Another letter to The Guardian, from Professor Leon Freris. I find it confusing, as I did the original article to which it refers, and would be grateful if someone could explain how the scenario he is attacking (other perhaps than his use of the word "chaotic") contradicts the scenario he is defending.-"Marilynne Robinson (Mind over matter, Review, 5 June) offers a refreshing view that challenges the accepted dogma of neo-Darwinists and other scientific reductionists that the mysteries of nature have been sorted out through the application of unbiased science. They will have us believe that, given enough time, the chaotic laws of nature plus the simple mechanics of biological evolution explain everything.-An alternative possible scenario is that matter at its deepest level is characterized by: (a) a quality of "interconnectedness" or very primitive "mentality"; and (b) a natural law that drives matter towards complexity. Quantum theory provides evidence that supports premise (a). The evolution of matter, from the simplest elements of the periodic table, many of which are necessary as a basis for the biological evolution, which is also a manifestation of this general principle, provide evidence for premise (b). Both premises explain the gradual flowering of mentality from these simple elements that possess it in a most primitive and dilute form to that of the earliest micro-organisms capable of some overt communication and finally to us humans. There is no point of discontinuity at which suddenly the property of mentality emerged, just a sustained increase in material and mental complexity. Ergo, matter and mind are irrevocably entangled.-I am sorry to say that many scientists at present, contrary to the basic premise of science that all scientific explanations are temporary, proclaim views that they consider unshakable."