizing universe, and it is our responsibility to continue creative evolution, and to keep conscious experience in existence. Through our efforts to survive as individuals and to sustain the collective, nature itself becomes self-aware. As the cosmologist and educator Carl Sagan said, “We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”

As we continue our exploration of cosmic self-organization, it is time to recognize that these ideas did not emerge in a vacuum. They are part of a long history of human attempts to understand the nature of reality and our place in it. In fact, some of the scientific concepts that are central to this narrative have been articulated with great detail and sophistication in philosophical and religious works throughout history. I believe that these alternative explanations can deepen our understanding of the evolutionary mechanisms and causal dynamics of nature, and that ignoring them would only limit our comprehension of these concepts.

The best way to understand religion is to view it as the product of collective human inference. In other words, religious explanations were our ancestors' best attempt at constructing meaningful answers to practical and existential questions, given the knowledge available at the time. By using metaphors and stories, they provided an intuitive and memorable sense-making lens before we had the method of science or rational analysis. In addition to its sense-making function, another adaptive feature was that it offered an ethical system that maximized the chances of collective survival. Religion still flourishes today because of these qualities, which a nihilistic worldview cannot provide.

The story of the self-organizing universe is a new scientific paradigm that moves us away from nihilism, towards an empirical worldview that has many of the same qualities as religions. Exploring this story inevitably leads to a convergence of complexity theory and spiritual philosophy, providing a natural bridge between science and religion. The goal of this article is to use this new paradigm to construct a coherent meta-narrative — a story of stories — that illuminates the causal structure of reality, or “how the world works,” while honoring both the rigorous empiricism of science and the profound philosophical insights of our spiritual traditions. This grand meta-narrative may be called the Meta-Religion, because it is an attempt to create a cosmic religion from all the religious concepts that are consistent with the story of a self-organizing, self-actualizing cosmos.

By discovering philosophical and religious concepts that align with the story of recursive emergence, we are identifying universal truths that span both scientific and spiritual understandings of reality. Where scientific explanations tell us about the nature of reality, spiritual explanations reveal something about our relationship to that reality — our connection to something larger than ourselves. The surprising parallels in humanity's attempts to explain existence across diverse cultures and eras point to an objective structure of reality that can be intuited by deep thought and reflection.

Though there is another practical reason for this ambitious academic exercise, beyond deepening our understanding of our reality. By constructing such a synthesis, we open the door to a universal perspective, potentially fostering unity and mutual understanding across diverse cultures. Rather than dismissing millennia of spiritual insights, we can harness the paradigm of cosmic self-organization to weave thousands of years of philosophical and religious thought into a unifying worldview that instills life with meaning and purpose. This approach offers something akin to the "cosmic religion" envisioned by science advocates like Albert Einstein and Carl Sagan. For instance, Sagan wrote:

“A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later such a religion will emerge.”

Einstein, a self-proclaimed pantheist in the vein of Spinoza, saw God in the orderly dynamics of nature. His assertion that "Religion without science is blind; science without religion is lame" clearly reveals his belief in the potential synergy between scientific understanding and spiritual perspective.

In fact, most of the greatest scientists and mathematicians from history were simultaneously rational-minded and religious, in some sense or another. For example, intellectual giants such as Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Lord Kelvin, Sir Arthur Eddington, Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg, and Kurt Godel, all identified as Christian, though I imagine these men were the type of Christian who saw the Bible as a collection of useful metaphors and timeless truths rather than literal accounts of supernatural events. The point is that they considered themselves to be spiritual and saw meaning in life and nature, to the point where they felt like some kind of religious practice was worth their time.

While many great scientists found inspiration in Western religious traditions, others were drawn to the profound insights of Eastern philosophies, demonstrating that the search for meaning and understanding transcends cultural boundaries. For example, Erwin Schrödinger, one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics, was profoundly intrigued by the insights of Hindu philosophy. He was particularly fascinated by the concept of "unity consciousness," which posits that all individual consciousnesses are ultimately part of a single, universal consciousness — a concept that resonated with his understanding of an interconnected quantum reality. Werner Heisenberg, another pioneer of quantum physics, also saw scientific truth in Eastern religion, both in Hindu philosophy and in the Chinese concept of yin and yang, which he related to his principle of complementarity in quantum mechanics. Other physicists of the time, such as Niels Bohr and Wolfgang Pauli, had similar interests in Eastern religion. All these thinkers were pioneers of the weird world of quantum physics, which suggests that at the frontiers of scientific inquiry, we may find unexpected bridges to ancient wisdoms that were previously deemed irrelevant. The recursive emergence paradigm offers many such bridges.

