Re: [asa] Miracles and God of the Gaps

Quoting Jon Tandy <tandyland@earthlink.net>:
>
> Now for the third part. Most scientists, including TEs, decry the reliance
> on "miracle" because it undermines the process of scientific investigation,
> and creates "God of the gaps" scenarios of using God to fill in the gaps in
> our knowledge of the natural order. Yet the same TEs will rely on the
> doctrine of providence or quantum interaction as theological explanations
> that are just as "miraculous", although hidden behind our present inability
> to investigate.

One more interjection here: I think your word "rely" is too strong. I don't
think most TEs feel that God's providence is dependent on his being able to hide
his influence in the quantum world. They may just point out that as of this
time, such a thing is plausible. If that gap should be filled, I don't think TE
would collapse. It would maintain as it always has that God is at work in the
things we DO understand as much as those we don't. But it would still leave
unanswered the question: so HOW does God do His work in the world. Since we
have trouble imagining God at work in events that seem determined, we are driven
to think he must be working in places we can't yet detect. Hence the gaps
accusation.

--Merv

> It seems to me that the doctrine of providence is just as
> much a "God of the gaps" explanation as other more explicit claims of
> miracle, as the recent conversation with Timaeus brought out.
>
>
> Jon Tandy

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Received on Thu Jan 22 11:20:41 2009