Zombies in Western Culture: A reflection/review

 A twenty first century crisis

 One of the most popular genres  in movies in recent times in the West is that of the zombie. The zombie  phenomenon represents a type of horror movie that has captured the imagination, particularly of 21st century audiences. In 2001, a performance art event took place in Sacramento, California and was repeated in several other US cities. In late 2011 in New Mexico over 9000 people dressed up in zombie gear and goolish make-up to parade grotesquely through the town. Since then there have been many zombie walks throughout the world. 

Cultural malaise

The zombie zeitgeist has now become a pervasive metaphor that has seeped its way into post-modern popular culture. The zombie would seem to have become a symbol of a cultural malaise portraying human degradation and loss of meaning in a post-Christian world. It represents the decay of moral and ontological meaning that has managed to survive after the World Wars and the threat of a nuclear holocaust. This trope has replaced the alien invasion movie genre that was popular in the 1950's when there was a sense of hope for the future after defeating the Nazi and Nipon empires. At this time America had overcome the sacrifices of the war years and was poised to enter a new era upon the back of its industrial might. However, this vision of the future began to fade with the US entrenchment [in foreign wars of questionable morality] and the sacrifice of young people to a war machine that seemed to be motivated by profit. This was the time of mass protests and the beginning of the civil rights movement. As the population entered the new millennium, the vision of the age of Aquarius, and the disintegration of the dreams of psychedelia faded and poverty reared its ugly head in the richest country of the world as the US seemingly pursued policies detrimental to its own people. There is little wonder why the zombie has become so popular. 

Zombie Walk in Stockholm 2017

The living dead

The image of the zombie is haunting and pervasive. They are usually referred to as the walking dead because of their typified hollow staring looks and decaying bodies. They are not alive but not altogether dead either, they are the living dead. They congregate together without connecting or communicating with each other. Their only preoccupation is to eat the brains of living human beings, because of their mindlessness they crave the thing that they do not have. They envy human life but have a consuming need to destroy it. Once a living person is taken by the 'walking dead' their fate is to become as one with this aimless and eternal cabal. There is no escape since their numbers keep increasing exponentially while the depleting numbers of the living are what sustains wanderings. The new norm  becomes a nihilistic world of meaninglessness and decay with body, not only separated from mind, but also from God. 

To some degree it is what befalls a civilisation that is consumed by materialistic capitalism with no regard to the environment. The post-apocalyptic movies of the late 20th century portrayed a degraded world affected by a nuclear holocaust. Later, this was replaced by pandemic genres that demonstrated nature's punishment for the extinction of plant and animal life. In response the Zombie movie is an extension of the pandemic genre depicting mankind's self-loathing and inescapable guilt. Thus the zombie trope shows a world of anxiety and lack of hope. This is truely a post-modern existence with no purpose, no meaning, and no grand narrative. It is a fallen reality with no hope of reconciliation and restoration. This is encapsulated in the recent series called "The Walking Dead" where we see the human survivors struggle to hold back the tide of the living dead. There is never any resolution, the narrative has no end, the series  cycles though reiterations of searching for safe havens only to find human betrayal. What is presented is a downward cycle of decay and hopeless degradation.

Victor Frankl hope

There is obviously a direct relationship between hope and economic agency.  "... it seems apt to say that the anticipation of agency being usurped, of losing one's place in the world in the order of things, is fundamentally what drives the anxiety, depression and suicide associated with economic instability, an effect that is amplified if one's agency in the political arena is also threatened." This quote is quite pertinent, the politicisation of society in contemporary Western culture has replaced religion and has, itself been deified in the form of predatory cancel culture. This is the new emerging, but unsustainable religion that is nihilistic, tribal and unforgiving, one that ostracises others offering no pathway for atonement.

Click on image to go to video discussion

It is no wonder that there is an associated pandemic of youth suicide, particularly with white males. Vervaeke et. al. posit ..."the rate of suicide among whites is almost four times greater than that of blacks, and three times greater than hispanics. ... People have in part, lost confidence in the institutions that are supposed to nurture both individual and collective economic prosperity." Disappointingly this book does not offer hope but does give a brief mention of Victor Frankl's book Man's search for Meaning(1946) as a seminal work that explores the possibility of finding meaning even in the Nazi concentration camps. There is meaning to be found - but sadly not in this book. One starting place will be in a future book review in this series of Frankl's book. Another starting point will be Roger Scruton's book, Beauty, which is the antithesis of zombification.

