This book is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the current understanding of evolution. The second part brings together the scientific picture with various responses to the 'God question'. Science is a powerful discourse; it has unravelled for us the workings of nature, and technology has enabled us to apply the findings in many ways to further knowledge, to perform complex tasks, to further communication, and to make life easier and more exciting. But there are boundaries and limits to science. First, the final models of how nature is working are never the final word: they are always awaiting 'falsification', never blessed with certain 'verification'. Second, the deeper one goes towards hoped-for truth, the more one is confronted with counter-intuitive models such as quantum theory, 'spooky-action' at a distance, the dark energy of the vacuum, the Big Bang etc. Third, science cannot advance beyond the questions accessible by scientific experiment: questions about purpose and God, right and wrong, good and evil, are not accessible to science. Scientific conclusions, however, can then be subjected to reasonable analysis, philosophical reflection, aided perhaps by religious beliefs. Today a dilemma is often offered for consideration: 'either evolution by natural selection, or God and purpose.' Is this delemma a false one? Can purposeful creation and natural selection both be true? Such are the features of evolution, one can argue strongly the case for a purpose. One can at least say belief in God sits well with evolutionary theory. To come to this conclusion we need to extend and improve our image of the God of Abraham, Moses and Jesus. God is intelligent, subtle, powerful- respectful of the freedom with which the divine will has endowed creation itself and homosapiens.

The permutation of basic atoms--nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and phosphorus--into the biomolecules DNA and RNA, subsequently evolved in cells and brains, defining the origin of life and intelligence, remains unexplained. Equally the origin of the genetic information and the intertwined nature of 'hardware and 'software involved in the evolution of bio-molecules and the cells are shrouded in mystery. This treatise aims at exploring individual and swarm behaviour patterns which potentially hint at as yet unknown biological principles. It reviews theories of evolution with perspectives from the earth sciences, commencing with the earliest observed records of life. This is followed by reviews and discussion of the building blocks of life, marine and terrestrial communities, the arthropods, birds and finally humans. It is suggested that, further to the mutation/natural selection processes established by Darwin and Wallace, an understanding of the evolution of intelligence remains little understood. A directionality of evolutionary trajectories is evident, not least the purposeful thinking process of humans as well as animals. It is not clear how directional intelligence, manifested for example by the collective intelligence of arthropod colonies, has evolved from mutation/natural selection processes. Potential clues for the understanding of life and evolution are provided by Aristotles dictum of "the whole being greater than the sum of the parts", Niels Bohrs principle of quantum complementarity and George Ellis theory of top-down causality. Inherent in the question of the origin of life is an anthropocentric bias, related to the self-referential Anthropic Principle and theological paradigms of mans supposed dominion over all other species. The Anthropic Principle, however, should be capable of being circumvented using the scientific falsification method, assuming universal verified constants of physics. The phenomenon of the human maste ry of fire and the splitting of the atom, leading to the seventh major mass extinction of species, remains incomprehensible.

This book examines the origins, development and fate of intelligent species in the observable part of our universe. It scrutinizes what kind of information about extraterrestrial intelligent life can be inferred from our own biological, cultural and scientific evolution and the likely future of mankind. There is emphasis on the geological conditions and consequences of life's conquest of land as the pre-condition for the emergence of life with our type of technical intelligence.

Describes the work of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Project, founded by an international group of scientists committed to finding some signs of intelligent life beyond the Earth.

Argues people need 3 kinds of intelligence to be successful in life: analytical, creative and practical.