RE: [asa] Re: Reductionism

Of course, humans reason on not only the physical aspect of Nature, the purview of science, but also on the nonphysical, say, consciousness or self, human rationality itself, etc. Just as there are laws that govern the physical aspect of Nature, there must also be laws that govern the nonphysical. One can also bring in the supernatural as a way to explain some aspects of reality as well.

Moorad

________________________________

From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu on behalf of Gregory Arago
Sent: Sun 6/17/2007 3:01 AM
To: James Mahaffy; asa@calvin.edu
Subject: Re: [asa] Re: Reductionism

Hello James,

Thank you for your clarifying words.

You wrote:
"So back to what Greg is saying it may be possible
that our created in the image of God might mean that
we can not explain human functioning entirely in terms
of functioning of God's other creatures. At the same
time of course we must seriously look at the
biological side of altruism or other aspects of our
behaviour."

Yes, this is what I'm getting at. Likewise, while
accepting that we should seriously look at the
biological sides/aspects of our human existence, there
are other sides or aspects that should not be
marginalized or undervalued. Thus, I agree with your
words of warning about reductionism to scientific
methodology and reason, since there are more aspects
to human existence and our knowledge of the universe
than what can be described or explained using science
and reason.

The sense to include the term 'irreducible' in the
discourse about science and religion, even if the
value of irreducibility in biology is constantly
changing, does, it seems to me, add something positive
that IDT's have brought to the table. Of course, I
would appreciate it further if IDists would be willing
to acknowledge the difference(s) and similarities (if
they exist according to IDM views) between human-made
and non-human-made things, so that the concept of
'design' could be properly contextualized and
situated, i.e. so that it does not run wildly out of
control for communicative purposes. But it would be
wrong to assume a suggestion toward a movement that
seems to think it is causing a 'revolution' in the way
science is done, that will serve as 'the bridge'
between science and theology.

It is surprising that such perspectives can be
entertained while at the same time recognizing the
limitations of ID and evolution theories.

Gregory

p.s. it is a wonderful gift to return home after many
years away, fresh insights and inspirations and the
smile and hug of relatives to remind one that though
all things, even the heart, grow and change, they
still also in their own way stay the same

      Be smarter than spam. See how smart SpamGuard is at giving junk email the boot with the All-new Yahoo! Mail at http://mrd.mail.yahoo.com/try_beta?.intl=ca

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Sun Jun 17 07:52:03 2007