Self Organization - God or Magic?

This blog post was rewritten on 11/13/2025.

You watch intently as the magician fans out the cards revealing it to be a normal 52 card deck. You keep a close eye on his hands as he gathers the cards back into a stack, turns the deck over and taps it with one finger.  As he fans out the cards again, you’re amazed to see that every card is now an Ace of Spades! How did he do it, you ask, what is the trick?

Any rational person knows that this is not done by “magic”. It gives the illusion of magic, but we know that there is a rational explanation, that there is ingenuity, planning and skill behind it.  To believe it to be magic, with no rational explanation, would be intellectually lazy and foolish.

So what of the universe and all of its observed self-organization?  What is the rational explanation for that?  

We are led to believe that attributing it to a Creator is akin to believing in magic.  But is it?  We see self-organization - functional organization - at every level of the universe; from the elements, to the stars, planets and most amazingly on this planet - life itself.  Yet, we are taught that this just happens - by brute force - that there is no ingenuity behind it, no planning, no skillful design, no thought - it just happens... as if by magic.

Think about that. 

Is that a rational explanation?

Or is it intellectually lazy and foolish?