Re: [asa] God, Chance and Purpose

Randy,

Looks like I'll have to read the book, especially if my name is
mentioned!

At first glance I see a major category error. Chance, necessity, and I
would add, the action of free agents, are secondary "causes". (It's
probably not appropriate to think of chance as a "cause", even a
secondary cause.)

God's involvement is primary cause and related to the secondary cause
in some way. (That's a faith statement based on "my" reading of the
Bible.) It could be some kind of concursus as some have argued, but I
don't actually need to know (and probably can't know as a finite
creature) the exact how.

Chance, necessity, and human free agency are creaturely. God's action
is Creator-ly. Apples and oranges. As always there are major
theological underpinnings to this argument and there's really nothing
radically new in this debate.

TG

On Jun 5, 2008, at 8:56 AM, Randy Isaac 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
>
>

________________
Terry M. Gray, Ph.D.
Computer Support Scientist
Chemistry Department
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523
(o) 970-491-7003 (f) 970-491-1801

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Thu Jun 5 12:36:32 2008