Abrahamic Reflections on Randomness and Providence

381 Pages·2022·4.501 MB·English

by  Kelly James Clark, Jeffrey Koperski

Abrahamic Reflections
on Randomness
and Providence
Edited by Kelly James Clark · Jeffrey Koperski
Abrahamic Reflections on Randomness
and Providence
Kelly James Clark • Jeffrey Koperski
Editors
Abrahamic Reflections
on Randomness
and Providence
Editors
Kelly James Clark Jeffrey Koperski
Department of Philosophy Department of Philosophy
Ibn Haldun University Saginaw Valley State University
Istanbul, Turkey University Center, MI, USA
ISBN 978-3-030-75796-0 ISBN 978-3-030-75797-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75797-7
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2022. This book is an open access
publication.
Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits
use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as
you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the
Creative Commons licence and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book’s Creative
Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the book’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by
statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly
from the copyright holder.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.
Cover illustration: EVGENII PUZANOV / Alamy Stock Photo
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
C
ontents
Part I I ntroduction 1
1 Randomness and Providence: Is God a Bowler or a Curler? 3
Kelly James Clark and Jeffrey Koperski
Part II The Problem(s) Stated 11
2 The Many Faces of Randomness 13
Jeffrey Koperski
3 Randomness and Providence: Defining the Problem(s) 29
Aaron M. Griffith and Arash Naraghi
Part III Science 55
4 Randomness in the Cosmos 57
Nidhal Guessoum
5 Randomness, Providence, and the Multiverse 85
Bruno Guiderdoni
v
vi CONTENTS
6 Can a Muslim be an Evolutionist? 107
Caner Taslaman
7 Chance, Evolution, and the Metaphysical Implications of
Paleontological Practice 119
Alan C. Love
Part IV The Abrahamic Faiths 145
8 Judaism and Providence 147
Tyron Goldschmidt and Samuel Lebens
9 Randomness and Providence in Christian Thought 171
Karen R. Zwier
10 God, Cosmos, and Humanity: Muslim Perspectives on
Divine Providence 199
Sajjad Rizvi
Part V Providence and Chance 221
11 Reconciling Meticulous Divine Providence with Objective
Chance 223
Robert C. Koons
12 Creatio Continua and Quantum Randomness 243
Emil Salim and Shoaib Ahmed Malik
13 Causality, Indeterminacy, and Providence: Contemporary
Islamic Perspectives from Said Nursi and Basil Altaie 265
Isra Yazicioglu
14 Divine Action and the Emergence of Four Kinds of
Randomness 287
Robert C. Koons and Rana Dajani
CONTENTS vii
15 God et al.— World-Making as Collaborative
Improvisation: New Metaphors for Open Theists 311
Mark Steen
16 Saadia on “what is in the hearts of people when they
reach the limits of endurance in a trial” 339
Josef Stern
17 Randomness, Causation, and Divine Responsibility 357
Scott A. Davison
Index 375
n C
otes on ontributors
Kelly James Clark holds a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame.
Clark is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Ibn Haldun University
in Istanbul. He is the author, editor, or co-author of more than thirty
books including Abraham’s Children: Liberty and Tolerance in an Age of
Religious Conflict and Religion and the Sciences of Origins.
Rana Dajani is associate professor and former director of the Center of
Studies at the Hashemite University, Jordan. She holds a Ph.D. from the
University of Iowa. A twice Fulbright alumnus and Eisenhower Fellow,
her scientific expertise is in cell biology.
Scott  A.  Davison is Professor of Philosophy at Morehead State
University, USA. He received his Ph.D. from Notre Dame. He is the
author of On the Intrinsic Value of Everything and On the Pointlessness of
Petitionary Prayer, the first book on issues involving divine providence
and petitionary prayer.
Tyron Goldschmidt holds a Ph.D. from King’s College London. He is
the co-author of Berkeley’s Principles: Expanded and Explained and Hume’s
Principles: Expanded and Explained.
Aaron M. Griffith is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the College
of William & Mary, USA. He received his Ph.D. from the University of
California, Irvine. He has written fifteen articles on metaphysics
and Kant.
ix
x NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Nidhal Guessoum is Professor of Astrophysics at the American University
of Sharjah, UAE. He holds his Ph.D. from the University of California,
San Diego. He is author of Islam’s Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim
Tradition and Modern Science.
Bruno Guiderdoni is a director of research at the Centre de Recherche
Astrophysique de Lyon, University of Lyon. He received his Ph.D. from
the University of Paris. He has written more than 80 papers and has orga-
nized several international conferences on these issues.
Robert C. Koons is Professor of Philosophy at University of Texas,
Austin, USA. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los
Angeles and is the author of, among many books, Paradoxes of Belief and
Strategic Rationality and Realism Regained.
Jeffrey Koperski is Professor of Philosophy at Saginaw Valley State
University, USA. He received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University. He is
the author of The Physics of Theism: God, Physics, and the Philosophy of
Science and Divine Action, Determinism, and the Laws of Nature.
Samuel Lebens is Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of
Haifa, Israel, and the co-founder of the Association for the Philosophy of
Judaism. He received his Ph.D. from the University of London. He is the
author of The Principles of Judaism.
Alan C. Love is associate professor at the University of Minnesota, USA,
and director of the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science. He holds
a Ph.D. from University of Pittsburgh. He has written 50 scholarly articles
and edited Conceptual Change in Biology: Scientific and Philosophical
Perspectives on Evolution and Development.
Shoaib Ahmed Malik is Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at
Zayed University, UAE. He received his Ph.D. from the University of
Nottingham, UK.
Arash Naraghi is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion at
Moravian College, USA. He holds a Ph.D. from University of California,
Santa Barbara. His publications include A Theology of Absence: An Islamic
Experience and Critical Traditionalism: A New Approach to the Logic of
Reform in Islamic Thought.
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xi
Sajjad Rizvi is the director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies,
University of Exeter, UK.  He received his Ph.D. from Cambridge
University. He is the author of Mulla Sadra and Metaphysics: Modulation
of Being and An Anthology of Qur’anic Commentaries: On the Nature of
the Divine.
Emil Salim is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Sekolah Tinggi Teologi
Reformed Indonesia in Jakarta, Indonesia. He holds a Ph.D. from the
University of Arizona.
Mark Steen teaches at La Roche University and Allegheny College. He
received his Ph.D. from Syracuse University. His work has been published
in Philosophia, Grazer Philosophische Studien, Acta Analytica, and the
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Josef Stern is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at The University of
Chicago, USA. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He is the
author of, most recently, Metaphor in Context and The Matter and Form of
Maimonides’ Guide.
Caner Taslaman is Professor of Philosophy at Yildiz Technical University,
Istanbul, Turkey. He received his Ph.D. from Marmara University.
Isra Yazicioglu is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at St. Joseph’s
University, PA, USA. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.
She is the author of Understanding the Qur’anic Miracle Stories in the
Modern Age.
Karen R. Zwier holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. She has
published scholarly articles on a variety of topics in philosophy of science,
history of science, and pertaining to the relationship between science and
religion.