The Book:

Vervaeke, J., Mastropietro, C., & Miscevic, F. (2017) Zombies in Western culture: A twenty-first century crisis. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers.

 

Links:

Cognitive science and the sacred: Johnathan Pageau and John Vervaeke: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PGglfl5j_I&t=1s

Cognitive science and the sacred: Johnathan Pageau interview with John Vervaeke: YouTube

Biblical Symbolism of Shapes and Numbers

 Trump and Symbolism

Ascending and descending

When Trump left Washington on Biden's Inauguration day there appeared an unforgettable media image of President Trump descending the staircase with Melania on his way to Mar-a-Lago. The 'Conversation', a left-leaning Australian academic think tank, noted the significance of this imagery (see adjacent photo). The 'Conversation' made an analogy to another media image of Trump and Melania descending the escalator symbolically heralding his decision to run for the presidency of the United States of America in 2016. He would often refer to this presidential beginning as, "When we descended the escalator". Thus, Trump was seen going downward from a higher state to a lower state - into 'the Washington swamp'. This illustration was in stark contrast to when Justin Trudeau ascended an escalator:  traversing it (the wrong way) and giving the impression that he was ascending to a high position against the downward movement of the escalator. Maybe Trump's descent from Airforce 1 was a type of inversion or  transformation (Who knows?). In any case, at first glance, the dress that Melania wore resembled the apparel of the joker (see below - right) as shown on the joker card. Following on from my previous blog where the fool or the joker (the wild card) can flip the fortunes in a game of cards. In Euchre this card is the highest card, it can be extremely beneficial or very dangerous. In poker it is referred to as the wild card.

The hexagon

Consider the possible symbolism: Mar-a-Lago was originally gifted to the US government as a Winter White House. Also consider that Melania's outfit maybe highly symbolic. The shapes on her dress became progressively larger from the top of her dress to the the hem. The enlarging size of the patterned shapes tended to emphasise this descent as the larger shapes were closer to the viewer. The dark blue at the top (the Swamp) transmutes into the yellow orange at the bottom possibly emphasising a movement towards the light of day, a higher element, or gold.  

Basalt formations in Iceland

Not only were the enlarging shapes and contrasting colours strategic but the hexagon shapes suggest a progressive movement in the direction of stability and permanence. The hexagon is a shape found in nature from minute structures such as DNA, snowflakes, beehive cells, and formations of basalt rocks. In the natural world hexagons usually form strong and stable constructions. It is a very powerful geometric shape, which Biblically symbolises harmony, structure, strength and balance. On Melania's dress snowflake like symbols are also positioned between some of the hexagon shapes making a direct link to natural structures and order. 

The number 17

Not only do shapes have Biblical significance but the language of spiritual semiotics also includes other signifiers such as: animals (e.g. sheep and goats),  colours, shapes and directions such as high low, right and left. Numbers are also very important in the Bible cosmology, whenever numbers are mentioned they often have significant spiritual meanings embedded. For example the New Testament story of the unsuccessful fisherman bring together other symbolic relationships to suggest the reality of transformation and resurrection. 

C17 decked out as Airforce 1 

The symbolic meaning of the number 17 in biblical cosmology is associated with transformation and resurrection, overcoming the enemy and having complete victory. For example, God overcame the rebellion of Noah's day when the rains fell from the heavens and the waters below the earth flooded the earth on the 17th day of the second Hebrew month. Noah's ark with its 8 passengers (meaning of 8 - new beginning) came to rest on Mt Ararat, again, on the 17th day of the 7th month. What emerged was a world that had been transformed with the survivors having, in a sense, been resurrected from the chaotic flood waters. 

In the New Testament another life changing encounter involving Jesus of Nazareth took place at the Sea of Galilee. At that time the sons of Zebedee were beginning to despair after fishing all night in their boat without catching a single fish in their net. However, when they came close to the shore Jesus commanded them to cast their net on the right side of the boat instead of casting on the other (left) side. This time, to their amazement, their net was so full that it was difficult for them to haul the catch in over the side of their vessel. To their surprise they caught 153 fish, this was significant particularly when you consider the Biblical symbolism of the number 17. Each consecutive number from 1 to 17 can be added (1 + 2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 + 15 + 16 + 17 ) to get to a total of 153 fish. This miraculous event was life transforming for the fisherman. They would, hence forth, become fishers of men that would, in turn, transform the world across space and time. 

