Thought Experiment
Thursday, 17 February 2011 09:51 am(1) Imagine that God creates the following universe (graphically represented as an alphabet consisting of uppercase and lowercase letters):
AbCdEfGhI[jklmnop]QrStUvWxYz.
(2) Imagine that God creates the following "natural order" for (1):
AbCdEfGhI[jKlMnOp]QrStUvWxYz.
(3) Because the "jklmnop" in (1) is in contravention of the order found in (2), it counts as "supernatural."
But why would God even bother to create (2)? What would it even mean for God to have created (2)? It seems more than somewhat blasphemous to assume that in addition to the world God created, (1), there's also (even as an idea) the world God should have created but chose not to, (2).
Now the human mind looks for patterns, so if someone only sees the parts of (1) outside the brackets, she's going to see the pattern described in (2). But then seeing the parts of (1) inside the brackets shouldn't be an issue at all; she should simply recognize, with humility, that the pattern she saw is insufficient to describe the whole created universe of (1), and she'll have to come up with a new, better pattern, (2′), perhaps to be followed by a (2″), (2‴), etc.
And since there's always more of the universe to explore, she's going to be constantly revising the patterns she thinks she sees. That's scientific progress.
But it doesn't leave much room for the supernatural.
AbCdEfGhI[jklmnop]QrStUvWxYz.
(2) Imagine that God creates the following "natural order" for (1):
AbCdEfGhI[jKlMnOp]QrStUvWxYz.
(3) Because the "jklmnop" in (1) is in contravention of the order found in (2), it counts as "supernatural."
But why would God even bother to create (2)? What would it even mean for God to have created (2)? It seems more than somewhat blasphemous to assume that in addition to the world God created, (1), there's also (even as an idea) the world God should have created but chose not to, (2).
Now the human mind looks for patterns, so if someone only sees the parts of (1) outside the brackets, she's going to see the pattern described in (2). But then seeing the parts of (1) inside the brackets shouldn't be an issue at all; she should simply recognize, with humility, that the pattern she saw is insufficient to describe the whole created universe of (1), and she'll have to come up with a new, better pattern, (2′), perhaps to be followed by a (2″), (2‴), etc.
And since there's always more of the universe to explore, she's going to be constantly revising the patterns she thinks she sees. That's scientific progress.
But it doesn't leave much room for the supernatural.