God and the Scientist: Exploring the Work of John Polkinghorne PDF
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God and the Scientist Exploring the Work of John Polkinghorne Edited by Fraser Watts and Christopher C. Knight God and the ScientiSt ashgate Science and Religion Series Series Editors: Roger trigg, Emeritus Professor, University of Warwick, and Academic Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion in Public Life, Kellogg College, Oxford J. Wentzel van huyssteen, Princeton Theological Seminary, USA Science and religion have often been thought to be at loggerheads but much contemporary work in this flourishing interdisciplinary field suggests this is far from the case. the Ashgate Science and Religion Series presents exciting new work to advance interdisciplinary study, research and debate across key themes in science and religion, exploring the philosophical relations between the physical and social sciences on the one hand and religious belief on the other. contemporary issues in philosophy and theology are debated, as are prevailing cultural assumptions arising from the ‘post-modernist’ distaste for many forms of reasoning. the series enables leading international authors from a range of different disciplinary perspectives to apply the insights of the various sciences, theology and philosophy and look at the relations between the different disciplines and the rational connections that can be made between them. these accessible, stimulating new contributions to key topics across science and religion will appeal particularly to individual academics and researchers, graduates, postgraduates and upper-undergraduate students. Other titles in the series: Cyborg Selves A Theological Anthropology of the Posthuman Jeanine thweatt-Bates 978-1-4094-2141-2 (hbk) The Cognitive Science of Religion James a. Van Slyke 978-1-4094-2123-8 (hbk) Science and Faith within Reason Reality, Creation, Life and Design edited by Jaume navarro 978-1-4094-2608-0 (hbk) God and the Scientist exploring the Work of John Polkinghorne Edited by FRaSeR WattS University of Cambridge, UK chRiStoPheR c. KniGht International Society for Science and Religion, UK © Fraser Watts and christopher c. Knight 2012 all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Fraser Watts and christopher c. Knight have asserted their right under the copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work. Published by ashgate Publishing Limited ashgate Publishing company Wey court east Suite 420 Union Road 101 cherry Street Farnham Burlington Surrey, GU9 7Pt Vt 05401-4405 england USa www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data God and the scientist : exploring the work of John Polkinghorne. -- (ashgate science and religion series) 1. Polkinghorne, J. c., 1930- 2. Religion and science. 3. Providence and government of God--christianity. i. Series ii. Watts, Fraser n. iii. Knight, christopher c., 1952- 215-dc23 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data God and the scientist : exploring the work of John Polkinghorne / edited by Fraser Watts and christopher c. Knight. p. cm. -- (ashgate science and religion series) includes index. iSBn 978-1-4094-4569-2 (hardcover) -- iSBn 978-1-4094-4571-5 (ebook) 1. Religion and science. 2. Polkinghorne, J. c., 1930- i. Watts, Fraser n. ii. Knight, christopher c., 1952- BL240.3.G59 2012 261.5'5--dc23 iSBn 9781409445692 (hbk) iSBn 9781409445708 (pbk) iSBn 9781409445715 (ebk) III Printed and bound in Great Britain by the MPG Books Group, UK. Contents List of Figures vii Notes on Contributors ix Preface xiii 1 Reflections of a Bottom-up Thinker 1 John Polkinghorne 2 John Polkinghorne on Three Scientist–Theologians 13 Ian G. Barbour 3 Is Informational Causality Primary Causality? A Study of an Aspect of John Polkinghorne’s Account of Divine Action 33 Terry J. Wright 4 Polkinghorne on Mathematics and Chaos Theory 51 Nicholas Saunders 5 Queen Physics: How Much of the Globe is Painted Red? 67 Nancy Cartwright and Eric Martin 6 God and Time: A New Flowing Time Interpretation of Special Relativity and its Importance for Theology 77 Robert John Russell 7 Cosmic If-statements 93 Daniel W. Darg 8 Bishop Berkeley’s Castle: John Polkinghorne on the Soul 127 Keith Ward 9 Theology and Scientific Cosmology 139 Fraser Watts vi God and the Scientist 10 Christian Hope in Dialogue with Natural Science: John Polkinghorne’s Incorporation of Bottom-up Thinking into Eschatology 153 Junghyung Kim 11 Subtle and Supple: John Polkinghorne’s Engagement with Reality 175 Pat Bennett 12 On Revising Natural Theology: John Polkinghorne and the False Modesty of Liberal Theology 197 Russell Re Manning 13 John Polkinghorne’s Kenotic Theology of Creation and its Implications for a Theory of Human Creativity 217 James M. Watkins 14 Science-and-Theology from the Standpoint of Divine Kenosis 243 Philip Clayton 15 Processes of Discovery in Science and Theology: Bottom-up Approach, Critical Realism and Interdisciplinary Inspiration 257 Michael Welker 16 Some Responses 267 John Polkinghorne A Selected Bibliography of Works on the Science–Theology Dialogue 275 Index 281 List of Figures 6.1 Time as a one-dimensional continuous variable 78 6.2 The present event B with a future event C and a past event A relative to B 78 6.3 The paradox of flowing time: Which temporal ontology for event B is correct? 79 6.4 Tensed relations to event B as present 81 6.5 The temporal relations for three events considered successively as present 81 6.6 “Flowing time” as the axis connecting multiple present events in times t, t and t 82 1 2 3 6.7 How can T and S both be real if T is in the causal future of S? 84 6.8 A generalized spacetime diagram that incorporates the previously distinct sequences of worldviews from the perspectives of the barn and the pole 87 This page has been left blank intentionally Notes on Contributors Ian G. Barbour taught for many years at Carleton College in Minnesota, and his book Issues in Science and Religion, published in 1966, became a fundamental textbook for students of the science–theology dialogue. Other books followed, including two based on the Gifford Lectures that he gave in Aberdeen in 1989 and 1990. He was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1999 in recognition of his efforts to encourage the dialogue between scientists, philosophers and theologians. Pat Bennett is a mature post-graduate student at Oxford Brookes University, where she is in the final stages of a PhD integrating theological insights with empirical data from cognitive neuroscience and psychoneuroimmunology. She is a member of the Iona Community. Nancy Cartwright is Professor of Philosophy at the London School of Economics and at the University of California at San Diego, specializing in the philosophy of the natural and social sciences. In the first half of her career at Stanford University she focussed on philosophy of physics but since moving to LSE and UCSD she has concentrated on the social and economic sciences. She has written extensively about the laws of nature, scientific modelling and causation. Philip Clayton, author of a number of influential books on the science–theology dialogue, is Dean of Claremont School of Theology and Provost of Claremont Lincoln University. He has taught at Williams College and the California State University, as well as holding guest professorships at the University of Munich, the University of Cambridge and Harvard University. He specializes in constructive theology, the religion–science debate, comparative theologies and the philosophy of religion. Daniel W. Darg recently completed his DPhil degree in astrophysics at Oxford University, where he continues to work at a postdoctoral level on astrophysics and philosophical topics related to Cosmology and the Anthropic Principle. He previously studied physics at Imperial College London and Theology and Jewish Studies at Oxford. Junghyung Kim is currently an associate pastor of the Presbyterian Church of the Lord, Seoul. Recently he completed his PhD degree at the Graduate Theological
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