Like alcoholics at a twelve-step meeting, we must admit the truth: existence has become unmanageable for the human species. At every level, from individual emotional stability to couple and family relationships to global politics, life is in deadlock. There is no solution to our problems—or even the possibility to will a solution—so long as human consciousness remains at its current level of incomplete development. Our conflicted egocentric psychic economy, reflected in our sociopolitical conflicts, must be transcended. Our addiction to the drives and pleasures of the ego—to its nasty attributes like narcissism, greed, hatred, prejudice, aggression, deception, venality, and denial—is destroying our collective existence.

People like to believe they understand the game of life. In fact, the ego does not only like to believe it is in control of events—it has a desperate need to believe it does. So, for example, the religious person needs to believe that carrying out the divinely mandated rituals and prayers, and accepting the orthodox creed will guarantee her a place in heaven. The atheist scientist, on the other hand, needs to believe that there is no cosmic intelligence that is guiding events with an invisible hand, or else her whole enterprise of scientific reasoning loses its validity. That is why the concept of intelligent design in biology is so controversial. Once it is accepted as a legitimate possibility, then the thick wall that the scientific establishment has built to separate science from religion must fall. Intelligent design is a game-changer.