Keith B Miller wrote:
> This essay by Weinberg might be a good focus for dissecting the arguments
> of a philosophical materialist.
..........................................................
A couple of general comments:
1) Christians who expect to make any headway in getting scientifically
knowledgeable non-Christians to consider the claims of the faith by starting
with natural theology, & especially design arguments, are going to be
disappointed. They will, if I may put it boluntly, get their butts kicked by
Weinberg _et al_. This is quite apart from the question of any theoretical
justification for natural theology. It just won't work for this audience.
(Of course such arguments can work to support the faith of those who are
already Christians, or even leaning toward Christianity because of other
consdierations, but that is another matter.)
2) Weinberg's argument against miracles is - like almost all such
arguments - finally no different from that of Hume ~240 years ago, no better &
no worse. & while that argument does have some
value - i.e., we should examine claims for phenomena outside the ordinary course
of nature critically - it is in the last analysis a begging of the question:
The absolute uniformity of nature is established only by leaving out all claims
for phenomena which don't fit that pattern, & then is supposedly used to exclude
those claims. The fact that we now know the laws of physics a lot better than
people did in the 18th century does nothing to remedy this flaw.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
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