Re: [asa] God, Chance and Purpose

This would be an excellent choice for the reading group blog some of us are
working on putting together -- except for the price ($65!!). (Shameless
plug -- for those who might be interested -- a number of us are putting
together a reading group -- the first book is Alister McGrath's new book on
natural theology ("The Hidden Secret") -- discussion will be via a blog
we're setting up -- email me if interested).

Randy -- do you have a sense of what Bartholomew's particular theological
perspective is?
Open theist? Process?
On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 10:56 AM, Randy Isaac <randyisaac@comcast.net> wrote:

> In a post on May 5, I mentioned that Craig Story had recommended the book
> by David J. Bartholomew, "God, Chance and Purpose: Can God Have It Both
> Ways" published in 2008 by Cambridge University Press. He is Emeritus
> Professor of Statistics at the London School of Economics and Political
> Science.
>
> I just finished reading it and would like to give it one of my highest
> recommendations. I have asked the bookstore manager to have a number of
> copies available at GFU at our annual meeting.
>
> Bartholomew has articulated what I have been quietly thinking for many
> years but never had the expertise to think through coherently or to
> articulate. I figured it might all be too heretical and could be hard to
> swallow, even for this list.
>
> At the risk of having some of this taken out of context but wanting to whet
> your appetite, permit me to highlight a few of his sentences.
>
> p. 135. "What we do know is that we are in a situation in which random
> behaviour at the micro level produces order at the macro level and where
> determinism at the micro level generates apparent randomness at the macro
> level." In other words, randomness and determinism are intrinsically linked
> in our world at complementary levels. So far so good.
>
> He takes issue with the approach by Russell, Murphy and others who find
> room for God's providence in the cloak of quantum uncertainty. He quotes
> Stephen Hawking as writing "If one likes one could ascribe this randomness
> to God, but it would be a very strange kind of intervention: there is no
> evidence that it was directed towards any purpose. Indeed if it were, it
> would, by definition not be random." Bartholomew continues "It is part of
> the last sentence of the quotation that touches the nub of the matter.
> Randomness is what we have when all purpose and direction is excluded. We
> cannot, therefore, smuggle purpose in by the back door under cover of
> randomness.
> "If, on the other hand, the equations of quantum theory do describe genuine
> randomness, there is no room for action by God mediated through individual
> events at the quantum level."
>
> He also dispenses with Dembski's approach in chapter 7 "Can Intelligent
> Design be established scientifically?" but I confess I'll have to read it
> again to understand it well enough to summarize.
>
> Bartholomew also calls attention on p. 183 to Miller's "Perspectives on an
> Evolving Creation" and specifically names both Keith Miller and Terry Gray,
> citing their discussion of randomness.
>
> What is his suggestion? On p. 192 he says "There is no physical
> mechanism--there does not need to be--but chance and necessity alone are
> sufficient to do the job in exactly the way God intended." In other words,
> the randomness we see is real and the individual "random" events are not
> individually determined by God but the macroscopic purpose and direction is
> accomplished through the randomness of the micro level. He goes on to
> discuss human freedom in the same terms.
>
> Clearly, this will cause considerable angst to those who require God's
> specific involvement, knowledge, and guidance of each individual event. But
> I think there's a lot of merit to his suggestion. I encourage you to read it
> and give it serious thought.
>
> Randy
>
>
>

-- 
David W. Opderbeck
Associate Professor of Law
Seton Hall University Law School
Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology
To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.