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Divine Agency

Our experiences in the natural world seem to fall neatly into two categories: those that seem law-like in regularity, and those that seem due to chance. There doesn't seem to be a pressing need for Divine action as a distinct third category. This is especially true if we limit our observations to classical levels of complexity and scale - here we detect a robust determinism with strict observance of conservation laws. On the other hand, our observations at the quantum scale lead us to the reasoned conclusion that the future is in some limited sense open, or "not decided" (to quote Bohr). Here even conservation laws can be bent, at least temporarily. Below I shall survey a few ways in which Divine action can potentially be included in a scientific framework that deals primarily in terms of necessity and chance.

Email link | Printer-friendly | Feedback | Contributed by: Adrian Wyard


Divine Agency

Agency: Human, Robotic and Divine
Techniques for Identifying Agency
Agency in Machines, Biology, and Humans
Machines and Beings
Consciousness
Robotic Agency
Digital Computers will Always be Machines
Embodied Robotics and Emergent Behaviors
No Thinking Necessary?
Downward Causation
The World as God’s Body
Divine Information
Indeterminacy
Summary

Source:

Adrian Wyard

See also:

Computing
What Makes us Human?
Are we Free?
Does God Act?
Books on Information Technology