ERUPTION AND EMERGENCE; CREATION AND CO-CREATIONWhen there is a sudden spewing of matter or passion, of disease or
destruction, we call it an eruption. Volcanoes erupt, as do anger, fury and
an epidemic of plague. Eruptions are usually unwelcome occurrences which
have impact on the surroundings, short-lived or lasting, but the eruptions
themselves fade into memory.
When that which appears retains its integrity in form and substance, it is
an emergence. A flower emerges as does a sonnet. Emergence also refers to a
property of a system that is absent in its components. The letters m, a, and
n have their specific roles in the alphabet, but when put together we get
the word man whose meaning is not there in the component letters. Hydrogen
and oxygen have properties, but when they combine in proportion they become
water whose properties are very different from those of its constituent
atoms. Generally speaking, if a and b yield C, but C is not equal to a + b,
then we have emergence. In other words, when the whole is not equal to the
sum of the parts, there is emergence. In current scientific paradigm one
tries to account for thought, mind, consciousness, etc. as emergent
properties of the brain, related to complexity.
Sometimes, what emerges might be governed by law and principle, and it
evolves. We may refer to an emergence of this kind as creation. Creation
launches something that never existed before and that does not remain the
same. Thus, a child is a creation, as also a city that is founded or a
religion that is established.
In this terminology, though the Big Bang resembled an enormous eruption, it
was in fact much more. The universe was not an emergence either. The Cosmos
was a creation. What is created has an existence of its own. More
importantly, others things appear from it. The theologian Phil Hefner spoke
of human beings as "God's created creator whose purpose is the
stretching/enabling of the systems of nature." He describes us as
co-creators wit God. We create ideas and things, values and works of art,
and more. Hefner's idea is insightful, for there certainly is an element of
what we regard as the divine in each one of us: not just in our capacities
for goodness, justice, compassion and mercy, but in our creative faculties
also. When the Upanishadic seers declare "Thou are That," or the Bible says
we were created in "God's image," this is what have been meant.
This notion may be extended further: We are conscious co-creators. For there
are unconscious and semiconscious co-creators as well. The matter and energy
that were created from the Big Bang were unconscious co-creators, for they
led to the formation of atoms and molecules, to elements and compounds, to
planets and stars: each a created entity in its own right, for each new
level is different from its initial components.
When self-replicating macro-molecules of life arose, there was another level
of co-creation: for evolution is a creative process too. Biological
evolution is different from the unconscious formation of atoms and stars,
and it may be described as semi-conscious co-creation, for there is a fine
difference between crystal growth and cell-division.
With the onset of mind, creation leaped to the higher level of
self-awareness. What is created by this is not just machines and bridges,
but ideas and ideals, values and morals. This constitutes what may be called
conscious co-creation. As the universe unfolds, there continue to be
eruptions, as with novas and supernovas, emergences as when quantum entities
are observed and measured, when works of art and music are produced, and
creation, as when a child is born or a new system of thought is formulated.
V. V. Raman
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