There are many similarities to the story of Noah's Ark.  Noah and his family were resurrected from a world of chaos (represented by water). The number 17 is also made up of 1 + 7 = 8, in the Bible 8 represents a new beginning (think about the symbolism of the 8 people inside Noah's ark). President Trump appears to use biblical symbolism to convey his message. What is certain is that the number 17 figures highly in his symbolic lexicon. Earlier during Biden's Inauguration Day he made his farewell speech with 17 American flags positioned strategically behind him. 

What is Meaning in the wake of Notre Dame?

Notre Dame-watercolour & acrylic-G. Woolley

Recap and going forward
In my other blog "Reading Comprehension" I have been concerned with the teaching of reading comprehension. Many of the ideas presented were associated with research for books that I had written. In contrast, this blog, focuses on a future book that I am in the process of planning and researching. At this point it does not have a name but it will focus on the essence of meaning and how, we as human beings, construct meanings as we interact with other beings and objects in our world. It will be concerned with perception, understanding and ontology.

To understand the meaning making process we need to dig deeply using fundamental religious, philosophical and scientific understandings. After all, comprehension is basically the act of gaining answers to questions that we like to ask ourselves. To ask foundational questions will enable us to begin to understand what is meant by meaning itself and what we mean when we ask what we or others mean. How do we interpret and construct meaning when we perceive something that elicits our attention during a particular instance?

Light bulb memories
The images that were firmly etched into our collective western mind with, for example, the shooting of John F. Kennedy and destruction of the twin towers in New York, could easily be recalled by those that are old enough to have seen the media pictures of the time broadcast around the world. These stark images are often referred to as 'light bulb' memories because they are almost as vivid as when we first saw them. Most people my age share those same images. Likewise, the recent burning of the Notre Dame Cathedral captured the collective attention of millions people, not only in the West but all around the world. I have painted (above) my impression of the destruction of this great icon and I am sure that you will instantly recognise it even though it is just a rough sketch. The burning of Notre Dame, no doubt is one of those light bulb moments that are etched into our collective minds. The vividness of that image in your mind is related to the intensity of the emotional impact of the event and its relationship to your world view.

Cultural understandings
We may all have a slightly different understanding of the significance of the burning of this great building but it has created a great deal of heightened interest and commentary via the news media. Whatever we make of these individual images it will, no doubt, position us all with some point of reference or shared meaning. History also records to some degree a shared understanding for those who have visited the Notre Dame Cathedral or for those that have studied French history, art history, history of Western Religion, or even the history of Western philosophy.

Significance of Notre Dame
The cathedral has an historic, religious, artistic, philosophical and cultural significance that goes far beyond the borders of modern France. It was built in the twelfth century (started in the year 1163) during a time when Christianity had spread throughout Europe and beyond the city dwellers and into rural peasantry. The building represented incredible engineering and scientific achievement. It took over one hundred years for it to be finished with an enormous amount of money, time and dedication. Those who designed, engineered, and started building would never see the results of their efforts in their lifetime. For many the dedication came from the idea that it would be a beacon to show the world the glory of the God of the Bible. At this time virtually the only literate people were the monks (certainly the only ones that could read latin) in the monasteries that proliferated throughout Western Europe. Monasticism during the Dark Ages reflected 'revelation' and 'reason' in partnership. The Monasteries became the storehouse for understanding revelation, exploring known knowledge while applying and modelling democratic social structures. It was the educated class of monks that introduced Western civilisation to Greek scientific learning and encouraged the scientific enquiry of 'God's creation' hence giving birth to modern science and democracy (see previous blog - Inventing the Individual).

The Cathedral, more than any other icon still standing, was the epitome of the  combination of revelation (scripture) with reason (Greek thought) (see Ben Shapiros book, 'The Right Side of History' for a broader understanding - future blog). Not only did this building exemplify two great understandings that would eventually become the root of the Enlightenment but it brought the the teachings of the Bible to the common man (mostly illiterate at that time) through the visual stories and images in the stainless glass windows, art works and statues that adorned the building. The building itself was intentionally designed so that when you stand inside (or even outside) your eyes were directed to the ceiling, the spire, and beyond so that it gave the viewer a sense of eternity and transcendence. During this time the medieval church became the centre of learning and established the first universities that would give momentum to revelation and reason. This Gothic building had the power to take us back in time to remind us of the roots of our civilisation and of the great leap forward in human progress.

