Rational readings.
In this interesting article on the Catholic Herald about prof. John Haldane I read:"I do feel, I'm afraid, that Christians have de-intellectualised over the last few decades," he says. "The current intellectual resources that Christians have available to them are very limited. We are just not able to present very good arguments. Not that the arguments aren't there, but we don't know what they are very often or how to articulate them."
I agree with the assertion, and I think the problem does not belong to British Catholicism alone, however I put myself among those the lay people who are still in search of a framework to argument exaustively on Catholicity, I think the article could have been written quoting at least some of the arguments prof. Haldane would present to make our de-Christianised culture more rational.
Thank to Zadok I read from Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, O.P:
Instead of notional,perfectly simple “atoms,” we have discovered
the extraordinarily complex, beautiful, and mathematical “particle zoo” of the Standard Model of physics, hovering on the border of existence and intelligibility (as Aristotle predicted long ago with his doctrine of prime matter). And order, complexity, and intelligibility exist “all the way up” as well. We see a teleological hierarchy and chain of emergence from quantized physics, giving rise to stable chemistry, enabling the nearly miraculous properties of carbon and biochemistry, providing the material basis for the emergence of life with its own ontological hierarchy of metabolic (plant), sensitive (animal), and rational (human) existence.
Although I have only had a brief introduction to quantum mechanics I would say that some form of teleology is already found in the description of the energy balance of subatomic particles, so it would be interesting to know more about Aristotle's doctrine of prime matter.
There should be more Christians in science and maths and technology, however I suspect there are serious barriers for whoever believes in God to advance in career in these fields.
Labels: God's Mind
posted by Galilei @ 2:27 pm
