Louisville Process Theology Network

Our Experience of Science II

Jun 23, 2009

From page 134.


?“It is the possibility of error that opens the door to successful change. Errors in transmission of genetic information from generation to generation promote the evolutionary process.

In the old classical physics, even errors like those that produce mutations are completely determined in principle. Even genetic changes governing the future of the evolution are knowable to an all knowing mind. But with the quantum theory, this classical picture of reality was overthrown and replaced by the indeterminate universe.

Spontaneous change occurs even in the perfect mind of God ?– a few random changes in a DNA produce a successful mutant. That is why the indeterminism of quantum theory is so important for our picture of reality. In principle, there is a material basis for the freedom of human consciousness and the evolution of the species.

Nature knows nothing of imperfection; imperfection is a human perception of nature... And ironically, we are free beings because of our capacity for imperfection.?”



From page 348.


?“Science is another name for knowledge and we have not yet discovered the boundary of knowledge, although we are discovering many other boundaries. But knowledge is not enough. It must be tempered by with justice, a sense of moral life, and our capacity for love and community.

Science brings us to a renewed appreciation of the human condition and the limitations of our existence in the universe. Through this scientific expansion, we learn again and again not only of further advances of our material possibilities but of their intrinsic limitations?…

Humanity lives before the vision of infinite knowledge... Science is not the enemy of humanity but one of the deepest expressions of the human desire to realize that vision of infinite knowledge.?”