Humanist Enlightenment
Look to the left beyond the edge of the picture (in real life as if you were standing there) you would see the Eiffel Tower nearby. This more recent structure epitomises the peak of Enlightenment engineering and together with the advent of Darwin's Origin of the Species, exemplified the partial severing of 'revelation' from 'reason'. Together, the Eiffel Tower and Darwin's theory highlighted man's ingenuity and the beginning of a separation from Europe's spiritual foundations. Two world wars and the deaths of tens of millions of innocent people during the last century led to disillusionment with modernism and humanism (I will explore this idea extensively in future book reviews).

Separation and decline
Even though scientific humanism (reason) has been dealt a near fatal blow, much like Christianity  (revelation) before it, there have been some attempts to revive this philosophical root. Since the destruction of the Twin Towers on 9/11 the new atheists and the neo-humanists have attempted to regain the initiative by claiming that science contradicts or is in opposition to revelation. However, the majority of Americans, for example, do not believe in evolution: postmodernism has now replaced humanism as the dominant philosophical force. Waning interest in STEM subjects reflects a general lack of interest in Science. Could this be a result of reason being divorced from revelation? Study of the material world without purpose and meaning is sterile.

How the Mind Works: Book review and reflection
This has been somewhat of a long introduction to my present book review but it is also a condensation of the previous reflections. This book is the second book that I have recently read written by the neo-Enlightenment thinker, Steven Pinker. In his book Enlightenment Now (see an earlier blog) he endeavours to posit the idea that the Enlightenment was the sole foundation that produced the benefits of modern human progress. After reading extensively, I found this naive and misinformed (for example see Ben Shapiro: YouTube). The book is entitled, 'How the Mind Works'. 'The Times' comment on the cover stated, 'How the mind Works will change the way your mind works'. Well for me, it didn't! It was very unconvincing. Pinker refers to himself as a cognitive scientist (as I do) so I was hoping to gain a better understanding of my own research area. Unfortunately, Pinker's book seemed to be some sort of justification for the Darwinian notion of natural selection. There is no doubt that all creatures are designed with a facility to adapt to their environment otherwise existence on earth would be difficult (obviously some species are not able to adapt sufficiently or quick enough when there are environmental stresses). But to suggest that the human brain and physiology, in all its biochemical and biophysical complexity, is entirely the result of natural selection is a huge leap of faith and is restrictive to further exploration.

Shaky ground
This book is over 600 pages long and when your foundational premise (natural selection) is based on very shaky ground (which I will point out shortly) it is very hard to stay focussed. It was like reading a never ending story. In essence, he relies on Darwin's theory, Sam Harris's neo-Atheism, and  Dawkin's flawed thinking. Shapiro (see future post: Right Side of History: Part 1) claims that he uses circular thinking because he assumes that this assumption is correct he bases his subsequent arguments around that premise. An example Page 166) is what follows - "readers young enough to have had sex education or old enough to be reading articles about the prostrate may have noticed that the seminal ducts in men do not lead directly from the testes to the penis but snake up into the body and pass over the ureter before coming back down." Now, wait for it! This is where the Big Crunch comes! Let's continue! " That is because the testes of our reptilian ancestors were inside their bodies. The bodies of mammals are too hot for the production of sperm, so the testes gradually descended into a scrotum."

Natural selection
You might be convinced by this argument, I nearly brushed over it (maybe that is why I put the bush in the picture above) but I had recently had a radical robotic prostatectomy and I know that there are quite a few good reasons why the vas deferens is so long and why it snakes around. He goes on to say, unlike a human engineer, selection is incapable of good design. "Animals are clunking jalopies saddled with ancestral junk and occasionally blunder into barely serviceable solutions." The main idea behind this claim is that natural selection is random and there should be some residual evidence of natural accidents, or changes, such as the one imagined above. The argument is that there should be evidence of successful changes, unsuccessful changes, and changes that are in the process of a long transformation. The tonsils, the tail bone, and the appendix were proposed to evidence this notion until it was found that they actually did have important functions - the search goes on and no residual body elements appear. It should be noted, however, that there is evidence from the genome that we carry faults within the genes structures (see YouTube: interview with Dr John Sanford) but they are redundant and generally do not affect the characteristics of the species (except in the case of some diseases). The length of the vas deferens does not prove natural selection.

