I was talking about "LIFE" in general, not about human beings. So, to not
complicate matters think of any life form except human. My statement was a
reply to Murphy. He feels that we can treat life as we treat, say, the
cosmos. He may be right if "origins" are excluded. Pure (only) naturalism
may be all we need to "describe" the universe and all in it. However, I see a
problem with naturalism when it comes to the matter of origins: the origin of
life, of the universe, of the mind/conciousness, of the soul, etc. Physics is
the most ambitious of all scientific fields because it covers ALL, BUT only if
ALL can be reduced to basic physical principles (physical naturalism) (i.e.,
consciousness in terms of electron transfer in the brain). So my point to
Murphy was that his approach to study the cosmos with physics can not be so
straightforwardly applied to biology; and that we don't even know YET IF life
can be explained in terms of pure physics. If I'm wrong in this assertion
I'll be surprised but happy to learn a new amazing thing.
More below,
Garry DeWeese wrote:
>
> At 07:50 PM 1/4/1998 -0600, Eduardo G. Moros wrote:
>
> >First of all I need to clarify three things - an that be all!
> >
> > [snip}
> >3) we are yet to determine is life can be reduced to physics.
> >
>
> Eduardo, a couple of questions:
>
> (i) What do you mean by "reduced"? Do you mean that if the physics can be
> explained, that explanations for everything else will follow?
Essentially. This is what most Naturalists affirm.
> (ii) What would this "reduction" look like? Philosophy of mind (for
> example) is full of "reductions" where mental properties and events are
> "reduced" to mere neurophysiology of the brain. But such attempts mask
> significant thorny issues, such as the nature of superveneience and
> emergence, the extend of the reduction base; and the purpose (explanation,
> elimination, etc. of the entity/property to be reduced).
>
> I for one think such talk is not only dangerous, potentially robbing us of
> everything that makes us human and potentially reducing the imago dei to an
> equation. Surely you cannot mean this...!
Garry, I said "we are YET to determine IF life can be reduced to physics",
sorry for the type-O.
I think we are right (agree). Christianity would suffer a blow (perhaps not
deadly) if all can be reduced to physics. I'm confident, however, that
"origins" will forever defy purely physical explanations unless history can
also be reduced to physics.
>
> Garry DeWeese
Salu2
Eduardo