George wrote:
" I'd like to call your attention to a point I made about this some
time ago. While this argument may have been valid in the 19th century, I
think that the development of modern cosmology completely undoes it. Big
bang cosmology and its extensions show the possibility of a development
of
all material structures in terms of natural processes, and thus would
have no
need of any structures with "apparent age".
This does NOT mean that science could describe _creatio ex
nihilo_ in
the theological sense, for it must begin with "something" - quantum
fields,
strings, or whatever, & the mathematical patterns to which they conform.
But
it does mean that there need be no objects which appear to be older than
they
actually are. The ages inferred by scientific means for remnants of the
big
bang, galaxies, stars, atoms &c are their real ages. Kingsley may have
overreached the science of his time, but subsequent developments seem to
have
vindicated this theological assertion of his: "We knew of old that God
was
so wise that He could make all things; but behold, He is so much wiser
than
that, that He can make all things make themselves.""
Yes, I know you have made that point before. It is, however, tangential
to
the point I was making.
The operative word in Kingsley's quote (which was new to me -- thank you
for it)
is the word "can." The place Kingsley goes wrong in it, IMHO, is in the
phrase "is
so much wiser." That is, of course, a gratituous comment by the creature
(Kingsley)
on the creator, using the ceature's human-derived standards to decide
which
kind of god is the wiser.
Burgy (John Burgeson)
My web site worked well for a couple days then one of the subsidiary
files seems to
have gotten lost. I'll work on it if Juno ever lets me back on the
internet. It's a "free"
service and I'm getting what I paid for! < G >
www.Burgy.50megs.com
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 12 2001 - 12:15:06 EST