Can Science Inform Our Understanding of God

  • Thread starter Thread starter Linusthe2nd
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

Linusthe2nd

Guest
This was the topic which was presented at Steubenville University by Dr. Stephen Barr today on EWTN. So let’s discuss it. What did you learn from it? I’ll save my own thoughts until later except to say I do not understand the Einstonian explanation of time which Dr. Barr stressed so much. And I will never be able to understand it. But for me there were other elements of the talk which I found enlightening.

So we can have an open ended discussion here but remember - we cannot get into a discussion of the merits or demerits of evolution. That is a banned topic and I want our discussion to go foreward and not be closed.

So fire away. 👍
 
What did we learn from what? Did you have a link to something?
 
Julia_Mae said:
What did we learn from what? Did you have a link to something?
Click to expand...
I did in another post. This was meant to be a follow up to that. There was a show on EWTN today at 2 P.M. Eastern time, U.S.A… It was a presentation by Dr. Stephen Barr on that subject. The link was to that program. Unfortunately it is over. I thought those who had seen it might want to talk about it.

It was pretty complicated so I won’t attempt to sum it up. Sorry you missed it. 👍
 
Stephen Barr is awesome. His arguments were among the decisive ones a few years ago that prevented me from falling into atheism at the time.

Once that program is repeated, please alert us.
 
Answering your question: Yes.

As Einstein said, he wanted to know the mind of God.

So how God put everything together is very much the business of science.
 
Al_Moritz said:
Stephen Barr is awesome. His arguments were among the decisive ones a few years ago that prevented me from falling into atheism at the time.

Once that program is repeated, please alert us.
Click to expand...
I will try. But a better bet would be to contact the University of Steubenville and see if you can get a C.D. of the presentation. It was only an hour long so the question and answer portion was cut off.

The part which impressed me most was his analogy of an author writing a book to God creating the world in time. The author exists here and now ( i.e. analogous to God’s eternity) but the events in the book unfold one after another line after line, page after page in time. The author knows the whole of his creation from beginning to end, in his " eternity." But the events unfold in the book in a causal sequence of time.

His point was that the events in the book are actually causing each other - as secondary causes in a horozontal sequence. But the author is causing each event from outside of time in a mode of vertical causality. I thought that was a very clever way of illustrating a very difficult concept to get over. Of course the analogy is not perfect as he admits. One thing wrong with it is that the events of this world are all vertically caused even among themselves. But it is God existing outside time who is the ultimate effecient, sustaining, and final cause.

As far as horozontal causality is concerned, I really can’t think of one that could exist in actuality. The reason is that all such " causes " are really vertical causes, sequentially arrainged - pool ball hits pool ball, father begets son, etc. At least that is the way I see it. 👍
 
Charlemagne_II said:
Answering your question: Yes.

As Einstein said, he wanted to know the mind of God.

So how God put everything together is very much the business of science.
Click to expand...
No it is not the business of science to know how God puts everything together. It is the business of science to know how physics works.
 
Linusthe2nd said:
This was the topic which was presented at Steubenville University by Dr. Stephen Barr today on EWTN. So let’s discuss it. What did you learn from it? I’ll save my own thoughts until later except to say I do not understand the Einstonian explanation of time which Dr. Barr stressed so much. And I will never be able to understand it. But for me there were other elements of the talk which I found enlightening.

So we can have an open ended discussion here but remember - we cannot get into a discussion of the merits or demerits of evolution. That is a banned topic and I want our discussion to go foreward and not be closed.

So fire away. 👍
Click to expand...
I have 3 random points to make…1) I hold to the Augustinian concept of time…so that when I recieve Holy Communion (for example) I might pray for those in the Past or Future knowing God can bless them
  1. Faith is a way of seeing into the deeper layers of reality…Science is merely putting in some kind of order what one sees. Therefore, Faith and Science are not exclusive…but rather Faith gives advantage to the scientist…3) therefore…when Einstien says to discover new truth one should look for beauty…he was making what seemed like an “unscientific” statement…but I think he was a man of Faith.
Your question “Can science inform our understanding of God?”…ofcourse it can. St Paul says…“Our God is a God of order”…therefore…understanding order (science) can lead one to a great apreciation of God…IF…one has an eye of Faith.
 
Pugsly said:
  1. therefore…when Einstien says to discover new truth one should look for beauty…he was making what seemed like an “unscientific” statement…but I think he was a man of Faith…
Click to expand...
It is definitely not unscientific. Beauty from the physics or mathematical point of view goes with simplicity. Physics tend to merge theories, to explain many different things with the same simple, beautiful principle. Einstein was a deist, not a christian. He didn’t believe in a personal God.
 
Al_Moritz said:
Stephen Barr is awesome. His arguments were among the decisive ones a few years ago that prevented me from falling into atheism at the time.

Once that program is repeated, please alert us.
Click to expand...
👍

one of the best
 
“This most beautiful system [the universe] could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.” Isaac Newton
 
Al_Moritz said:
Stephen Barr is awesome. His arguments were among the decisive ones a few years ago that prevented me from falling into atheism at the time.

Once that program is repeated, please alert us.
Click to expand...
Here he is on EWTN’s Bookmark series ( we will have to check out its archive, if there is one). Anyway this link will bring you to a discussion by Stephen. 👍

youtube.com/watch?v=u0_Avz83VNU
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top