Order Through Chaos

The claim that “people need to believe that order can be glimpsed in the chaos of events,” is strongly represented in the Natural Sciences and Religion. In each of the areas of knowledge, but particularly these two, there is a strong base for this idea, especially when one considers the perceptions and emotions, and occasional reason that play into why people “need to believe” that order is found in chaos.
People who “need to believe” that order can be seen amidst chaos may use knowledge of the Natural Sciences, here, more specifically: Biology, to cite examples for their claim. Using Reason, one might suggest that in examining any animal’s body and/or its function, amongst all the working parts of the body all, only one organ runs the entire body, and so this must be some sort of order. I do not think that this claim applies a to a great extent in Biology simply because there is no real chaos in the body, unless the body is malfunctioning. While some might argue that there are so many different working parts of the body with different functions that inside our skin, that it is all chaos, yet there is order because one single part controls the function of every other body part. However, I would disagree with this argument, because I know, through both authority and empirical evidence, that the body is split up into different systems, all of which, while being overall controlled by the brain, work together in each system to perform different jobs. To me, this is not chaos, simply a well-organized sort of machine. In ninth grade we had to study the different systems of the bodies. One group of between 2-4 people would each do a presentation on a different system from the human body. My group’s system was the Respiratory system, and while reading my textbook for information I gained knowledge by authority that allowed me to better understand the how the Respiratory system worked. I decided to trust this authority because it those involved in publishing would have researched their topic well, so as not to misinform thousands of students. I also have empirical knowledge of how a Respiratory system works, in two ways. One is my own Respiratory system, I understand the basics, in that when I breathe in, my lungs inflate with oxygen, and that when I breathe out, carbon dioxide leaves my lungs, and this is how I stay alive. I have also seen the same process with a pig’s lungs, when I was showed the difference between the lung of a “smoker” and that of “non-smoker,” because pigs’ lungs are extremely similar to human lungs. I understand that each system works together to keep the human, or animal body going, and is controlled overall by the brain. This to me does not seem to be order in chaos, in the way that our bodies work. However, when one considers that the body is doing all of this internally, while doing many other things externally, such as driving, reading, speaking, etc., that would seem to me to fit the claim of “glimpsing order in the chaos of events.” The chaos of events is everything the human body does externally; all while the order is functioning in an organized organism made up of many systems working together, perfectly, or near to perfectly. In this second way, the claim works to a better extent, than to the first way one might use the Natural Sciences to argue the point.
Religion also has a very strong base, with which the claim that people need to find order in the chaos of events, works. I find that emotion plays very strongly into religion. For example, it seems to me that many people believe in God and Heaven, and Hell, because they are afraid that after we die, there is nothing. I find that this may be entirely possible, however, sometimes I see beauty in nature, or an event will happen that just seems senseless, but will then connect to another event that occurs later, and it just seems to me like there must be a higher power, perhaps who is orchestrating the life that goes on all around me. An experience from my childhood which helps me perceive and believe in a higher power, was the death of my maternal grandmother when I was six years old. She died of a stroke on the morning of her sixtieth birthday. At the time, her death seemed irrational and so out of place in my six-year-old world. I saw how it devastated my mother and my grandfather. About a month after her death, my aunt (my mother’s sister) announced that after trying for some time, she was finally pregnant, yet sad that she had not shared the news while my grandmother was still alive. Yet, again, to my six-year-old mind, it made sense. My unborn cousin was joining our world, because my grandmother had left it. The baby was not a replacement, in any way, shape, or form, she was just the newest addition. This event is probably the most signifying event to me of the idea of God and that everything happens for a reason, which would be the order in the chaos of events. However this is simply my perception, the way I view the world, based on the way that I was brought up, in two religions, although it was primarily Judaism and secondarily Catholicism (both very reformed), and my perception is completely different, not only from someone who has a different upbringing than I had, as well as a different belief system, such as Atheism, but also different than my sister, who is agnostic, and her views on religion and ideas about God. In this way, related to my experience, religion and the idea that there is order, or God, in the chaos of our lives and events, is something that some people “need to believe.”
One of the best examples of this claim is in the religion of Hinduism. The claim works to a great extent in this particular religion because of the concept of dharma, as well as the caste system. Both of these concepts, one may argue, are the order in the chaos, in that by performing your dharma, and reliving through the caste system, you will eventually reach enlightenment, which is the true order in the midst of chaos of one’s many lives. The dharma, is the concept that one has to do their duty, not only to one’s family, but also to the expectations of the caste one is in, in order to eventually move up into the next caste, to become closer to enlightenment. This concept provides a sort of order for which Hindis may base their lives around. Just as in Biology, dharma seems to be sort of the internal order, around which everything else is based, no matter how complicated the external chaos becomes. A Hindi puts his dharma before everything else, because of his perception that if he follows his dharma, he will move up into the next caste, whether it be from a Vaisya (merchant) to a Khasatrya (warrior), or a Brahimn (priest) onto enlightenment. He may also be fueled by the fear of the wrath of one of the gods/goddesses, such as Kali or Shiva, or by his devotion them, like to Ganesh or Vishnu.
In conclusion, the claim that “people need to believe that order can be glimpsed in the chaos of events,” applies a good extent to Natural Science, as well as to Religion, although they are not the only two areas of knowledge to which this claim applies to. The ways of knowing to which this claim apply, are mostly through perception and emotion, but particularly in the Natural Sciences, reason as well.