[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: GG: Background and foreground
From: Kate Clunies-Ross <goldbergs@TALK21.COM>
Reply-To: Kate Clunies-Ross <goldbergs@TALK21.COM>
To: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
Subject: Re: GG: Background and foreground
Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 09:18:30 +0100
Heavens, Bob, I never thought I'd see the Yellowstone Caldera and the
landslide -prone volcano in the Canaries mentioned on F-minor! whatever
next? Global annihilation by errant incoming asteroid, perhaps?
But I agree that God (if he/she is there) seems perhaps more interested in
chaos than in harmony and order ....or perhaps it is just that the human
mind tends to perceive as chaos
something as bewilderingly complex as the universe around us, even if
"order" is there among the complexity.
At the risk of going incredibly far off-topic for this list, there is one
point I would like to add from a scientific perspective.
I think you're right about the human mind seeing order as chaos. The thing
is, all those things you've mentioned -- landslides, asteroids, volcanoes,
etc, etc... all conform to the INCREDIBLY orderly and complex laws of
physics.
Don't necessarily equate "order" with good things and "chaos" with bad
things. Bad things can be just as orderly as good things. The chemical and
physical equations involved in calculating the eruption of a volcano show an
incredible amount of complexity.
If God exists, then, he/she/it is definitely interested in order. (If God
wasn't interested in order, science would be non-existent, as things would
happen without any cause or method of explanation. One of the great unsolved
questions in science is, "Why should our universe conform to such complex
and orderly laws? Why don't things just happen without any cause? Why can
events be described mathematically?") The laws of physics and mathematics
that control our universe definitely show us that God likes order.
It just might not happen to be the kind of "order" we like, that's all...
Cris Watson
_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com