By highlighting connections between science and theology, mapping mechanisms onto mythologies and vice versa, we can create a unified narrative that bridges the divide between empirical observation and spiritual contemplation. Let us now begin our mapping of the meta-religion using the story of cosmic self-organization. In the next article, we will use this mythology to build on our previous framing of reality as a game, because all the greatest games have a story that captivates the imagination.

Mapping the Meta-Religion

The theme of a self-organizing universe, while relatively new in scientific discourse, has roots in the history of philosophy and religion going back millennia. Most of the key concepts and dynamics found early expression in Eastern philosophy, which was often cosmic in nature. However, it was really during the Enlightenment and the subsequent Romantic period that these notions began to coalesce into a more recognizable form, culminating in the cosmic interpretations of Christianity proposed by philosophers such as G.W.F. Hegel and F.W.J Schelling in the 19th century and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in the 20th century.

In our exploration of Eastern and Western philosophical traditions, we will focus on three fundamental motifs that align with our understanding of cosmic self-organization:

1) The concept of universal interconnectedness, wherein all elements are integral parts of a larger cosmic whole that is evolving towards greater complexity and coherence.

2) The mechanism of evolution and emergence, characterized by a dialectical interplay between seemingly opposing forces that are actually complementary.

3) The emergence and integration of individual conscious agents, which are micro-representations of the maximally-complex, maximally-conscious goal-state that the universe is evolving toward.

We will begin in the East, because doing so will allow us to better understand the relevant philosophy that later emerged in the West.

Cosmic Self-Organization in Eastern Philosophy

Since Eastern philosophies often tried to explain the causal dynamics in nature, they offer a surprising number of concepts that neatly map onto the major mechanisms of cosmic self-organization. Because there are so many Eastern religions, we will limit our focus to three, which have been chosen because they developed relatively independently of one another: Taoism, Zoroastrianism, and Hinduism. Despite their geographic and cultural differences, these belief systems share curious similarities in their understanding of the universe's fundamental nature and organizing principles. For example, each religion emphasizes holistic and cyclical views of cosmic processes, mirroring contemporary notions of systemic interconnectedness and evolutionary cycles. Let us appropriately appropriate these concepts so that we may construct a modern mythology that aligns with the new cosmic narrative illuminated by the process of recursive emergence.

Hindu philosophy, with roots in the Vedic period (c. 1500-500 BCE), introduces the idea of Brahman as the ultimate, all-encompassing reality from which all things emanate. Brahman is not so much a conscious deity as it is a creative principle that pervades nature, causing change, evolution, and cosmic development. As an ordering force, Brahman has been depicted as a cosmic consciousness or cosmic intelligence by modern spiritual teachers. This concept has an important analogue in Western philosophy known as “the Absolute,” which we will come back to shortly.

Brahman provides a powerful metaphor for conceptualizing a self-organizing, computational universe. Like a self-organizing cosmos, with its intrinsic laws and evolutionary dynamics, Brahman contains the principles of its own evolution, requiring no external agent to guide its development. Just as Brahman is seen as a cosmic intelligence that permeates all existence, a computational universe represents a vast, interconnected system of information processing. Moreover, the concept of Brahman as the source and substance of all reality aligns with the idea of a computational universe where all phenomena, from chemical reactions to conscious thoughts, can be understood as expressions of underlying informational processes. In both views, the apparent diversity of the world emerges from a fundamental, all-encompassing unity.

The process of cosmic self-organization can now be restated as a mythology. The evolution of the universe toward an increasingly complex and organized state is a story we may call the Becoming of Brahman. We will reference this concept of Brahman throughout this article and in future posts to represent the universe as a single dynamic entity that is organizing itself.

About a millennium after the first Hindu texts appeared, around 400 BC, Taoism emerged in China. Mirroring the idea of Brahman, we have the Tao, roughly translating to "the Way." The Tao is the fundamental principle governing the universe’s evolution, and the wellspring of all order and complexity in nature. Like Brahman, the Tao is not an agent-like deity but more of a causal force that permeates all existence. It represents the self-organizing tendency of the cosmos — or the telos, in Aristotle’s terms — which arises from the interplay between opposing forces, bringing about harmony and balance through a state of dynamic equilibrium.

The Tao serves as a powerful metaphor for the transformative evolutionary process that represents the Becoming of Brahman. Like the process of spontaneous self-organization in nature, the Tao operates without being guided by an external agent, spontaneously generating order and complexity. Its emphasis on the interplay of opposites mirrors the dynamic between order and chaos that drives complexification. Building on the concept of Brahman, the Tao captures the essence of a universe that continually organizes itself into a more complex form while maintaining an underlying coherence.

