2.2. Theistic Evolution and the “Anthropic Thermodynamic” Principle
For Russell, the broadened notion of contingency based on creatio ex nihilo makes metaphysical room for theology to speak of the creative presence of God in the beginning of the fine-tuned universe and in the development of the self-organizing universe through the 2nd law of thermodynamics within the context of contemporary quantum cosmology. Those categories of contingency based on creatio ex nihilo and creatio continua also enable theology to speak of God’s objectively creative presence in the course of biological evolution and the emergence of consciousness. While God sustains regularities after creating their first instantiations (FINLONs) ex nihilo in both unmediated …show more content…
In the emergence of life and consciousness, this whole process can be seen as ontologically contingent on God as an active Creator by virtue of the ontological openness of nature. That is, the fine-tuning of the universe belongs to global ontological contingency in that it is a given nature of this universe with the constants making it suitable for life. Only a small subset of imaginable universes could produce life. Yet the anthropic principle connotes the fundamental constants and laws of nature that operates through the interweaving of chance and law necessary for the emergence of life, higher complexities and consciousness. In the fine-tuned universe, God remains “objectively” (both in general and special providence) present in creatio continua in both usual and unusual occurrences in the course of evolution of living creatures in particular and in the history of the evolving universe in general. God can be seen as creative in the history of the universe through a direct/indirect yet “mediated” mode or through “created natural gaps in the causal regularities of nature.” They are “simply part of the way nature is constituted by God’s creative action ex …show more content…
Also, the combination of determinism and indeterminism in genetic mutations is consistent with the way quantum mechanics describes the natural world. “Biology presupposes physics even while building upon it.” For that reason, for Russell, QM-NIODA is foundational to a conceptualization of theistic evolution through chance and law. The collapse of the wave function may be seen as occurring by the co-operation of divine and natural causes. Here God can be seen as acting directly yet in a mediated mode at the microscopic levels of nature to bring forth the result of a particular measurement that is consistent with the probabilistic character of quantum mechanics. This means that God’s action at the quantum level creates indirect effects in its amplification at the macroscopic level where the general features of the world are sustained according to classical physics. This coheres with the way that a random mutation takes place in the interplay of chance and law and the way Russell construes it as a central part of theistic
For Russell, the broadened notion of contingency based on creatio ex nihilo makes metaphysical room for theology to speak of the creative presence of God in the beginning of the fine-tuned universe and in the development of the self-organizing universe through the 2nd law of thermodynamics within the context of contemporary quantum cosmology. Those categories of contingency based on creatio ex nihilo and creatio continua also enable theology to speak of God’s objectively creative presence in the course of biological evolution and the emergence of consciousness. While God sustains regularities after creating their first instantiations (FINLONs) ex nihilo in both unmediated …show more content…
In the emergence of life and consciousness, this whole process can be seen as ontologically contingent on God as an active Creator by virtue of the ontological openness of nature. That is, the fine-tuning of the universe belongs to global ontological contingency in that it is a given nature of this universe with the constants making it suitable for life. Only a small subset of imaginable universes could produce life. Yet the anthropic principle connotes the fundamental constants and laws of nature that operates through the interweaving of chance and law necessary for the emergence of life, higher complexities and consciousness. In the fine-tuned universe, God remains “objectively” (both in general and special providence) present in creatio continua in both usual and unusual occurrences in the course of evolution of living creatures in particular and in the history of the evolving universe in general. God can be seen as creative in the history of the universe through a direct/indirect yet “mediated” mode or through “created natural gaps in the causal regularities of nature.” They are “simply part of the way nature is constituted by God’s creative action ex …show more content…
Also, the combination of determinism and indeterminism in genetic mutations is consistent with the way quantum mechanics describes the natural world. “Biology presupposes physics even while building upon it.” For that reason, for Russell, QM-NIODA is foundational to a conceptualization of theistic evolution through chance and law. The collapse of the wave function may be seen as occurring by the co-operation of divine and natural causes. Here God can be seen as acting directly yet in a mediated mode at the microscopic levels of nature to bring forth the result of a particular measurement that is consistent with the probabilistic character of quantum mechanics. This means that God’s action at the quantum level creates indirect effects in its amplification at the macroscopic level where the general features of the world are sustained according to classical physics. This coheres with the way that a random mutation takes place in the interplay of chance and law and the way Russell construes it as a central part of theistic