Thus Pinker provides a very faulty argument for natural selection, which is the foundation for all that follows in his book. There is a lot of backward reasoning starting with natural selection. It is easy to take something that exists in a particular environment and then do some backward engineering. For example, lets say that humans developed language because our ancestors, who were apes needed ... etc. Without evidence that can be replicated in the laboratory it allows for some interesting stories that sound incredible and often illogical.

Conclusion
Coming back to the Notre Dame Cathedral, what has this got to do with - How the mind works? Since Pinker's book seemed to be more about natural selection and a justification for humanism without faith, the Cathedral tells us a lot. After the French Revolution when the Humanist Enlightenment gained ground on the headless bodies of thousand that had been guillotined they seized many churches and cathedrals including Notre Dame, which they made into the Temple of Reason in which they placed busts of Greek philosophers in place of the crucifix and statues of Mary. However, this only lasted a couple of years until the guillotine caught up with them also, just as the horrific events of the twentieth century caught up with the Enlightenment.


Other links that may be of interest:

Rebuilding Notre Dame Cathedral Contradicts Everything Secular Europe Stands For: Rebel Priest

Vas deferens: Refuting 'bad design' arguments: Journal of Creation

Kindly Inquisitors: Book review

Rauch, J. (2013). Kindly inquisitors. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Fundamentalism
Rauch contends ..."A very dangerous principle is now being established as a social right: Thou shalt not hurt others with words. This principle is a menace - and not just to civil liberties. At bottom it threatens liberal inquiry - that is, science itself." In America, France, Austria and Australia and elsewhere, the notion of the inquisition is being resurrected to  punish people who are perceived to hold opinons that are hurtful to others (see previous book review - Springtime for Snowflakes). This situation is a type of intellectual authoritarianism, once the province of the religious and the political right, that is being promulgated by the progressive  political left. It is a new type of fundamentalism that is not about religion but it is a righteousness (see previous book review - The Righteous Mind) based on the premise that they hold the moral high ground and there is no possibility that their views might be wrong.

The enlightened few
What is being advanced is a type of society, similar to Plato's Republic, whereby the masses are governed by a humane and enlightened few. The founding principle of the Republic is an absolute devotion and submission of the individual to a utopia that is based on an intellectual authoritarianism. Plato believed that knowledge comes from wisdom and that governance should be exercised by those who are wise. This view holds that the enlightened few will govern the masses in a more humane and sensitive manner. The new progressive fundamentalists, likewise, see themselves as being the arbiters of pubic discourse and morality.  In doing so they seek to criminalise open criticism and regulate thought. This situation is currently being played out in the public sphere: a rising form of authoritarianism in disguise and it is just as insidious as what Plato was proposing for ancient civilisation.

Meaning and knowledge
Here, questions are raised about meaning and knowledge. Can a chosen few have the knowledge and truth to make decisions for the rest of the population? This may, on the one hand, seem to make life easier because it would save us from having to make moral decisions and we could go about living without having to make too many difficult choices. Who will make the wise decisions? Who can we trust? Good men are liable to make mistakes and are sometimes unwilling to be open to criticism. This may sound rather sceptical but is it appropriate? "A society which has accepted skeptical principles will accept that sincere criticism is always legitimate." In other words, knowledge can only stand until it is debunked. Liberal science is not just for scientists it is a cultural process of inquiry that seeks to test ideas.

Reason and faith
Universities are the guardians of free thought and knowledge through criticism. Every one has different opinions about what constitutes prejudice. If universities endeavour to enforce what they perceive as 'correct opinions' they become bigoted and self-righteous. This then becomes a type of stubborn orthodoxy and another form of injustice. Can reason be the arbiter of knowledge?  Reason itself relies on faith, in this case, faith in liberal science. This is why liberal science must be open to criticism and not dogma. Reasoning can be responsible or irresponsible but if diversity of ideas is not allowed then it follows that knowledge cannot be tested and verified. However, when free speech is perceived as being offensive it leads to fundamentalist principles and outrage. Rauch contends, "A no-offence society is a no-knowledge society."

Authoritarianism
"Whenever the believers in the Fundamentalist Principle get the upper hand, they strive restlessly and untiringly to suppress diversity of opinion, and they do so not simply out of cynicism or power lust, but, on the contrary, out of the purist and most principled of motives." The threat is that the fundamentalists embrace authoritarianism and in the name of fairness and compassion, are capable of committing atrocities (as the Marxist did during the last century).

