Free Will and Providence in the Light of Findings of Modern Physics

Free Will and Providence in the Light of Findings of Modern Physics

Modern science has arguably shown “much more congruity with the idea of an interested God than does the classical physics of Newton and Laplace, which identified fundamental reality with primary qualities.” To illustrate this point, the definition of both providence and free will must first be established. Providence may be defined as the practical reason, adapting means to an end. When applying this concept to God, Providence is God Himself considered in that act by which in His wisdom He so orders all events within the universe that the end for which it was created may be realized. The universe is a system of real beings created by God and directed by Him to this supreme end, the concurrence of God being necessary for all natural operations, whether of things animate or inanimate. Free will addresses whether, and in what sense, rational agents exercise control over their actions and decisions. Addressing this question requires understanding the relationship between freedom and cause, and determining whether the laws of nature are causally deterministic. In the religious realm, free will may imply that an omnipotent divinity does not assert its power over individual will and choices whereas in the scientific realm it may imply that the actions of the body, including the brain and the mind, are not wholly determined by physical causality.

Rudolf Bultmann stated that “the inner world of the human subject or of historical existence is the domain of faith, and the impersonal realm of nature belongs to science.” However, modern science has contributed to the idea that if a personal God exists, this God would be interested in the whole cosmos not just human subjects. This would effectively include evolutionary biology, realivity and quantum physics. In fact, when acessing divine providence one can turn to the very beginning of the universe. The delicate sensitivity of cosmic processes to their initial conditions may show the influence of some gentle non-cohersive force, because had the initial set-up slighthly differed the result (our existence and conciousness) would have been drastically different.

While some attribute this to chance, which is quite real, we can still reconcile our ideas about the role that chance play’s in life’s evolution with a providential God. Assuming that there is a loving God who is intimately realted to the world, the world would have to exist somehow on its own or it would be nothing more than an extension of God’s own being, and hence it would not be a world unto itself. Assuming that God is truly cares for the well-being of the world, his love would not be in a coercive but persusive manner. Love refuses to force itself on the beloved, but instead allows the beloved – in this case the entire created cosmos – to remain itself. The world’s inherent “freedom” manifests itself through the random variations or genetic mutations that compromise evolution.

It was Einstein who showed that in each independent physical framework the speed of light is always the same, but that an event perceived at a given time by an observer in one inertial system would not necessarily occur simultaneously