[asa] Parable on Science and Providence

I once read a parable involving mice living in a piano which nicely
illustrates the limits of science and the actions of God in nature, but have not been
able to remember where I heard it. Apparently the original source is an
article by William George Ward in the Dublin Review in April 1867. A collection
of his essays published in 1884 has been scanned by Google and is available in
the public domain:
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=hR0AAAAAQAAJ
The parable starts on page 172:
http://books.google.com/books?id=hR0AAAAAQAAJ&printsec=titlepage#PPA172,M1

Here are some excerpts from the original version by Ward:

"We begin, then, with imagining two mice, endowed, however, with quasi-human
or semi-human intelligence, enclosed within a grand pianoforte, but prevented
in some way or other from interfering with the free play of its machinery.
From time to time they are delighted with the strains of choice music. One of
the two considers these to result from some agency external to the
instrument; but the other, having a more philosophical mind, rises to the conception of
fixed laws and phenomenal uniformity. 'Science as yet,' he says, 'is but in
its infancy; but I have already made one or two important discoveries. Every
sound which reaches us is preceded by a certain vibration of these strings.
The same string invariably produces the same sound; and that louder or more
gentle, according as the vibration may be more or less intense. ... Then there
is a further sequence which I have observed: for each vibration is preceded by
a stroke from a corresponding hammer; and the string vibrates more intensely
in proportion as the hammer's stroke is more forcible. ... And so much at
least is evident even now, viz. that the sounds proceed not from any external
and arbitrary agency--from the intervention, e.g., of any higher will--but from
the uniform operation of fixed laws. These laws may be explored by
intelligent mice; and to their exploration I shall devote my life.' Even from this
inadequate illustration, you see the general conclusion which we wish to enforce.
  A sound has been produced through a certain intermediate chain of fixed
laws; but this fact does not tend ever so distantly to establish the conclusion,
that there is no human premovement acting continuously at one end of that
chain."
...
"And in like manner, though phenomenal laws the most strictly and rigorously
uniform existed throughout the realm of nature, such a fact would not tend
ever so remotely to show what irreligious men pretend: it would not tend ever so
remotely to show that those laws are not at each moment directed, to this
purpose or that, by an immediate and uncontrolled Divine Premovement."

If anyone remembers seeing this parable in a more recent publication, please
let us know where to find it (the version I remember seeing had a slightly
different point than Ward's.)

Kirk

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Received on Fri, 2 May 2008 19:49:56 EDT