Category Archives: Science

One key part of the argument John Wesley brings for there being particular providence (see previous post), as against only general providence, is that the latter necessarily consists of the sum of the former: You say, “You allow a general providence, but deny a particular one.” And what is a general, of whatever kind it be, that includes no particulars? Is not every general necessarily made up of its several particulars?

Michael Denton’s book Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis, on which I’ve been drawing in the last few posts, opens up some interesting thoughts on a divinely-ordained evolutionary process, because its emphasis on a law-driven structuralism and more or less saltational changes frees one up from having to concentrate on the dodgy metaphysics of open-ended Neodarwinism (it’s undirected, but mysteriousy produces order – purely Epicurean, as N T Wright stresses). And if that order is intended, it’s not even Epicurean, but incoherent: God doesn’t aim at anything, and hits it every time.

Well, by that I don’t mean what NASA means. Michael Denton in Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis argues from the the astonishing emergent properties of water, which I discussed in the last post, to the idea that similar emergent principles underlie many of the most important features of life, and hence of evolution. My title, then, is intended to suggest that similar principles are involved in the properties of water and life.

I want, in this post, to use the properties of water as a proxy for the kind of emergent structural laws for which Michael Denton argues in Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis. This is because it is a simple compound that is one of the examples he explores at length in his earlier book, Nature’s Destiny, to argue for the fine tuning of the universe for human life (pp.15-46).

In between spotting rare birds in the reedbeds and sampling real ales in country pubs, I took the opportunity of some time away this week to read Michael Denton’s Evolution, Still a Theory in Crisis. As agreed by both Darrel Falk, former President of BioLogos and Sy Garte, respected colleague on The Hump of the Camel, in their respective reviews it is an important book, which is why I will put it on the Books We Like page at the earliest opportunity.

Here is a link to the short conclusion of my book, which completes the posting on The Hump.

Imagine you’re on a scientific grants committee (perhaps you are!). A young PhD comes to you and says, “I want a grant to investigate the physical explanation of the Babylonian theory of astrology.”