Theological Notebook: Postmodernism, Science and Theology
The following was sent to me by aristotle in response to something posted over in kesil's journal on the matter in my previous entry:
It's actually a fairly popular Po-Mo move to say that either the world is totally determinate and free will is an absurdity or to say that the universe is random with patterns that aren't actually real (meaning, again, that free will isn't actually real--if it's definable, then it's a pattern, and therefore illusory). There is no room in between for such people.
PGK
I've noticed that Postmodern position or positions, myself. I'm actually suspecting, despite the Creation/Evolution tempest-in-a-teapot nonsense just given another stir by the Cardinal's column, that the future will see a notable alliance between orthodox Christian theology/philosophy and "traditional modern science," if you will, because these will be the two groups defending rationality as constitutive of the universe against the deconstructing crowd.
But then that shouldn't be a surprise, should it? Against the malarkey that most people believe about what I once heard CNN call "the eternal war between science and religion" (in reference to the Creation/Evolution bit, naturally), if you really know your History of Science, you know that Modern science is a philosophical outgrowth of the Christian theology of the Middle Ages. In other words, without Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, you don't get Sir Isaac Newton and Fr? Nicolaus Copernicus.
It's actually a fairly popular Po-Mo move to say that either the world is totally determinate and free will is an absurdity or to say that the universe is random with patterns that aren't actually real (meaning, again, that free will isn't actually real--if it's definable, then it's a pattern, and therefore illusory). There is no room in between for such people.
PGK
I've noticed that Postmodern position or positions, myself. I'm actually suspecting, despite the Creation/Evolution tempest-in-a-teapot nonsense just given another stir by the Cardinal's column, that the future will see a notable alliance between orthodox Christian theology/philosophy and "traditional modern science," if you will, because these will be the two groups defending rationality as constitutive of the universe against the deconstructing crowd.
But then that shouldn't be a surprise, should it? Against the malarkey that most people believe about what I once heard CNN call "the eternal war between science and religion" (in reference to the Creation/Evolution bit, naturally), if you really know your History of Science, you know that Modern science is a philosophical outgrowth of the Christian theology of the Middle Ages. In other words, without Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, you don't get Sir Isaac Newton and Fr? Nicolaus Copernicus.