From: George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Date: Wed Apr 09 2003 - 09:24:55 EDT
Don Winterstein wrote:
>
> George Murphy wrote:
> >...Wiker...isn't getting
> > people killed but he's encouraging Christians to waste their lives
> pursuing theological
> > & scientific dead ends.
>
> Wiker expresses himself with lots of un-scientist-like flourish, but I can
> ignore that. Are you implying here that no one has made discoveries about
> cosmological fine tuning by searching for them? Wiker claims scientists
> have done so. I don't know the answer, but if he's right, I wouldn't regard
> such discoveries entirely as "theological & scientific dead ends." The many
> documented instances of fine tuning for me lend a bit of support to my
> belief in a Tuner. Isn't this one way that God might be revealing himself
> in and through nature (Romans 1:20)?
Some of the fine-tuning "coincidences" were noted back in the 30s & were
discussed by Eddington & Dirac among others. Hoyle noted the fine-tuing of nuclear &
E&M forces needed for carbon synthesis in stars in the 50s, & Brandon Carter discussed
some of these things in relation to the development of intelligent life ~30 years ago,
giving the impetus for ideas about "anthropic principles." None of these people had a
discernible religious agenda & Hoyle's was, if anything, anti-religious.
I think that the "coincidences" have some theological significance when viewed
in the light of revelation. They are well known now & of course people with various
religious, areligious, or antireligious views may pursue their implications. But it is
quite misleading to suggest that the idea of design was what led to the scientific
discoveries.
God's presence & activity in nature is to be perceived by viewing scientific
discoveries in the light of revelation, not by trying to deduce it them from scientific
data independently of revelation. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to start signing
posts again
Theologia naturalis delenda est!
George
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
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