From: bivalve (bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com)
Date: Thu Oct 16 2003 - 18:29:18 EDT
>Whether MN or PN, will the results not be the same -- a duck either way?<
>Can you illustrate a difference in any scientific theory given the two views?<
>Walt<
The difference will not be in the scientific theory but rather in what one thinks about the scientific theory. To use evolution as an example, PN (philosophical naturalism) says that any description of how the present diversity of organisms came about must exclude supernatural causes because there aren't any. MN (methodological naturalism) says that any scientific explanation must exclude direct supernatural causes because supernatural causes are outside of science. However, this does not say that these causes might not be involved; it says that they are not the stuff of science. The difficulty is that so many people equate science with ultimate or extreme authority, apparently including a lot of young earthers who desperately seek "scientific" confirmation of their views. (I do not mean to imply that young-earth science is inherently desperate but rather that a willingness to use rotten "scientific" arguments suggests desperation.)
Taking a MN approach is compatible with praising God for the wonder of the scientific explanation. PN is not.
Perhaps it's so obvious that it is overlooked, but MN is a method and PN is a philosophy. Both from practical experience and theologically, we can expect MN to work much of the time. PN claims that it works all of the time; Christianity (and most other views that include an active supernatural component) claims that MN works most but not all of the time.
Thus, I think that calls by Platinga, etc. to develop a distinctive Christian science are misplaced. Rather, we need to think about science in a distinctively Christian way.
Dr. David Campbell
Old Seashells
University of Alabama
Biodiversity & Systematics
Dept. Biological Sciences
Box 870345
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0345 USA
bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com
That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa
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