RE: [asa] Creation and Incarnation

When we teach Newtonian mechanics, we usually say that a given force, via Newton's second law, gives rise to acceleration on a particle of mass m and the solution of Newton's equation is deterministic and depends on two constants of the motion, usually initial position and velocity. The whole description is purely physical, however it takes a conscious agent to set up the initial conditions and that agent is not part of Newton's equation but exercising his/her free will set up the particular initial conditions. Consequently, the chain of physical cause-and-effect is indeed interrupted

Moorad

________________________________

From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu on behalf of Keith Miller
Sent: Sat 8/26/2006 10:11 AM
To: American Scientific Affiliation
Subject: Re: [asa] Creation and Incarnation

David Opderbeck wrote:

        So, I tend to think of the operation of natural laws as a chain of causation. I know this analogy can't be pressed very far because of quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle, but it still seems sound to me at a basic level, and it seems to be how natural scientists operate at a practical level. When natural scientists examine a phenomenon, they try to suss out the physical causes of the phenomenon. At a macro level, Science seeks to do this through the entire chain of causation, all the way back to fundamental physical laws (and perhaps, in the case of some cosmological science, before that to the cause of the physical laws).
         
        If a human choice is inserted into the chain of causation, it seems to me that the resulting phenomenon no longer falls purely into the realm of the natural sciences. Like you said, science (I'd clarify and say the natural sciences) can't fully determine the causes of things like Nebuchadnezzar's choice of which city to attack. So, if a conscious decision of an autonomous agent is involved, at some point the chain of causation is interrupted and the natural sciences are incapable of determining fully the truth of what happened. (Footnote -- I think I'd distinguish this from Michael's comment about his collie puppy -- natural science, as I understand it, presumes some sort of determinism for non-human choices; otherwise, the concept of natural selection would make no sense at all.)

I think that your error here is your statement : "So, if a conscious decision of an autonomous agent is involved, at some point the chain of causation is interrupted..." I would argue that there is no necessary reason that the chain of physical cause-and-effect need to be interrupted by the action of human choice. At the physical level, I see no reason for a break in the continuity of neural activity, biochemical activity, etc. AT THAT LEVEL there still could be a complete account. However, that account would not explain everything of interest to us. There are issues of the meaning and reason for that choice that transcend the mere physical description.

I think that this distinction is critical. I do not see any a prior reason why the continuity of physical cause-and-effect need every be broken by the exercise of either God's purposive will or ours. A complete cause-and-effect description would therefore be theoretically possible -- even if practically unrealizable. But, again that physical level description does not address many questions that are of interest to us. If fact some of our most important questions.

This is the view of Donald McKay, the British neuroscientist, as I understand his writing. He argues against "nothing buttery" in which the possibility of a complete physical description/explanation means that all of physical reality can be reduced to such a description. I am trying here to make that same point -- a complete physical description in no way eliminates the validity of other complementary descriptions, and the action of supernatural agents or free choice does not require gaps in the physical description.

Keith

Keith B. Miller
Research Assistant Professor
Dept of Geology, Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506-3201
785-532-2250
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/

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Received on Sat Aug 26 14:36:06 2006