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Post Archive
Author Archives: Jon Garvey
Abstraction and the cover of God’s Good Earth
In my last post I drew on George Berkeley in the context of probability theory, to show how western thought’s tendency to make abstractions from reality actually leads to a misleading view of the world. The generalisations of science are particularly prone to the reification of abstract notions.
Posted in History, Philosophy, Science
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Abstraction and improbability
I’ve been dipping into George Berkeley’s philosophy recently, mainly because his mind-only view of reality resonates with some other thinkers whose ideas on the matter of matter have impressed me over the years, such as Arthur Eddington, Werner Heisenberg and William Dembski.
Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology, Theology of nature
1 Comment
The Road to Hell is paved with good inventions
N.T. Wright comments, in this clip, on the Postmodern Movement.
Posted in Politics and sociology, Prometheus, Science, Theology
2 Comments
Editing history
Back in early September 2017 I was writing a Hump piece on Aquinas and the special creation of humanity. Providentially I stumbled on a YouTube video posted just the week before in which Tim Keller, Russell Moore and Ligon Duncan discuss their “non-negotiables” on creation.
Posted in Creation, Genealogical Adam, Science, Theology of nature
13 Comments
Divine action – smoke, mirrors, or sublety?
1 Kings 11-12 tell the story of one of the most significant events in the history of the kingdom of Israel – that is, the defection of all the northern tribes from King David’s dynasty thus breaking up the chosen people into two kingdoms. Northern Israel quickly lapsed into apostasy and was destroyed by the Assyrians, essentially disappearing from history.
Posted in Creation, Science, Theology, Theology of nature
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Molinism again
A quick thought here, based on a heads-up to me on Peaceful Science on a thread that, for some reason, doesn’t give me the ability to reply. No matter, because I have more space to reply here.
Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology of nature
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Nasty pests
The environmental message of God’s Good Earth is, in my own eyes, rather muted. Conservation was, after all, a subsidiary theme of the book, though I was pleased that Sir Ghillean Prance, in his endorsement, saw it as a demand for positive action.
On distinguishing miracles from providence
In my recent piece about Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis, I mentioned how Bacon, supposedly the staunch supporter of methodological naturalism, included both a scientificcally detectable miracle and a providential answer to prayer in an apologetic for the new science that is only 22 pages long. He would appear to cut the world-cake rather differently from many of a scientific bent now, who divide the world sharply between the “natural” and the “miraculous.”
Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Theology of nature
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The Language of God
No, sorry Francis Collins, not that one. Nor Galileo’s mathematics. I’m referring to the whole science-faith interface, and more.
Posted in Creation, Science, Theology of nature
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Design and all that metaphysics
A thread at Peaceful Science tosses around the usual argument-suspects about Intelligent Design. It was set up in an unhelpful way by the common ID argument contrasting Mount Rushmore (a large statue in America, m’Lud, in the form of a carved mountain) with Mount Everest, a “natural” mountain.
Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology of nature
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