There is a quote in Chesterton's Orthodoxy where he writes that the Christian can abide quite a bit of development or evolution in the natural world, but that the materialist can abide absolutely no design. I have read Orthodoxy and recently listened to it all on CD, but I cannot find this quote! Can anyone tell me what chapter it is in and where in the chapter. There are many editions, of which I have two.
Thank you.
Hey Doug:
ReplyDeleteYou can search in Orthodoxy online by browsing to http://www.leaderu.com/cyber/books/orthodoxy/orthodoxy.html.
On each page/chapter, press Ctrl+F, enter your search term(s), and press Enter.
Hope this helps.
But the materialist is not allowed to admit into his spotless machine the slightest speck of spiritualism
ReplyDeleteor miracle.
That is from chapter 2, paragraph 14ish. Cheers.
The Christian is quite free to believe that there is a considerable amount of settled order and inevitable development in the universe. But the materialist is not allowed to admit into his spotless machine the slightest speck of spiritualism or miracle.
ReplyDeleteMr. Dahm seems to have beaten me there, but here's a link: Orthodoxy, Chapter 2, reference to "spotless machine"
Folks:
ReplyDeleteThanks much! I needed this quote for my apologetics book.
ReplyDeleteThe Christian is quite free to believe that there is a considerable amount of settled order and inevitable development in the universe. But the materialist is not allowed to admit into his spotless machine the slightest speck of spiritualism or miracle.
It depends on what you mean by a
"materialist". Traditionally, Christians
who are scientists do their science
by being "methodologically materialistic".
Indeed, as there is no scientific
description of "miracle" or "spiritual",
these terms have no meaning in science,
except as a statement of ignorance.
If you want to see what science that includes the supernatural looks like, I would invite you attend a conference
of astrologers, such as the one that
was meeting in Denver over the past
few days.
The term "design" has clear meaning. The concept is used many in sciences already, such as archaeology and cryptography. Now we should use it in biology and cosmology. See W. Dembski, The Design Inference.
ReplyDeleteDouglas Groothuis wrote:
ReplyDeleteThe term "design" has clear meaning. The concept is used many in sciences already, such as archaeology and cryptography. Now we should use it in biology and cosmology. See W. Dembski, The Design Inference.
The concept of "design" is *never*
separate from some model of manufacture
in mainstream science. Indeed, all of
science is about mechanisms of origins
of objects. It is not about _a priori_
identifications.