22 evolution: the AGES AND TOMORROW 



cosmos eternal in time and infinite in space; and nature pre- 

 serves a balance between the amount of matter present in 

 the manifest universe of particles and the amount of field 

 energy of the unmanifest universe which lies outside all 

 special space-and-time coordinate systems. His is a cyclical 

 but nonrepeating universe within which evolution "on all 

 levels of matter, life and mind is taking place under the in- 

 fluence of Guiding Fields." 



These, then, are some of the theories by which science is 

 attempting to solve the riddle of the universe. However, 

 in spite of the uncertainties that science faces, there is the 

 reasonable assurance that certain basic relationships are now 

 known. Einstein's special theory of relativity which dem- 

 onstrated the equivalence of matter and energy and his gen- 

 eral theory of relativity which showed the indivisibility of 

 the space-time continuum have already withstood the criti- 

 cal testing of his fellow physicists. Einstein's unified field 

 theory has yet to be tested. If, in the future, it stands and its 

 equations can be made to cover the laws of quantum me- 

 chanics, the main enigma of the subatomic world may be re- 

 solved. As Lincoln Barnett points out, the composition of 

 matter, the structure of the elementary particles, gravita- 

 tional and electromagnetic force, electric charge and field, 

 space and time will all be related in a deep underlying unity. 



There is also the reasonable certainty that the substance 

 of the body of the universe and the life which occurs upon 

 it have originated through the evolution of the subatomic 

 world— that microcosm of complex nuclei surrounded by 

 trembling musts of electrons from which the chemical ele- 

 ments are formed. Out of molecular combinations of greater 

 and greater complexity these elements of the universal sub- 

 stance, as will be shown in the following pages, continue a 

 natural synthesis through to the highest forms of life in 

 body, in mind, and in morals— a synthesis from the sub- 

 atomic to the atomic to molecular levels and on to man. 



