Original scientific paper
Limits of scientific determinism — new points of contact between science and religion
Vladimir Paar
orcid.org/0000-0001-5349-9886
Ivan Golub
Abstract
The cornerstone of the contemporary scientific paradigm is the postulation that dynamic processes in every natural system develop according 'to determined natural laws which can be expressed in mathematical form. According to that, natural laws can be considered as a basis for a deterministic world in which all future events can be predicted, so that with appropriate interventions it is possible to influence them, i.e. a determined intervention can produce a determined consequence. In such a deterministic world there is, apparently, no room for God's influence on the future events once the world and natural laws were created; but owing to the impressive contemporary progress of natural sciences, and particularly to the use of increasingly sophisticated computers, scientists have become aware that man will never be able to realize the scientific determinism. Now it is possible to understand that God's influence on the course of the natural processes can be such that it is impossible for man to detect, by physical, material methods, the God's intervention in the material world. Non-deterministic processes in the chaotic regime can be entirely deterministic for God. The author (V. P.) presents his thesis according to which God is able, at a given moment, by exceptionally little intervention with the system in the chaotic regime, which will never be detectable by man's limited observation and measuring devices, as they are never perfect, to change the future events and even the human destiny. One of the basic questions which preoccupies theological anthropology is the relationship between the God's efficiency and the human freedom. The author (I. G.) gives some possible answers to that question.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
85056
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2003.
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