A mechanistic universe

[Originally, this was a much longer note, but the size got out of control and I pruned it back]

I believe in a mechanistic universe, which tends to lead to debates. At it's core, the belief is that everything behaves without fail to natural laws (though we might not know or understand them all). As a result, the more we know of those laws, the more we are able to explain. The alternative is that there is 'something more' that is above or outside of those laws whether it be God, ghosts, a soul, or love. (Very important: I am not saying that love don't exist. I'm a fan of love. I just don't think that it's supernatural)

A friend recently told me that I was underestimating and taking away from the majesty of the universe. I told her that she was underestimating the capabilities and majesty that can arise from purely mechanical phenomena.

A computer is an excellent analogy. Everything on a computer can be represented by zeroes and ones. Every video or movie that we watch can be represented in zeroes and ones (as most that we see are edited on computers). There's a computer game called Second Life which is, as it sounds, a sort of virtual second life. Characters interact in the game, buy and sell goods (to the point that some people make a living entirely from the game), they can go to church, they can do almost anything they can imagine. Now, from the point of view of one player, everything in the entire world - all that is done by millions of real people, can be described by zeroes and ones.

Another example I enjoy is the Mandelbrot set. The set (to quote wikipedia) "has become popular outside mathematics both for its aesthetic appeal and for being a complicated structure arising from a simple definition" - it is described by "Z_n+1 = Z_n² + c. I highly recommend watching a video that zooms in on the Mandelbrot set.

And of course, the brain and DNA are both mechanistic, but can very clearly lead to some astounding results.