Re: [asa] Advice for conversing with YECs (miracle timing)

I think you're overlooking Newton's failure to understand that the orbits
could be stable, a notion that I think came with Laplace. Newton thought
that gravity would cause the planets to pull together so that God would
have to nudge them back into position from time to time. We have recently
developed a more dynamic view, with planets changing orbit and smaller
bits even getting kicked out of the system.
Dave (ASA)

On Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:30:42 -0700 Jim Armstrong <jarmstro@qwest.net>
writes:
> I would make the distinction of incorporating God into his theory
> versus
> incorporating God into his mathematical formulations of behavior.
> From
> what I have read of Newton, he never really separated his
> discoveries
> from his theology. Even though he found a way to conceptualize and
> describe in mathematical terms how gravity behaves, nothing
> suggests
> that he disconnected that from his theology. It doesn't seem to be
> the
> mindset in that time to even think that the findings of natural
> philosophy should be separated from the context of theology. Indeed,
> he
> seems to have known very well that he was describing behavior, while
>
> remaining aware as well that the cause of behavior remained
> explainable
> only by divine action or intent (or content!), its specifics still
> eluding to the investigator. E.g., why do objects attract one
> another?!
>
> Maybe you were just making the simple point that there is no
> mathematical expression for divine presence, in which case I
> apologize
> for running on a bit. But I would maintain that any theory of
> anything
> "natural" has an element of incompleteness without consideration of
>
> causal agency and intent.
>
> JimA
>
> Alexanian, Moorad wrote:
> > One can certainly be inspired by belief in a Supreme Being to make
> scientific discoveries. Isaac Newton did science in order to know
> God. However, when Newton mathematized his ideas of gravitation into
> a theory, he could certainly not make God part of his theory. I
> think it is when one wants to explain what and who man is that God
> must come into the picture. Therefore, any theory of humans will be
> incomplete without bringing God in.
> >
> >
> >
> > Moorad
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> >
> > From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu on behalf of gordon brown
> > Sent: Wed 10/29/2008 4:32 PM
> > To: asa@calvin.edu
> > Subject: RE: [asa] Advice for conversing with YECs (miracle
> timing)
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, 29 Oct 2008, Alexanian, Moorad wrote:
> >
> >
> >> What scientific questions creation by TE answers that cannot be
> answered
> >> by ordinary, non-theistic evolutionary theory?
> >>
> >> Moorad
> >>
> >>
> >
> > A similar question can be asked about any science, including
> physics.
> >
> > Does belief in God cause you to make a scientific prediction that
> you
> > wouldn't have made otherwise? (Maybe not, although we are
> influenced by
> > metaphysical presuppositions that we share with all scientists.)
> >
> > Belief in God does imply belief in design, but it doesn't
> necessarily
> > imply that you can prove design, although some scientific
> discoveries have
> > moved some people toward that belief.
> >
> > Gordon Brown (ASA member)
> >
> >
> > To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
> > "unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
> > "unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
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>
>
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Received on Wed Oct 29 23:25:30 2008