From: Alexanian, Moorad (alexanian@uncw.edu)
Date: Wed Apr 09 2003 - 10:08:04 EDT
I believe Einstein summarized it pretty well when he said: "There are
only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is." Moorad
-----Original Message-----
From: George Murphy [mailto:gmurphy@raex.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 9:25 AM
To: Don Winterstein
Cc: Michael Roberts; Ted Davis; asa@calvin.edu
Subject: Re: Benjamin Wiker on ID
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/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Wed Apr 09 2003 - 10:11:05 EDT