God's "Randomness" (was Chance and the Hand of God)

Eddie G. Olmstead, Jr. (olmstead@faith.gordonc.edu)
Thu, 8 Feb 1996 15:11:42 -0500

Brian Harper:
>One could also draw on my illustration below to argue that God's purposeful
>action may very well appear random [remember this means incompressible,
>unfathomable] to us if God is more complex than our brains ;-). This is
>an interesting take on algorithmic complexity that I hadn't thought of
>before. This doesn't actually require a linkage between God's purposeful
>intervention and true randomness. If God's purposeful interventions
>result in phenomena whose descriptive lengths (complexities) are larger
>than the complexity of our mental faculties, then they will appear to us
>as if they are random even though they are in fact orderly and purposeful.
>An interesting idea .... :-)

Yes, it is very interesting. The seed of this idea sprouted in my mind the
other day after I reread your algorithmic complexity posts, but I was
struggling to develop it. I really like it. God is not irrational, but
extra-rational. His logic and order do not conflict with our concepts of
logic and order, they simply extend beyond our capabilities. We can study
and comprehend his simpler patterns of order, but as His patterns of order
get more advanced, their complexity simply extends beyond human
understanding. If this is true, then our use of "random" simply means "too
complex to understand" rather "lack of order".
__________________________________________________________
"Looking back, there's a thread of love and grace
Connecting each line and space I've known" -David Meece
==========================================================
Eddie Gene Olmstead, Jr. Chemistry Department
Asst. Professor of Chemistry Gordon College
Email: olmstead@gordonc.edu 255 Grapevine Road
Phone: (508) 927-2300 Ext. 4393 Wenham, MA 01984