10 May 2009

Quantum arguments for God veer into mumbo-jumbo?

I think that perhaps this riposte article in NS about whether quantum indeterminacy gives room for God's action in/on the cosmos. It's a response to a Christian scientist (note small s!) making such a claim. A little while back I commented on a possible development in theory that could change the way we view this argument anyway. Read the whole article: Quantum arguments for God veer into mumbo-jumbo - opinion - 06 May 2009 - New Scientist and the nub of it seems to me to be this, starting with a restatement (how fair?) of the argument being reacted to: "So, because God somehow tinkers in a quantumy type way, it's worth praying for divine guidance and intervention. To me, and to other scientists and commentators, Collins is straying into pseudo-scientific speculation simply to keep God in the earthly frame. Believing in God in the first place is by definition a leap of faith, and one that many scientists and many non-scientists are, after careful and reasonable thought, unwilling to take. For those who have trouble accepting that we're a product of pure chance, there is the option of believing that God set everything in motion."
To add my two-penn'orth: I think that the riposte misses the point that if time is part of 'created' order, and that the Theist view of God is that God is outside of this space-time continuum. Therefore the creative act could be (and I think should be) interpreted as covering the whole STC. So if there is a conceptual possibility for a deist 'wind-up-the-clockwork' god, there is by the same logic one for a theist God. It doesnt' help us with the 'how' of God-STC interaction, but we should be careful to note creation and sustenance are not completely different categories, but rather a time-bound 'observation'-dependent thing.

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