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Indeterminacy

There are aspects of our world that we believe to be - for all practical purposes - unpredictable, namely, quantum, chaotic, and very complex systems. As such, the possibility of Divine action in these systems is hard to rule out, but just as hard to account for in convincing ways. Quantum indeterminacy has been offered as a way for God to communicate information to the Universe. This would purportedly allow God to act from the "bottom up." Peacocke has criticized the idea that God changes quantum events because of the need to manipulate an "absurdly large"Arthur Peacocke, Paths from Science towards God: The End of all our Exploring (Oxford: OneWorld, 2001): 106number of events to ensure the behavior remains deterministic at macro scales. I don't find this to be a harsh criticism. How could we know what's too large or 'conveniently small' for God?

Email link | Printer-friendly | Feedback | Contributed by: Adrian Wyard


Indeterminacy

Agency: Human, Robotic and Divine
Techniques for Identifying Agency
Agency in Machines, Biology, and Humans
Machines and Beings
Consciousness
Robotic Agency
Digital Computers will Always be Machines
Embodied Robotics and Emergent Behaviors
No Thinking Necessary?
Divine Agency
Downward Causation
The World as God’s Body
Divine Information
Summary

Source:

Adrian Wyard

See also:

Computing
What Makes us Human?
Are we Free?
Does God Act?
Books on Information Technology