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…a somewhat better way to phrase the question (remember, words matter!) about god and reality, etc. would this: Why does existence exist? Answering the question by reference to any particular ‘thing’ that exists (a ‘force’, ‘singularity’, ‘multi-verse’, ‘string’, etc.) is to completely not pay attention to the question. The answer cannot be in terms of any merely-existing thing, but must . . . → Read More: god and reality 2 Mark your calendars and register! TANSA (Theology and the Natural Sciences Aotearoa) presents: The Theological Meaning of Evolution Conference to celebrate and interact with Darwin. Thursday June 25th at 7pm to Saturday June 27th at 6pm Key Note Speaker: Dr. Christopher Southgate, author of The Groaning of Creation University of . . . → Read More: evolution conference: june 25-27 Whether or not one agrees with Gould’s famous dictum that Religion and Science are Non-Overlapping Magisteria, it occurs to me that unless a given Religion says absolutely nothing at all about the things which Science also investigates, then at least they will be related. A far better question, of course, is how they might be related. -you can’t say something is ‘evil’ if you’re not already assuming some concept of ‘goodness’ -you can’t say something is ‘poorly designed’ unless you’re assuming what ‘good design’ looks like -you can’t say something is ‘chaotic’ unless you know what ‘order’ is -and you don’t have goodness, design or order without some idea of teleology miscellaneous thoughts… if the time we spend is to be at all worthwhile, we need to accept that words matter enough to use them and work at our use of them (some key words in science/faith include: ‘knowledge’, ‘evidence’, ‘explanation’, ‘natural’, ‘reality’, etc). it occurs to me that aiming for mutual understanding is infinitely more helpful than aiming to ‘win’. . . . → Read More: on science/faith blogging… The term ‘teleology’ comes from the Greek term ‘telos’, meaning a ‘goal’, an ‘end’, or that toward which a thing tends. We often skip over or assume (or ignore?) the notion of teleology. But without it, we cannot say that something is ‘wrong’ with anything. We cannot speak of anything functioning ‘poorly’ or ‘well’, or of somthing having been ‘poorly’ . . . → Read More: teleology and stuff I’ve checked out a book from the Carey Baptist library that’s proving to be very interesting: The Future of Atheism: Alister McGrath & Daniel Dennett in Dialogue It’s essentially a written copy of a 2007 conference including the McGrath/Dennett debate and the other papers presented – plus a few additional chapters and an introduction by the author/editor, Robert B. Stewart. . . . → Read More: the future of atheism TANSAA (Theology and Natural Sciences Aotearoa Auckland – a group emerging from Laidlaw-Carey Graduate School) is finalising their programme for 2009, and it’s looking great. I’m particularly chuffed about the Conference planned for August 1, hosted by my church, Northcote Baptist. Details: . . . → Read More: tansaa events in 2009 I’ve quite enjoyed reading through “Is Nature Enough: Meaning and Truth in the Age of Science“, by John Haught. One of the many points he articulates well is what he refers to as “layered explanation”. . . . → Read More: atheism and explanatory monism Consciousness is at least sentience, but not less. We can imagine a spectrum of least sentient to most sentient. The nearest animals to humans, in this case, would (obviously!) have the closest kind of sentience to humans. But (however this ‘emerged’ or came to be) humans are ultra-sentient. We have more than sensation (sentience); we also have a perceiving, yearning . . . → Read More: sentience and consciousness |
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