Does Emergence Help in Defending Religious Belief?

The concept of emergence has gained some popularity
in the philosophy of mind and in metaphysico-epistemological
explorations of our current scientific worldview. This
concept is used to indicate that the �higher� levels of reality
(e.g., mentality, normativity) cannot be reduced to the
�lower� ones (particularly the physical or physico-chemical
level, as studied by physics and other natural sciences).
Emergent properties are properties of a complex system
that cannot be deduced from (what is known about) the
properties of the parts of the system. Roughly, the idea is
to save such things as mentality (consciousness),
normativity, and cultural entities from the threatening
reduction or elimination dreamed of by more extreme
physicalists.