God, chance
and purpose?
Dr. Kelly James Clark
Calvin College
blind, purposeless chance
“By coupling undirected, purposeless variation to the
blind, uncaring process of natural selection Darwin
made theological or spiritual explanations of the life
processes superfluous.”
--Douglas Futuyma
“It is evident that all the objective phenomena of the
history of life can be explained by purely naturalistic or
materialistic factors. Man is the result of a purposeless
and natural process that did not have him in mind.”
--G. G. Simpson
Issues
• Does the presence of chance preclude purpose?
• Can the presence of chance in evolution be
reconciled with the concept of divine providence?
• Most theists believe that God intended not only the
creation of humans but also the birth of this or that
human including themselves. God’s purpose was not
only for the creation of humanity but also for the
existence of Luis Oliveira, Xu Xiangdong, Abbas
Yazdani, and Steve Matheson.
• If mutations are random, how could God have
foreknown, let alone intended, the creation of human
beings like you and me (let alone you and me)?
Biological Randomness
• The pattern of mutations in a given population is not
affected by the “needs” of those organisms
• Mutations are “blind” to the good of the organism
• Genetic changes are not causally connected to
evolutionary “needs”
• “Random mutation” doesn't imply that the process of
mutation is indeterminate or unknowable
• The biological conception of randomness is
consistent with the claim that mutations are
determined by prior conditions
Random = unpredictable
• A random process is one in which an individual
outcome cannot be predicted with certainty
• If mutations are unpredictable, how could God have
known which mutations would have occurred for
natural selection to act upon?
•
A process is unpredictable in principle if no knower
could accurately predict the outcome of the process
• A process is unpredictable in practice if no method
exists for accurately predicting the results of the
process but if such a method is practically possible
Unpredictability in practice
• Relative to knowers and time
(and technology)
• Epistemic notion of predictability and
unpredictability
• Shouldn’t prove a problem for God
Is reality random?
•
As far as physicists can tell, certain quantum phenomena
are unpredictable in principle
•
“as far as physicists can tell”
•
The One True Physical Theory
•
May be human limitation: random number generator
•
Evolutionary reasons for thinking we have only a thin grasp
of reality: like our access to the light spectrum
Unpredictability in principle
• Even if one knew all of the relevant initial conditions
and all of the relevant physical laws, one could
never predict the outcome
• If a process is unpredictable in principle, then not
even God could predict the results of that process
God as Fortune-teller
• Can’t be future vision
• Whatever God sees must be the case
• If God sees the future w/o Steve Matheson, then
God can’t bring it about that Steve Matheson exists
• Maybe God sees “the future” of all possible worlds
and then creates that world whose “future” includes
Luis Oliveira, Xu Xiangdong, Abbas Yazdani, and
Steve Matheson
God as Chess Master
• God might “program in” all
necessary responses to
unpredictable outcomes
• God doesn’t respond, God
presponds
• If mutation a occurs, X will
happen to get Steve
Matheson, and if mutation b
occurs, Y will happen to get
Steve Matheson
God as Riverboat Gambler
•
Convergent probabilities
•
‘Haphazard happenings at one level may
lead to lawfulness at a higher level. A single
toss of a coin is a highly uncertain matter yet
the collective tossing of a million coins is a
highly predictable event.’ DJ Bartholomew
•
‘If there is a method so simple and elegant, it
is surely the method God would use. There is
then no need for him to be concerned with
happenings at the individual level. All that
matters is their behaviour in the aggregate.’
•
Problem of the single case
God as Santa Claus
•
God may not have known exactly which
creatures would evolve, but he might have
known what types of creatures would arise
•
Given initial conditions and natural laws, God
may have known that evolution would produce
rational and free beings
•
God could have known that these creatures
could become human persons
•
Although God didn’t know when this would
happen or what the creatures would look like,
God inserted souls into rational and free beings
Timeless Eternity
•
God is outside of time; everything is now for God
•
God could not have predicted because there is no prefor God (and no after)
•
Suppose God couldn’t have predicted the existence of
Steve Matheson given complete knowledge of the initial
conditions of the universe and all natural laws
•
No problem: God knows everything with certainty, now
(God knows the initial conditions, and that they don’t
imply Steve Matheson ’s existence, and that Steve
Matheson exists)
God, Chance and Purpose
• Fortune Teller
• Riverboat Gambler
• Chess Master
• Santa Claus
• Timeless Eternity