PHILOSOPHY IV

by Terry A. Rondberg, D.C.


"UNIVERSAL INTELLIGENCE"

Nothing in the natural order of the universe is random ... our existence is not mere "luck."

Because chiropractic is a deductive science, it begins with a major premise upon which all other conclusions are based. That primary assumption is that a Universal Intelligence is in all matter and continually gives to it all its properties and actions, thus maintaining it in existence.

This premise was not adopted as a matter of blind faith or religious fervor. It is a conclusion based on observation of physical evidence. Look around you. Does it seem logical to think that everything in the universe is the result of mere random selection or "luck"? Is it "luck" that a bird's wing is perfectly designed for flight – right down to the tiniest pinfeather? Is it just "chance" that a plant's roots travel downward into the ground (where it will find water and minerals) and its leaves grow upward (where it will find sun and air)? If the universe were truly just random, at least some plants would send their roots straight upward, and would bury their leaves in the soil. Have you ever seen such a plant?

To think that the universe is devoid of intelligent organization is like thinking that the Great Pyramids of Giza were the result of an accidental rock slide. Could any random action have created the Pyramids? The Empire State Building? The wings of a bird? The roots and leaves of a plant?

Just as it takes human intelligence to create and maintain the architectural wonders, it took intelligence to create the natural "wonders" which surround us. Of course, human intelligence could not be responsible for the complex order of the universe – it hasn't yet even begun to understand a tiny part of it!

Since it was not human intelligence, it had to be something greater than that. That "something" is what we call Universal Intelligence. We don't know what it is, where it came from, what its intent is, or even if there is an intent involved. We know only that it must exist – or nothing else would!

Is this Universal Intelligence God? No one knows. There is no way to "prove" the existence of God, or describe God's characteristics. There is no way to "prove" the existence of Universal Intelligence, or to describe its characteristics. How, then can anyone say if they mean the same thing?

There are some people who believe that God is the source of that Universal Intelligence. Others can accept the concept of a Universal Intelligence without even believing in a God.  Either way, we know, through observation and deductive reasoning, that such an intelligence must exist in order to prevent all matter from decaying into chaos.

During the Age of Technology – in which the scientific method reigned supreme – such notions were often criticized for being "unscientific." What the critics really meant was that the premise couldn't be proved, and wasn't arrived at through inductive reasoning. Of course, neither was the notion that "All Men Are Created Equal," or that there were space-going vacuum cleaners called black holes (a theory, by the way, also scoffed at when first announced). Yet, the first axiom doesn't require proof, and the second one was valid even before proof was found. So it is with the premise of Universal Intelligence; it is a "truth" so basic that it transcends science and can be arrived at only through deductive logic.

Today, as science expands in the "new physics" and quantum mechanics, a broader view is being accepted. New ideas are cultivated, and deductive reasoning is being recognized as a valid form of logic. The realization that there must exist a Universal Intelligence is being taken for granted at last.

Chiropractors smile at the notion that "science" is only now "discovering" that idea. After all, their entire profession is built around that simple, yet profound truth. Doctors of chiropractic understand that there is order and intelligence to the whole universe. By deductive reasoning, they also know that this order and intelligence applies to every part of the universe, including the human body.

That conclusion leads directly to another one of the principle premises of chiropractic philosophy: A living thing has an inborn intelligence within its body, called Innate Intelligence.

No word in chiropractic philosophy is as filled with meaning as the word "Innate," for it refers to the only element that sets living beings apart from nonliving things, and is the reason that chiropractic exists.