Premium
DIVINE ACTION IN THE WORLD (SYNOPSIS)
Author(s) -
Plantinga Alvin
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
ratio
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-9329
pISSN - 0034-0006
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9329.2006.00342.x
Subject(s) - action (physics) , nothing , epistemology , meaning (existential) , natural law , natural (archaeology) , philosophy , reading (process) , existence of god , intervention (counseling) , theism , law , sociology , psychology , political science , history , linguistics , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , psychiatry
The following is a synopsis of the paper presented by Alvin Plantinga at the R atio conference on The Meaning of Theism held in April 2005 at the University of Reading. The synopsis has been prepared by the Editor, with the author's approval, from a handout provided by the author at the conference. The paper reflects on whether religious belief of a traditional Christian kind can be maintained consistently with accepting our modern scientific worldview. Many theologians, and also many scientists, maintain that the idea of divine intervention is at odds with the framework of natural laws disclosed by science. The paper argues that this notion of a ‘religion/science problem’ is misguided. When properly understood, neither the classical (Newtonian) picture of natural laws, nor the more recent quantum mechanical picture, rules out divine intervention. There is nothing in science, under either the old or the new picture, that conflicts with, or even calls in to question, special divine action, including miracles.