In two earlier entries, The Christian in the Universe of Einstein: 2. God as the Creator of Truths and The Christian in the Universe of Einstein: 2. What is Mathematics?, I argued that God creates truths, though not in the sense that He could have created contradictions or the ‘truth’ of “1 + 1 = … [Read more…]
Einstein, Feynman, and perhaps other major scientists have made the claim that “philosophers of science” have contributed nothing that’s useful to scientists. While not sure exactly what the contexts of their comments really were, I’d generally say in response, “Yes, and why would anyone expect anything different?” I would think philosophers of science move in … [Read more…]
So what freedom do we have when we’re strongly constrained by our genes and the rest of our body, by our upbringings and our social and political circumstances, by the very nature of space and time and causality? Whatever the result of the various debates about nature versus nurture, there are certainly some strong constraints … [Read more…]
After nearly two years of heavy-duty entries exploring ways of updating Thomistic existentialism to account for modern empirical knowledge, I’ve started to move on in some ways, continuing this general task but trying to reach deeper. Specifically, I’m struggling to learn more of modern physics that I might better tackle metaphysical issues of being and … [Read more…]
John Hawks is an evolutionary thinker who seems to think clear and to speak honestly. I’d recommend his weblog, John Hawks Weblog for anyone wanting an intelligent take on evolutionary biology from the viewpoint of an anthropologist who has done highly regarded work on the genetics aspects of his field. In a recent entry about … [Read more…]
There’s a short but interesting summary of a survey about the effects of knowledge on the opinions that men and women hold about the moral legitimacy of some controversial medical/scientific procedures such as the use of various sorts of stem-cells. See Scientific Information Largely Ignored When Forming Opinions About Stem Cell Research. In a nutshell, … [Read more…]
In order to move on in my work, I’m studying advanced physics and mathematics, concentrating for now on general relativity — broadly speaking since I have to take various diversions to refresh my old knowledge or to acquire new knowledge in basic physics and matrix algebra and differential geometry and so forth. One of the … [Read more…]
Modern human beings, and especially Christians, might misunderstand the work I’m doing. Some might think I’m some sort of champion of modern empirical knowledge for its own sake, a fan of physics and history perhaps. In fact, what’s at issue is respect for God’s Creation and, hence, for the Creator Himself. You respect Creation by … [Read more…]
Like most Christians, I believe that — if Christ choses me — I’ll be raised from the dead into a world that might be called ‘Heaven’ where I’ll live with Jesus Christ for time without end. I’ll take this as a typical schizophrenic Christian belief. See A Thomistic Take on Madness and Modernism for a … [Read more…]
See Astronomy study proves mathematics theorem for a case where astrophysical research helped to prove an extension to one of the most important theorems in mathematics ( The Fundamental Theorem of Algegra). The title of the article is slightly askew because the work by an astrophysicist provided the missing half to a proof, where the … [Read more…]