Exploring Ecumenism

On God's Relationship with Matter

We know very little about consciousness although, according to Martin in Does It Matter?, it should be possible to study it using scientific methods.  This would be through collection and comparison of accounts of experiences.  Wesley, according to Runyon's The New Creation(page 72f), understood experience to be important in spiritual matters.  He did not rule out an empirical approach to spiritual matters because accounts of experiences can be studied.

Made in God's Image

In the first creation story in Genesis, men and women are created in God's image.  What does it mean to be made in God's image?

Purpose not Design

I have already argued God is no designer.  In a fascinating sequence starting on page 197, Martin shows how Dawkins smuggles a purposeful intelligence into the evolutionary process.  In The Blind Watchmaker Dawkins calculates the chances of producing haemoglobin by the random processes of evolution are 1 in 10¹⁵⁰.  But he takes a 'neat side-step' around this problem.

The Case Against Creationism

One of the entertaining dimensions of the atheist onslaught against Christianity is that it is an unwinnable argument.  Either they address people like me who believe in evolution (and depart from the atheist position on other points that don't seem to be debated) ... (apparently I'm unintentionally being fooled by fundamentalists because they are the true representatives of Christianity - so much for solidarity amongst radicals!) ... or else they address fundamentalists who will never be persuaded by science on principle.

Does Evolution have a Purpose?

I have already suggested that although design is not involved in evolution, this does not rule out purpose. 

1. I understand by design a detailed plan, drawn up before the proposed work is done.  God the designer is equivalent to the traditional Calvinist God, who created everything at the beginning, with no room for error.  Is it necessarily the case that God's purpose is best served by such an inflexible approach to creation?  Theologically it opens up several problems, such as why does a good (and absolute) creator allow suffering?  The answer must boil down to: it depends upon what God is trying to achieve.

The Case Against Materialism

According to his autobiography, Bertrand Russell's grandmother used to say, 'What is mind?  No matter.  What is matter?  Never mind.'

Martin in Does it Matter? constructs a convincing argument against the materialist view of the universe.  Materialism is a an immensely important and successful philosophy.  If to abandon a materialist worldview would be to embrace a supernatural worldview I would see that as a major step backwards for humanity.  Not least because there are some very moving materialist readings of scripture, including the only convincing account of Jesus walking on water that I know of.

Objectivity, Subjectivity and Biase

Of course, not even mainstream science is objective.  There has to be an element of subjectivity in the formulation of a hypothesis, for example.  The power of science is that it has the means to test hypotheses by experiment and to verify experiments through peer review.  The temptation is always to be selective in interpretation of results or in the choice of statistical methods employed. 

Can Science be Subjective?

It is the thing in itself that computers cannot perceive or know about.  They never will.  All computers can do is break down real things into symbols and manipulate the symbols.  Symbols are not the thing in itself, they cannot reproduce the thing elsewhere for example.  They cannot fall in love because they cannot perceive anything at other than one remove as symbols.

Can Computers Evolve?

Thinking about artificial intelligence has led me to ask whether it is possible for computers to evolve.  I don't think they can.  The implications for artificial intelligence will be that the route by which humanity arrived at self-awareness is closed to computers.

The Case Against Artificial Intelligence

The power of science is in its approach to nature through simplification followed by systematic interpretation.  Reality, those things which are themselves, are summarised as symbols.  We should beware of mistaking the symbols for the thing in itself.