David Campbell wrote:
DC >> Is there any particular reason to assume that God made these
choices
and injected new information in the course of creation history, rather
than
having created everything so as to bring about these events? Is there a
way
to tell the difference? How much difference is there, with God
sustaining,
maintaining, cooperating with, etc. all that happens?<<
PR>The crucial point is the selection of one of many possible events
during
the development of the biosphere. This is a concrete suggestion about a
possible biologically and informatically meaningful mechanism, whereas
"God
sustaining, maintaining, cooperating with, etc. all that happens" is
hardly
more than a label for a general principle with which all theists will
agree.<
DC>> The former would require something similar to the hidden variable
interpretation of quantum events, if I have the terminology correct.
However, the hidden variable determining the outcome of the event could
be
God's foreordination rather than anything theoretically accessible by
physics.<<
PR>As far as I know, "hidden variables" of quantum mechanics refers to
hypothesized, unknown constants of nature. If they exist, they
presumably
were installed by God once at the beginning. On the other hand, God's
"hidden options", which I suggest, are something completely different:
these
refer to God ad hoc selecting a given one among several possible
outcomes
for an event not accessible to scientific observation. This would
happen
very often during the history (of the universe and) of life.<
DC>> There is also some correlation with the Calvinist-Arminian
spectrum, an
issue that we probably are not predestined to settle here.<<
PR>There is no connection at all with the theological concept of
predestination.<
DC: Polytheists generally portray gods responding to what happens rather
than fully sovereign. Even among monotheists, it is quite common to
have a
god of the gaps theology in which God is seen as absent from certain
processes. Thus it is an important principle to have established. Once
we
agree on that, it raises the question of the difference between His
dealing
with hidden options versus ordinary events. This brings us to the
question
of predestination. Did God predestine the outcome of the hidden
outcomes,
or do they represent His responses to the course of events? The latter
would seem to suggest non-omniscience.
There is also a question of the means. Is there any reason to prefer
the
idea of God directly causing a particular mutation to happen when needed
over God designing the configuration of the Big Bang so that a cosmic
ray at
the exact time and place needed would produce the necessary mutation?
He is
equally involved in the process in either case.
Supposing that there are no unknown physical factors that influence
radioactive decay, is there a way to distinguish between God
foreordaining
that a certain atom will decay at a certain moment, which He brings
about at
the necessary time, and your model of hidden outcomes?
I hope this clarifies my comments.
Dr. David Campbell
Old Seashells
46860 Hilton Dr #1113
Lexington Park MD 20653 USA
bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com
PR: I believe God is fully sovereign, and that he is never "absent from
certain processes". You seem to suggest that if God responds to the
course of events, he didn't know everything beforehand. I believe he
does know everything beforehand, but he still responds to certain events
when they happen, not in the sense of being surprised by them, but in
the sense of applying his remedy at the time needed only. I suggest that
one such case is his response to free decisions by the creatures he
gifted with free will for certain decisions. This is implied by many
biblical texts. Of course, he knows these decisions beforehand, but this
does _not_ imply he predestined them. This may be difficult for us to
understand, but we must be conscious of the fact that God is outside of
time, in a different dimension (which englobes all of the created
dimensions): he sees past, present, and future at the same "time".
A different case is the outcome of events in which decisions of
creatures endowed with free-will have no part. I believe God is in full
control of all such events, but this does not necessarily imply every
detail was foreordained from the beginning (although it could be). I
think God from the beginning set up the way things usually happen (the
"laws of nature"), including the fact that the outcome of certain
occurrences (like mutations) is influenced by quantum events or other
processes which are not scientifically accessible. In most cases he
would not have cared about the exact outcome and did nothing more to
guide it. But in some other cases he deemed important he would have
guided the process, such that a certain precise mutation occurred at a
given place and time. Whether he did it by providing a specific cosmic
ray at the big bang already, or by providing for the selection at the
time needed in some other way (both possibilities would be "hidden
options"), probably doesn't make much difference - although the second
mechanism would seem to be much simpler and therefore more reasonable to
assume. The Scripture tells us God creates ([bara'], i.e. out of
nothing) human individuals born by natural processes. In my
understanding, this implies that he is constantly doing such hidden
selections (of genotype, epigenetic parameters, spiritual
characters...).
Such selections imply the introduction of additional information. This
introduction of the information happens at the time needed, no matter
when the Creator decided what information to introduce and when. But the
information certainly was not stored in the physical universe since the
big bang.
Peter
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