Liberal scientific and democratic ideals
Liberal democratic ideals (see previous book review - Inventing the Individual) presuppose the right to offend in the pursuit of truth. In doing so it has a responsibility to allow criticism to check for the accuracy of knowledge. Offensive words are just words, they are not violence. What should be done to placate the feelings of those that are offended (see recent blog - The mess we are in)? Nothing at all! The history of science is full of criticism and hurt feelings. No one likes to have their cherished ideas debunked. If this were not so then our society would make little progress. Rauch makes it very clear with this statement, "The inquisition failed to keep Copernicanism down. All it did was slow the progress of knowledge and kill people."


Other links of interest:

Professor's legal victory for free speech: The Australian

More than Matter

Cover image from Amazon

Consciousness
Keith Ward is a distinguished philosopher who delves into some of the most profound mysteries that give meaning and purpose to human kind. His book, entitled "More than Matter," challenges the notion that mind and consciousness result from haphazard accident or randomly arranged nerve cells and synapses.  In contrast to a purely materialistic and mechanical view of the mind he argues that consciousness transcends matter and gives worth, meaning and hope to existence and reflects purpose of the cosmos.

Dualism
He opens with a discussion of Descartes' dualism (often referred to as Cartesian dualism) which frames the world of persons in terms having two very distinct properties of mind and matter. Ward is a pupil of Ryle, however, he has some objections to the Ryle's notion that postulated the mind is a ghost (or illusion, see also previous blog - Sam Harris) that in some way drives the physical body-machine. Daniel Dennett, [one of the 'four horsemen of the new atheism', also a pupil of Ryle and a contemporary of Ward], is a materialist who rejects any idea of a metaphysical component of the self. In contrast, Ward proposes that consciousness and mind are not merely illusions but are quite distinct entities and quite distinct from that of matter.

Meaning and mind
This book is a philosophical examination of the essential characteristics of the meaning of persons. Ward investigates contemporary thinking about the nature of personhood and takes the reader on a meaningful ontological journey. In the first chapter he poses the question, "If all our knowledge begins from our own experience, how can we ever be sure that anything exists beyond our experience?" In some sense the essence of the world is a product of the mind. Kant "held that space and time, which seem so objective, are in fact forms of our own intuition. That is, they are essentially a framework the mind constructs in order to build a map on which our sense-perceptions can be located." Ward further develops the idea that the mind is a constructive force that induces the world of appearances and leads the reader to come to the conclusion that it must be a thing in itself and quite distinct from that of matter. For example, the mind interprets sensations of reflected light that gives the impression of the focused object that is being observed. In a sense the object itself is not what is seen but a sensual impression of that which is being perceived. In other words the mind constructs a situational model of the observed object.

The mind
We cannot know the mind itself because the mind is the consciousness that perceives the material world. "Nevertheless, it can seem plausible to think that consciousness cannot just arise out of nowhere, and be joined onto a brain in a completely accidental and unpredictable way."In other words the consciousness is transcendent, it is not a mere object that can be perceived like a chair or a table. We may not be able to know the mind as a material substance "we only know its phenomenal acts". Ward maintains, like Kant, that the basic activity of the mind is knowing, which is the foundation of reality and consciousness. Moreover, the nature of all reality is mind-like, the cosmos itself, is not mindless and purposeless, but oddly enough, it is mysteriously mind like, rule bound, logical and mechanistic.

Cosmology and consciousness
Albert Einstein developed the idea that time exists from first to last and our existence would seem to be timeless. Ward came to the conclusion, "Whether the passing of time is real or not, it might be just wrong to think that at the moment of the Big Bang nothing existed except a very simple physical state of infinite density. Most cosmologists suppose that there would also have been a whole set of quantum laws, and perhaps those very complex and precise balances of energy that would constitute what is called a "quantum vacuum". In modern cosmology, there is something outside space-time - a rich mathematical structure - from which space-time originates. There is, in other words, a "supernatural" reality; a more fundamental layer of reality beyond space-time.

Thus, these laws or supernatural structures are purposeful and goal-directed. The structure of matter and all lifeforms are the result of the coming together of complex systems, that may seem to be random but evolve and are the inevitable outcome of a logical universe. Metaphysics, mind, matter and flesh are intertwined and reflect the underlying structure and consciousness embedded within and determine the natural forces of the cosmology.

See also on YouTube:
Bishop Robert Barron on Stephen Hawking, atheism, philosophy, religion,  the new atheists, and  God as the non-contingent ground of being.
Jordan Petersen on atheism