Re: pure chance

Brian D. Harper (harper.10@osu.edu)
Fri, 03 Jan 1997 21:35:04 -0500

At 01:03 PM 1/3/97 -0500, Bill Hamilton wrote:

>
>Doesn't Polkinghorne discuss chaos, fractals, nonlinear dynamics and
>self-organization in one or more of his books?
>

Yes, thanks for tweaking my memory on this. Below are several
more references I dug up, most by Polkinghorne:

following is a Polkinghorne web page:

http://www.helsinki.fi/~jkemppai/philosophy/Polkinghorne/Polkinghorne.html

This contains a list of some of his books plus two full length articles:
1.God's Action in the World (1990) 2.Religion in an Age of Science (1993).

== excerpt from "God's Action in the World"========
Science through the theory of chaos seems to describe
a world of genuine becoming, with a future which is
different from the past, a world of real novelty. If
that is so it is a gain for physics, for it means that
physics begins to describe a world of which we can
conceive ourselves as inhabitants. For we experience
openness and choice.

Thus it seems to me that modern science tells us that
we live in a world whose ground rules do not specify
all happenings completely. Instead, they outline an
envelope of future possibilities. Chaos theory is
badly named, actually. It isn't just randomness; rather,
it is a sort of structured openness that it produces.
We live in just such a world of flexible openness.
It is a world in which we can act, and if we can act,
I don't see why God can't act in it as well, within the
hiddenness of flexible process.
========= end excerpt==================================

John Polkinghorne, 'A Note on Chaotic Dynamics', <Science &
Christian Belief> Vol 1(2):123-127, October 1989.

John Polkinghorne, <Science and Creation>, Shambhala
Publications 1989.

{Not a lot on complexity and chaos, but a good
chapter on "Order and Disorder" which will be
closely related. Also good discussion of chance
and randomness}

Polkinghorne, J C <Science and Providence> Shambhala
Publications 1989.

{Polkinghorne discusses how modern understandings of
"chaos" allow the possibility for God to affect the
outcomes of "chance" events without contravening
the ordinary laws of nature. -- this note by John
Wilkins:http://earth.ics.uci.edu:8080/faqs/
chance-metaphysics/chance.html}

Polkinghorne, J.C. "The Nature of Physical Reality," <Zygon>,
26(2):221-236, June 1991.

ABSTRACT: This account of the dynamical theory of
chaos leads to a metaphysical picture of the world
with an open future, in which the laws of physics
are emergent-downward approximations to a more subtle
and supple reality and in which there is downward
causation through information input as well as upward
causation through energy input. Such a metaphysical
picture can accomodate both human and divine agency.
===================

Peacocke, Arthur. "Thermodynamics and Life", <Zygon>,
19(4):395-432, December 1984.

ABSTRACT: The basic features of thermodynamics as
the "science of the possible" are outlined with a
special emphasis on the role of the concept of
entropy as a measure of irreversibilty in natural
processes and its relation to "order", precisely
defined. Natural processes may lead to an increase
in complexity, and this concept has a subtle
relationship to those of order, organization, and
information. These concepts are analyzed with
respect to their relation to biological evolution,
together with other ways of attempting to quantify
it. Thermodynamic interpretations of evolution are
described and critically compared, and the significance
of dissipative structures, of "order through
fluctuations," is emphasized in relation both to the
evolutionary succession of temporarily stable forms
and to kinetic mechanisms producing new patterns.
======================

Hefner, Philip. "God and Chaos: The Demiurge versus the
the _Ungrund_," <Zygon> 19(4):469-485, December 1984.

ABSTRACT: The human quest for meaning is an attempt
to bring experience into conjunction with illuminating
concepts. The second law of thermodynamics is of wide
human concern, because it touches experience which is
existentially charged and therefore which humans must
interpret in broad metaphysical terms. Five types of
experience have been incorporated into the second law:
running down, degeneracy, mixed-up-ness, irreversibility
of time, and emergence of new possibilities. The
dominant western tradition (Plato) places these
experiences within a metaphysical scheme that evaluates
them negatively, whereas a minority tradition (Berdyaev)
evaluates them positively. The former makes entropy
anti-God; the latter places entropy within God.
=============Brian Harper
Associate Professor
Applied Mechanics
Ohio State University