- Nov 5, 2006 - Metaphysics 1
- Introduction: Role Play
- Naturalist vs Free will
- There are three great lies: God, immortality, and free will. But I'm not surprised they're so popular.. just think: if you believe in God, you can assign causes other than simple physics to huge disasters like tsunamis and terrorist attacks. It makes answering the question, "why?" a little easier. If you believe in immortality, then losing loved ones isn't so bad. If you believe in free will, then you can feel the thrill of moral superiority when you hear about that pedophile, or all those people who gamble away their money on lottery tickets. You can take credit when you do something right, and you have a motive for not doing things wrong.
- Free will.. seems like a great idea, right? But science has shown us that we're not much more than ugly bags of water with nerves and bones and things. Science has given us the ability to understand more and more about how brains work. We may not know everything about brains yet, but if past experience is any guide, it's only a matter of time.
- Think about it. When we do something, we're exercising physical machinery. When you reach out for food, it's because the stimulus of food makes you want to sustain yourself or provide energy. When you caress your children, it's simply because better loved children do better in the world and hence survive better. Our studies have shown us this.. why think in terms of free will?
- When we act, we're doing nothing more than following a complex chain of physical events. Free will is a convenient explanation for things, but it deceives us into believing there's something more than just the material world - something we can't afford to believe if we're going to keep making advances in science and be free from the shackles of religion and superstition.
- Why are we here?
- Studying pretty heady (but interesting) stuff
- Could get caught up in the sheer interestingness of it
- We need to remember why we're here
- Why?
- Christian WORLDVIEW and APOLOGETICS
- Worldview
- All knowledge is God's knowledge
- We need to think like Christians to better glorify God
- Apologetics
- We have a hope within us
- We're in a fallen world
- There will be opportunities to give an answer
- What is Metaphysics
- Metaphysical Poetry vs Physicalist Love
- What the World is trying to account for
- Love, Beauty, everything
- The Astonishing Hypothesis is that `You,' your joys and your sorrows,
your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and
free will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly
of nerve cells and their associated molecules. (Francis Crick)
- Introduction
- Disclaimer
- I'm not going for precision here
- I'm going for approximate understanding
- Quick overview
- Asks: What does it mean to exist, What kinds of things exist?
- Purpose: Encouragement due to rigorous philosophy
- Questions to ask
- What is the Ultimate Reality
- What is the Nature of the World
- What is man?
- Two categories
- Substance
- For the sake of this class, a substance is a concrete particular that has properties
- People will distinguish property-things, but we won't bother for this class
- Property
- Blue, green, human, alive, material, here
- Relations
- Christian View of Reality
- The Ultimate Reality
- God is the Ultimate Reality
- What is God?
- God is spirit - infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holines, justice, goodness, and truth
- God is Sovereign
- God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent
- God is Spirit
- God is Triune
- God is Infinite
- God is Good
- The Nature of the World
- We are Substance Dualists
- Two substances Material and Immaterial
- Abstract Entities/Abstract Particulars
- God
- Thoughts, the Will
- Laws, Mathematics, Logic
- Why might a non-Christian scientist prefer to believe
there is only the material as opposed to both material
and immaterial?
- They believe, or want to believe that there is no God.
- They believe that two types of things cannot interact in a way
they can measure by science: "If any event causes a physical
event, it itself is a physical event." Is this a true statement? If
not, how might we reconcile this? (Sovereignty of God)
- Question: Why might a professing Christian prefer to
believe there is only the material as opposed to both
immaterial and material? (process theology)
- A desire to accomodate apparently successful non-Christian
methods and thought. This in itself shows the importance of
having a Biblically-grounded Christian worldview.
- A difficulty reconciling the tie between mind and matter.
- Created by God, Ex Nihilo
- Created Freely by God
- Eph 1:11
- who works all things after the counsel of His will
- Rev 4:11
- because of His will they existed, and were created
- Always Depends on God
- Heb 1:3
- upholds all things by the word of His power
- The Nature of Man
- Made in God's Image
- Fallen, Taking All of Creation with Him
- Redeemed, to be Glorified in Christ
- The Bible is Redemptive History
- Rom 8:20-22
- Creation will be set free.