One of the most transformative books that gave me a religious experience had little if anything to do with religion. It was
The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force, by: Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D. and Sharon Begley. Dr. Schwartz's methods have allowed OCD patients to rewire their own brains using directed therapy, and his research suggests that there is a will beyond the wiring doing it. If that's true, it'll turn a great deal of psychiatry and neuroscience on its head. It was already a sacred cow that the human brain couldn't rewire itself, and Dr. Schwartz has at least proven that to be false.
So what's that got to do with this discussion? Simple. In every philosophy, including every religion and science, there are these sacred cows. Thankfully science tends to shed them more quickly in the historical sense, but it has them. Religion will ultimately do the same, but I think it will take a bit longer than a hundred more years for it to take place.
But just think about this -- Acupuncture was once looked at as voodoo science at best, now it's being used in anesthesia for those that cannot be put under by other means. It's not hard to see how it works -- what the new age hippy dippies call the "aura" is little more than the electromagnetic field of the body, which can be manipulated. So what if this will that's doing the rewiring in Dr. Schwartz's patients is basically what religion calls the soul, but not exactly the way that religion - ANY religion - thinks of it?
What I'm ultimately getting at is: What if the very nature of the universe is simply information, 1s and 0s, what Dr. Schwartz is calling will is simply another force like gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak forces, and that collective will, sentient or not, throughout the universe is the expression of God? If you think about it that would turn religion and science as they are currently completely around.
