Complexity Cafe is a small independent outpost on the World Wide Web. It has the modest goal of being another voice in opposition to the irrational dogmas being forced on the public by the ideology of materialism. As we all know, unchecked authorities always tend to abuse their power, and this tendency holds true even for those we need to trust the most. In this case, it is those within the honorable institutions of science and higher education who hold their personal beliefs as absolute truths beyond all question. The problem is not that they have strong beliefs, but that they abuse the institutions of science to control the conversation and demonize any rational opposition to those beliefs. This is in fact anti-science and even anti-intellectualism. The only reasonable response for the average adult is to learn something about the issues, and to be fair and wise.

Perhaps you can relate to the following:

During my entire adult life, the institutions of science have been telling me that material reality is all there is. This is not a conclusion that science has merely left open as a viable possibility, but instead, it is promoted as an absolute certainty -- promoted with so much zeal that the conclusion often appears to be more important than the evidence. From famous academics around the world, we are told the cornerstone beliefs of the reigning materialistic ideology within the academy. We are told there is no purpose in life. We are told there is no foundation for morality or ethics. We are told there is no meaning in existence and no such thing as human free will. Moreover, we are assured that the types of people who believe in such things are either “ignorant, stupid, insane, or even wicked”. How odd is it that we should have such claims, brimming with emotion and self-certainty, coming from the dispassionate conduct of science.

Then several years ago, out of pure happenstance, I read a book by a well-respected Australian biochemist who was challenging the alleged scientific basis of these claims. Shortly thereafter, I read another book by an American biochemist making some of the same challenges. These men weren't simply putting a different spin on the evidence, they were bringing forward serious problems with the most common interpretations of that evidence. Then with the sudden proliferation of the internet, an entire window into the actual scientific debate opened up. I emphasize the phrase “actual scientific debate” to distinguish it from the weak, politically-saturated, discourse coming from the major media (whom simply assume materialism to be true and challenge nothing whatsoever). What I found was an incredibly rich debate, with dozens upon dozens of sources, and a massive history of thought going back through years and years on end. I remember being astonished by the sheer volume of the information, and wondering how it was possible that none of this dialogue ever makes it to the public square. I also witnessed the strategies used by the reigning authority to maintain their dominance in the conversation, and found something about myself as well. I had an almost child-like idea that the men and women of science were somehow bound by their profession to have the highest respect for material evidence, and to be accurate in their public statements about that evidence (in the same way that we might expect a medical doctor to be bound by the best practices of his or her discipline). I was not merely naïve in this regard; I was completely ignorant of the truth.

Since that time, I have read and studied countless peer-reviewed papers on these issues. I’ve also read dozens of books and essays, attended university debates and conferences, and have contacted leading biologists, physicists, information theorists, cosmologists, and philosophers from across the globe. Recently, I’ve even organized and written about some of the things I’ve discovered in certain areas of interest, particularly Biosemiosis (a term which refers to the genetic information recorded in DNA).

Complexity Cafe is a result of that journey.

I blog on the web under the pseudonym Upright Biped. I am not a scientist, and I make no pretense to having a scientific background. I have a 30+ year career in the major media, serving most recently as Research Director and in Programming. My background includes stints with CBS Stations Group, Tribune Broadcasting, News Corp, New World Communications, Sinclair Broadcasting, and other affiliate television and radio stations.

Ultimately, I am a tiny fish in a huge pond, but as an informed non-specialist, I have joined the growing chorus of people who have come to understand the physical issues at hand. Complexity Cafe is my modest contribution in opposition to materialism, as well as the unnecessary bigotry that flows from it.

For anyone who is first exploring these issues, you’ll find a little craziness coming from all sides of the debate, but in the end, you’ll find that the scientific justifications behind materialism are entirely insufficient to answer the mountains of evidence against it.

In science, the only thing that matters is that evidence.