Multiverse Deism


Book Description

Given recent work in quantum physics suggesting that our world is just one world in a series of many, Leland Royce Harper calls for a shift in our concept of the monotheistic God of Judeo-Christian tradition. In Multiverse Deism: Shifting Perspectives of God and the World, Harper argues that those who wish to maintain that the Judeo-Christian God exists ought to revise how they define this God and what they expect of Him so as to maintain consistency between modern theism and the growing body of scientific knowledge. While this revision entails several concessions by the theist, the overall result is a stronger and more coherent account of who God really is. By removing the expectation that God will act in the natural world, Harper argues that we are left with a concept of God that maintains all of the traditional divine attributes, is consistent with current scientific advances, remains compatible with contemporary and historical arguments for the existence of God, and better refutes contemporary and historical arguments for atheism than the traditional, active God.




God's Providence and Randomness in Nature


Book Description

In October 2014, a group of mathematicians, physicists, ecologists, philosophers, and theologians gathered at a special conference in Berkeley, California, to present the results of a two-year research program dubbed “Project SATURN.” This program explored many rich avenues of thought at the intersection of modern science and Christian theology. Chief among them is the possibility that specific processes might be so complex that they do not have sufficient physical causes. Known as “ontological indeterminism,” this idea has profound implications for theology. Specifically, it allows God to be thought of as acting providentially within nature without violating the laws and processes of nature. Such a momentous insight could influence how we understand free will, natural evil, suffering in nature, and the relation between divine providence and human evolution. The essays collected here discussed these topics and were initially presented at the 2014 conference. Part I establishes the scientific basis for conceptualizing specific processes in the universe as inherently random and possibly indeterministic. Part II discusses the philosophical and theological issues that spring from this understanding. Together they represent the cutting edge of thought in the increasingly productive dialogue between science and theology. Short for the “Scientific and Theological Understandings of Randomness in Nature,” Project SATURN was created by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, a Program of the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. It was funded with a grant administered by Calvin College and provided by the John Templeton Foundation.




God, Stephen Hawking and the Multiverse


Book Description

'An astonishingly good read, gripping and thought-provoking' William Lane Craig 'If you wanted to understand Stephen Hawking but couldn't face the maths, this is the book for you.' Dr Althea Wilkinson, Jodrell Bank Stephen Hawking kept breaking rules. Given two years to live, he managed another 54. He wrote about quantum cosmology - and sold 20 million books. He could not speak, yet the world recognized his voice. Hutchings and Wilkinson shine light on his extraordinary ideas. The result is a thought-provoking theological commentary and critique of black holes, origins, many universes, and Big Questions. In 'God, Stephen Hawking and the Multiverse', Hutchings and Wilkinson explain the key elements of Stephen Hawking's physical and mathematical theories, consider their philosophical and religious implications, and relate his ideas to traditional Judaeo-Christian concepts of God. This book about Stephen Hawking and God and the relationship between God and science gives a brief but engaging overview of the history of physics and cosmology. Perfect for beginners, 'God, Stephen Hawking and the Multiverse' offers a concise and accessible introduction to Hawking's work and how his contributions to modern physics and cosmology can complement religion. Exploring topics such as gravity, quantum mechanics and general relativity, the authors offer a fresh perspective on the relationship between God and science, providing a balanced and informed commentary on Hawking's work both scientifically and theologically.




The Third Temple: Merging Agendas


Book Description

Of the supporters of the modern nation of Israel, Christian Zionism seems to have contributed little more than moral support. Perhaps some financial support. However, there were supporters of the national effort, unknown to the general public, who wielded significant power, often flying under the cover of Christian Zionism. Who were they? What was their interest? In order to identify them, we view modern history through the lens of Biblical prophecy. Mystery Babylon, a global false religious system of the end times, seems to be a form of Gnosticism. In this book, we begin to develop the idea that the nation was founded with religious designs, and not particularly Jewish designs; although there is a correspondence between the Gnosticism of Freemasonry and Judaic Gnosticism.




Intellectual, Humanist and Religious Commitment


Book Description

This book offers a rigorous analysis of why commitment matters and the challenges it presents to a range of believers. Peter Forrest treats commitment as a response to lost innocence. He considers the intellectual consequences of this by demonstrating why, for example, we should not believe in angels. He then explores why humans are attached to reason and to humanism, recognising the different commitments made by theist and non-theist humanists. Finally, he analyses religious faith, specifically fideism, defining it by way of contrast to Descartes, Pascal and William James, as well as contemporary philosophers including John Schellenberg and Lara Buchak. Of particular interest to scholars working on the philosophy of religion, the book makes the case both for and against committing to God, recognising that God's divine character sets up an emotional rather than an intellectual barrier to commitment to worship.




