Does matter have intelligence

Answer 1

Certainly not in the same sense that we use the word regarding humans, but it is an interesting idea. Take planet earth and its interaction with the sun and the moon. The rhythms and pulses of the planet, the movement of the tectonic plates that may be influenced by tidal forces, the tidal affects on our waters and the stabilizing effect that the moon has on the earth's rotation and yearly seasons... These are certainly not measurable on the Wechsler Intelligence scales, but there is a kind of material balance going on.

Regarding matter 'having to obey a higher law'... Matter isn't 'forced' to do anything, by any 'higher' law. This is clearly looking at matter and thinking of it as another species of intelligent being. Even the concept of 'physical law' is very artificial, and it is man imposing on 'stuff' his own convoluted (at times) logic. I discover an interesting pattern in the nature of matter, and then I think of it as a 'law' that is somehow forced on the matter whether it likes it or not. It's as if we try to impose the "Divine Right of Kings" over molecules. Using the term 'law' for such patterns is useful and convenient, but we need to be clear that it is a special use of the word.

Was just browsing and came across your answer Emdrgreg and I am afraid I have to disagree with you. All matter has intelligence for not anything came by chance but was commanded to be what it is by a higher law. Intelligence was not forced upon even a grain of sand but was always so. How else did this earth become as such, but by obeying a law more intelligent than the particles that go to make up this earth. Adam is said to have been made from the dust of the earth, how so if the dust did not obey a law?

Thank you for the opportunity to give my comment on your answer.