Then we have Zoroastrianism, which emerged in Persia not long after the first Hindu texts appeared (~1400 BC). Mirroring both Brahman and the Tao is the concept of Asha, often translated as "truth" or "order," and it is another version of the cosmic organizing principle. Asha embodies the intrinsic tendency of an evolving reality, combining aspects of both Brahman and the Tao while adding an epistemological and moral dimension. Asha represents the cosmic truth that ensures the continual development of the universe toward good rather than evil.

Asha serves as a much-needed metaphor for the era of cosmic self-organization associated with the evolution of self-aware life. Asha, as a comprehensive principle of cosmic order, implies that the universe's self-organization extends beyond physical complexity to include moral development in conscious beings. As conscious agents evolve from primitive origins toward ethical sophistication, developing a “theory of mind” that recognizes the existence of other conscious beings, we observe a moral arc to evolution. This progression, documented with detailed data by thinkers like cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker and evolutionary theorist Michael Shermer, suggests an inexorable trend towards increased cooperation, empathy, and moral consideration. Asha thus provides a framework for understanding how ethics might be an intrinsic part of cosmic evolution, not merely a human construct, but a fundamental aspect of the universe's self-organizing tendency.

This ethical dimension of cosmic evolution naturally leads us to consider the role of individual consciousness in this grand process. Here, we find another crucial Hindu concept: Atman, often described as the individual self or soul. The relationship between Atman and Brahman is central to Hindu philosophy, with the ultimate realization being that Atman is, in essence, one with Brahman. This concept adds a profound dimension to our understanding of cosmic self-organization. The Becoming of Brahman, driven by the organizing force of the Tao and guided by Asha's truth and goodness, can be seen as a process that transforms an inanimate cosmos into a system capable of self-reflection. As the universe evolves towards higher complexity through the Tao and towards greater ethical sophistication through Asha, it simultaneously brings Atman — self-aware entities — closer to the realization of their fundamental unity with Brahman.

Schrödinger, as mentioned above, saw great significance in the idea that Atman (the self) was just a local representation of Brahman, the universal consciousness. In fact, Schrödinger’s academic talks always concluded with what he called the “second Schrödinger equation,” the statement that “Atman = Brahman,” which is known as the doctrine of identity. Regarding this topic, he once wrote, “Vedanta teaches that consciousness is singular. All happenings are played out in Universal consciousness and there is no multiplicity of selves.”

Now that we understand the relevant concepts from Eastern philosophy, let us turn to the West to better grasp these ideas about consciousness and cosmos.

Cosmic Self-Organization in Western Philosophy

While the idea of intrinsic meaning and purpose in nature goes all the way back to the Greeks, in particular Aristotle, it wasn’t until German Idealist philosophy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that the concept of a self-organizing universe evolving toward life and consciousness truly began to take shape. This intellectual movement, spearheaded by Hegel and the lesser known Schelling, attempted to reconcile the story of cosmic becoming with Christian theology. Their philosophical system stripped away the superstition and literal interpretations of miracles, offering instead a sophisticated, spiritually-infused vision of cosmic development.

At the heart of Schelling and Hegel's worldview was the belief that nature has an inherent drive toward self-awareness, with human consciousness serving as a vehicle for its self-realization. For these visionary thinkers, evolution is not only a biological process, but a cosmic one, which involves a developmental trajectory that inevitably transforms an unconscious natural world into one with self-aware agents that are rational and free in their decision-making capacity. This perspective imbued the universe with purpose and positioned human development as an integral part of a grand, unfolding cosmic drama.

Central to their philosophy was the concept of the Absolute, an idea which is essentially analogous to the Hindu concept of Brahman, except that the Absolute is explicitly stated to be undergoing a process of evolutionary development (where Brahman is sometimes described as eternal and unchanging). That is to say, the Absolute represents the universe as a dynamic, self-developing system, rather than a static, mechanical clockwork-type system. It is not just the human being, but the cosmos as a whole, that is engaged in a process of self-realization. The self-realization of the Absolute is equivalent to the Becoming of Brahman.

Hegel explained that the Absolute was coming to know itself through the evolution of Geist — which roughly translates to “Spirit," or “Mind,” but we can also think of it as the causal power of information. It may be helpful to think of “Mind” as Geist in the individual, and “Spirit” as Geist in the collective, though these terms are often used interchangeably. In this grand narrative, the struggle of humanity over the course of its history represents the struggle of nature to become self-aware. This process occurs through a nested series of cycles and stages, such that the Absolute comes to know itself through a succession of emergences, which so far has generated matter, life, mind, and culture. The process of knowledge creation that occurs as a result of biological and cultural evolution represents the Absolute acquiring self-knowledge through the development of intelligent life. This evolution starts with consciousness, then develops through self-consciousness, then rationality, religion, and science, ultimately leading to Hegel’s philosophy of cosmic self-actualization.