Those who have subscribed to this list for some time (I am a newcomer but have looked
at a few old files) will realise that it is very difficult to get consensus on many
topics. One argues mainly about facts, sources, and interpretations. Of course there
is personal belief, too. Sometimes, underlying all this, is an effort to make
everything fit a particular view, whatever that view may be. Some will try to see
things as an Arminian would see them, others, as a Calvinist. Others, with a more
traditional and/or sacramental view, will tend to take into account the views of the
Early Church Fathers or the Patriarchs or the Holy Father in Rome.
In earlier years I learned to see science within the constraints of Dooyeweerdian
philosophy. It was a wonderful matrix. Everything could be explained such that it
would fit. Laws for this and laws for that; everything, law or rule. For a budding
scientist this was music. No, of course it wasn't! For music has its own laws they
said and I even took it for granted... for awhile. It was a model though, just a
model.
My first point is that, as scientists, we do look for laws or rules. But there is a
"but"! We do have a Christian view-point. What is the very most basic tenet of that
view-point? Surely it is that for some unknown reason God first loved the world...
before *anything* else, even laws. There is something given rather than something
expected: "freedom existed then because it must, necessity because it could" as it
did at the Resurrection. There is much more to perception than law.
A second point is that we should be careful about the "isms" and the logic we would
employ. Logic is merely a tool, a good tool, but only a tool.
If there is one God, creator of Heaven and Earth, of all things, visible and
invisible, then good science is the consilience of all things for it shows us how all
things work for good. No matter that there may be mutating genes, vicious viruses,
pain or despair, physical or moral evil. Good science allows for the declaration of
glory from the stars as it allows for crippled limps and lost memory. Good science,
like any discipline -- even washing cars or giving birth -- is a kind of worship.
There aren't always immediate answers forthcoming. Sometimes, suggestions or glimpses
or hints, even colourless silence, is best.
Sometimes there appears to be the obvious, either an observation or a deduction. For
example, all this stuff on the "Bible Codes". To me it's obvious nonsense but there
are some who see something in it. They even go so far to write affirming books. This
sort of thing is easily falsifiable but a world-and-life view is another question.
Premises are rather important. The very first premises, most important.
Christopher Morbey