Deism


Book Description

Deism - Spirituality Without Religion Deism - Spirituality Without Religion is a gateway to a universe where the divine is not a being revealed in temples or scriptures, but an enigmatic force that permeates the hidden order of the cosmos. For great minds like Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin, deism was the key to deciphering the mystery of a silent Creator, who, after establishing the immutable laws of the universe, withdrew, allowing creation to follow its own autonomous course. For them, it was in this infinite vastness, in the laws governing the movement of the stars, and in the complexity of life, that the trace of the sacred was found. This book does not offer ready-made answers but opens doors to the unknown, inviting the reader to leave behind the comfort of dogma and venture into a realm where true spirituality is discovered in pure reason and the contemplation of the unseen. What Einstein glimpsed in the equations that unraveled the cosmos, and Franklin intuited in crafting the principles of human freedom, was not a God who listens to prayers, but a hidden intelligence present in the subtlest details of nature. Deism - Spirituality Without Religion challenges the reader to get lost and found in a universe full of secrets, where morality emerges not from commandments but from the very laws that sustain life. As you turn each page, you will be prompted to question what is truly sacred and to explore a path of profound discoveries—where the distant and inaccessible Creator still whispers through the murmuring of the stars and the eternal dance of the atoms.




God and the Multiverse


Book Description

Cosmologists have reasons to believe that the vast universe in which we live is just one of an endless number of other universes within a multiverse—a mind-boggling array that may extend indefinitely in space and endlessly in both the past and the future. Victor Stenger reviews the key developments in the history of science that led to the current consensus view of astrophysicists, taking pains to explain essential concepts and discoveries in accessible terminology. The author shows that science’s emerging understanding of the multiverse—consisting of trillions upon trillions of galaxies—is fully explicable in naturalistic terms with no need for supernatural forces to explain its origin or ongoing existence. How can conceptions of God, traditional or otherwise, be squared with this new worldview? The author shows how long-held beliefs will need to undergo major revision or otherwise face eventual extinction.




God and Stephen Hawking


Book Description

The Grand Design, by eminent scientist Stephen Hawking, is the latest blockbusting contribution to the so-called New Atheist debate, and claims that the laws of physics themselves brought the Universe into being, rather than God. In this swift and forthright reply, John Lennox, Oxford mathematician and author of God's Undertaker, exposes the flaws in Hawking's logic. In lively, layman's terms, Lennox guides us through the key points in Hawking's arguments - with clear explanations of the latest scientific and philosophical methods and theories - and demonstrates that far from disproving a Creator God, they make his existence seem all the more probable.




The Mystery of Existence


Book Description

This compelling study of the origins of all that exists, including explanations of the entire material world, traces the responses of philosophers and scientists to the most elemental and haunting question of all: why is anything here—or anything anywhere? Why is there something rather than nothing? Why not nothing? It includes the thoughts of dozens of luminaries from Plato and Aristotle to Aquinas and Leibniz to modern thinkers such as physicists Stephen Hawking and Steven Weinberg, philosophers Robert Nozick and Derek Parfit, philosophers of religion Alvin Plantinga and Richard Swinburne, and the Dalai Lama. The first accessible volume to cover a wide range of possible reasons for the existence of all reality, from over 50 renowned thinkers, including Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, Leibniz, Hume, Bertrand Russell, Stephen Hawking, Steven Weinberg, Robert Nozick, Derek Parfit, Alvin Plantinga, Richard Swinburne, John Polkinghorne, Paul Davies, and the Dalai Lama Features insights by scientists, philosophers, and theologians Includes informative and helpful editorial introductions to each section Provides a wealth of suggestions for further reading and research Presents material that is both comprehensive and comprehensible




Closer To Truth


Book Description

Explore the latest scientific research, philosophical thinking, and expressions of human creativity. Some of the world's most esteemed experts—Nobel laureates, best-selling authors, and renowned scholars—engage in spontaneous and intimate conversations that combine hard facts with an inspiring, and breathtaking, look into our future. Based on the public television program of the same name, Closer To Truth features distinguished specialists who forcefully debate provocative subjects that have broad ramifications for the population at large: Who gets to validate alternative medicine? How does basic science support national security? Can we believe in both religion and science? At the heart is the question: how will scientific advances and the philosophical issues they create affect the individual as well as humanity as a whole? Closer To Truth: Science, Meaning, and the Future explores the latest scientific research, philosophical thinking, and expressions of human creativity. Some of the world's most esteemed experts—Nobel laureates, best-selling authors, and renowned scholars—engage in spontaneous and intimate conversations that combine hard facts with an inspiring—and breathtaking—look into our future. Based on the public television program of the same name, Closer To Truth features distinguished specialists who forcefully debate provocative subjects that have broad ramifications for the population at large: Who gets to validate alternative medicine? How does basic science support national security? Can we believe in both religion and science? At the heart is the question: how will scientific advances and the philosophical issues they create affect the individual as well as humanity as a whole? Whether the subject is the meaning of human consciousness, the ethics of testing experimental drugs on sick people, scientific thinking versus religious beliefs, or how music may help mental development, Closer To Truth uncovers exciting new lines of inquiry and offers fresh perspectives. Participants include Nobel laureates Murray Gell-Mann and David Baltimore; authors Michael Crichton, Octavia Butler, and David Brin; astrophysicists Alan Guth and Neil deGrasse Tyson; planetary scientist Bruce Murray; physicist Steven Koonin; quantum theorist Seth Lloyd; molecular biologist Lucy Shapiro; neuroscientists Nancy Andreasen, Terry Sejnowski, and Christof Koch; psychiatrist Leslie Brothers; Psychology Today's Robert Epstein; musicologists Jeanne Bamberger and Robert Freeman; ethicist Alexander Capron; skeptic Michael Shermer; theologian Nancey Murphy; and Islamic scientist Muzaffar Iqbal.