Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Discovering God?

Here is the current version of the slides for a talk, "Is the End of Science the Beginning of Discovering God?" that I will give tonight as part of The God Experiment series.
I first consider John Horgan's book, The End of Science which suggests that science cannot find The Answer. I then consider different possible responses to the successes of science: Hubris, Despair, Wonder, and Worship. I then look at Paul's address in Acts 17 where he proclaimed that the "unknown God" has a purpose and plan for humanity. We cannot claim ignorance but must carefully consider the person of Jesus Christ.
Comments welcome.

1 comment:

  1. Good slides. I hope the message lands on good soil.

    The excerpts remind me of a hypothetical scenario I once heard where science and math discovered all that there was to be known and the subsequent future was bleak indeed. The author used it to characterize the 'hubris' at the beginning of the 20th century where mathematicians (Hilbert in particular) were confident that such unhindered progress in math and the sciences was in reach and there were no unsolvable problems. That lasted until Goedel's incompleteness theorem disproved that hope - there will always be unsolvable problems. I have often felt that this is a blessing from God since it: (i) reminds us again of our finiteness and dependence on faith; (ii) undermines our attempts at autonomy; (iii) makes for a much more interesting universe that allows for awe, mystery and faith.

    ReplyDelete