Re: [asa] Natural Agents - Cause and Effect, Non-Natural Agents

My challenge to Ted, Keith and George still stands unanswered: what about the ‘non-natural agents’ that are at the same time not ‘supernatural’? Are there any and what do you name them? That was the main motivation I had in starting this thread; that is what I wanted to discover from you. We’ve now diverted from that question.
 
“my point to Gregory stands: MN was to a very significant degree something that Christian scientists themselves helped to create, even a great Christian scientist like Boyle who was also a great ID advocate.” – Ted Davis
 
Yes, Ted, I’ll concede this point - ‘something that Christians scientists themselves helped to create’ - with the following reservations. 1) MN was a constructed concept duo, it was ‘invented’ by a certain person at a certain time and it is as such a philosophical assumption, 2) Boyle would not have understood the particular philosophical assumption called ‘MN’ that is discussed (as George says) ‘in 98% of the cases’ in our era. The term MN, as you admit yourself, is a recent, i.e. 20th century invention and it is culturally an American invention, 3) MN is mainly used in the context of defence (by old-earth theists) against YEC and ID as a philosophical assumption; it is *not* part of mainstream natural science, other than those involved in American culture-war business and court cases. This is because ‘natural scientists’ by definition only study ‘nature’ and thus the real discussion is not about ‘science’ as a whole, but
 more importantly about the hegemony of ‘natural science’ in the contemporary academy in comparison to other ‘sciences’. It seems, especially on point 3, that you miss this culturally-sensitive contextualising of the story in your HPS, Ted.
 
Ted writes: “It was Boyle, after all, not Newton, who was always invoking the clock metaphor, and who stressed many times that God, in the beginning, had given matter the properties and powers that it now has; and it was Boyle as much as anyone else who stressed how much we could trust that mechanical picture of nature, and it was Boyle who loved to compare God with the maker of the clock at Strasburg.  The same Boyle also stressed the ongoing dependence of the creation on the creator, but at the same time the regularity of the creation was a created property that God only rarely set aside for specific purposes.”
 
This doesn’t sound much like what an MN-theist would say today! In fact, much of what you’ve written about Boyle sounds completely foreign to the meaning of MN as it is used today, following its conceptual invention or construction and the subsequent attempts of inclusion in ‘scientific’ discourse (which is really not ‘scientific’ discourse but rather philosophy of science). Even the term ‘MN-theist’ sounds like a contradiction in terms, though it may seem even logical to a philosophical unsophisticate who is basing their perception on an outdated philosophy of science (hence the open recognition of underrepresentation by HPS in the American academy).
 
Are Ted, George and Keith ‘MN-theists’? I doubt any of them would accept such a label.
 
Surely you’ll accept, Ted, that this thread was not meant to focus on Robert Boyle, who you’ve indicated that you’ve studied intensely. Rather, as the title indicates, the main topic is natural and non-natural agents. If you could say which ‘non-natural agents’ that are not at the same time ‘supernatural’ that Boyle indicated, that would at least be keeping on target with my main question. Otherwise, I’m not now able to continue with the discussion.
 
I contend that most scientists who are Christians that argue for MN as a supposedly responsible philosophical assumption with which to ‘do science’ (because that’s the main point we’re talking about again) have divorced or shunned either philosophy or theology from their scientific activities. In other words, they are fragmenting themselves, by checking their whole-self identities at the door. They are philosophers (because we are called to love wisdom), yet they reject the philosophism of some in the contemporary university as irrelevant and unimportant. They go mute with an un-holistic approach to ‘science’ that is detrimental to unifying knowledge, which is what the scientific, philosophical and theological triad taken together potentially provides (TRIAD, not merely ‘science and religion’). Mainly, it is these persons’ failure to grapple with the philosophy, a highly maligned subject in America that is their undoing. MN is the
 unfortunate pseudo-result.
 
If neither you, nor George, nor Keith can come up with a ‘non-natural agent’ that is not at the same time a ‘supernatural agent,’ Ted, then I am left with little choice but to claim a minor victory in this discussion on this list. I’ll give you until Orthodox Easter Monday to state your position on this question, otherwise I’m done with this thread and you can return or choose to ignore my challenge. What refusing to answer me would do is to demonstrate that my perception of ‘the academy’ is more holistic and unified that yours, it is quite obviously more integrative (and that says a lot), because you have conveniently left out a swack of ‘non-natural’ agents that you could easily have identified.
 
This thread started and was focussed upon ‘non-natural agents.’ Bill Powers has done an admirable job, but now he’s stuck in discussing what ‘physical’ means, not about what ‘natural’ and ‘non-natural’ means *in the context of* agents and agency. The only one so far who faced ‘non-natural agents’ head-on was Merv, with Bill and now Cameron stepping into the ring with suggestions; the three ASA big-shots along with Dave S. have chosen to take the road already travelled and to deny through silence the existence of ‘non-natural agents.’ I see this as nothing more than a shame for open-minded and candid dialogue that confronts uncomfortable questions with grace and humility. Maybe it just requires a daring leap into the unknown to admit those truths that have not yet been said. 
 
After speaking today (not-English) in the shadow and light of Sorokin,
Gregory __________________________________________________________________ Instant Messaging, free SMS, sharing photos and more... Try the new Yahoo! Canada Messenger at http://ca.beta.messenger.yahoo.com/

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Received on Fri Apr 17 15:42:42 2009