Recently, I have been reading “A Purpose for Everything” by Charles Birch. He is a geneticist, and importantly (to me), he is a proponent of process philosophy / process theology.
I have been reading his book very slowly. Hey, I’m a pediatric gastroenterologist with a busy schedule! Anyway, P. 38 (Twenty-Third Publishing version) made an impression on me a few weeks ago and again tonight:
Determinism: This idea is hard to prove. Yes, Laplace’s Demon is a wonderful thought experiment, but at the subatomic level there still appears to be some type of randomness. If there is randomness, then there is potential. There is always potential — for a better or neutral or worse outcome.
Antony Eagle has written an interesting article in this arena. His work is philosophical, not theological. Here is part of it:
“Unpredictability occurs for many reasons independent ofindeterminism and is compatible with determinism. Thus, we can still have random sequences in deterministic situations, and as part of theoriesthat supervene on deterministic theories. The key to explaining why randomness and indeterminism seem closely linked is that the theories themselves should not be deterministic, even if they are acceptable accounts of ontically deterministic situations.”
A science experiment (let’s say, boiling water) will show the same temperature for when water molecules change from liquid to gas (obviously, depending on altitude and other such effects). This result is pretty much deterministic. The individual water molecules, on the other hand, are random in many ways.
How does this relate to theology, especially process theology? If I hypothesize that God has a “divine lure” for every entity – quark to galaxy – for potential or for creativity, then the randomness of nature at the subatomic level has this inherent potential for creativity. The electron forms a cloud around the nucleus. This cloud is stability demonstrating potential for atomic formation and for the ability to form molecules. If evolution has the potential to improve fitness in the setting of environmental change, then the randomness of evolution has the potential for creativity to allow a specie to survive.
Iron atom (Ars Technica, https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/05/this-is-the-first-x-ray-taken-of-a-single-atom/)
God’s lure is the tiny call for potential…for creativity. This call is not forced. Nature can ignore or hear the call. It is the choice of every entity at every level of creation.
We, as humans, should consider this call very much in the setting of taking care of other humans, other species, and our planet.
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Phi-The-Sci: Equilateral Musings 