Christopher Langan’s theory is the Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe. He believed that there is a relationship between the mind and reality. The idea is that it is impossible to describe the universe with any accuracy unless one is willing to recognize that nature has both physical and mental components to it.
This, Langan theorizes, offers us a new form of reality. Using mathematics and reasoning, Langan believes that his theory can prove that humans have souls, that God exists, and that an afterlife is real.
To evaluate this theory, we must take a look at both the philosophical concepts that are being described and the scientific ideas that are being offered.
The Philosophical Arguments Presented by Christopher Langan
Christopher Langan’s theory proposes that the human mind isn’t really a human mind at all. It is instead an individualistic component of a mind that belongs to God. This would create a hive-like experience where the mind of the human is not as powerful as God’s mind, since it is only one part of it and not the whole.
The best way to describe the idea is to use the Borg concept from Star Trek. The Borg are a race of cyborgs, assimilating other species into their collective mind. A queen is able to communicate with all of her “drones,” yet the queen and each drone can also operate independently of one another while still being connected through the collective.
This would make each of us an individual, but each of us a component of God as well. According to Langan, this is why it becomes possible to calculate through mathematics the existence of a supernatural being.
The Scientific Arguments Presented by Christopher Langan
From a scientific standpoint, Christopher Langan’s theory is more of a hypothesis than an actual theory. His observations are ideas that have no way to be proven falsifiable because they are subjective. There is no real way to experiment to see if his ideas could be proven true, just as there are no real ways to experiment to see if they could be proven false.
His arguments are also filled with neologisms. Here’s an example of a neologism to consider.
Imagine that everyone says that you can throw a 150 mile per hour fastball. No one is baseball can throw a ball that fast. Not even a professional. But you’ve told a friend that you can throw that fast. Maybe you’ve got some “proof” that you can show as well, but nobody asks for it. Now, as time goes by, everyone starts talking about this person who can throw a 150mph fastball.
Now a new generation comes along. The stories get told to the kids. The children marvel at the fact that someone could throw a ball so fast. They might even try to replicate the speed by practicing every day.
Yet at the end of the day, was a 150mph fastball ever thrown?
This is essentially the foundation of Langan’s theory. He offers mathematics and general relativity concepts, but uses the scientific definitions to create his own assumed definition within his theory.
It also leads to one important question that is never really answered: if every human is part of God’s mind and together we are a collective, then why is there so much hatred toward one another?
The One Main Problem with Christopher Langan’s Theory
The idea that the universe is self-contained and self-regulating is attractive. The idea that it is a self-creating entity is interesting. What Christopher Langan’s theory fails to do is define itself within the logic of its own theory. It cannot be complete. From a scientific standpoint, it is also untestable, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that the ideas can be simply dismissed.
Humans have always been attracted to some form of spirituality throughout every civilization. Some may argue that it is an attempt to explain the unexplainable. But from the Egyptian gods to the Greek gods to the Roman gods to our various religions of today, people congregate together based on like-minded spirituality.
It could even be argued that atheism is its own form of spirituality as well, just without the deity in place.
So there is a certain truth to the concept of a soul in humans. This could be common ground that unites us, whether or not we share a part of God’s mind or not. If we can recognize this similarity at our core species level, then it does become possible to set aside differences to work together.