Abstract
I explain the importance of the question concerning ultimate origins. I summarise various arguments against scientistic and radical postmodernist views regarding this issue, demonstrate that philosophical arguments are capable of yielding knowledge about reality that are more epistemically certain than scientific discoveries, and explain that science and philosophy can complement one another in the quest for the answer. I argue that belief in a divine Creator is not necessarily a science-stopper, for one can regard science as a discovery of the processes by which the Creator created the Universe and how created things operate. I explain that I will develop a philosophical argument for such a Creator in the rest of this book, and I provide an overview of the subsequent chapters.
Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.
—Immanuel Kant. 1
References
Atkins, Peter. 1995. Science as Truth. History of the Human Sciences 8: 97–102.
Alston, William. 2003. Religious Language and Verificationism. In The Rationality of Theism, ed. Paul Moser and Paul Copan. New York: Routledge.
Churchland, P., and C. Hooker. 1985. Images of Science: Essays on Realism and Empiricism, With a Reply From Bas C. van Fraassen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Crisp, Oliver, and Michael Rea (eds.). 2009. Analytic Theology: New Essays in the Philosophy of Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dawkins, Richard. 1996. River Out of Eden. New York: Basic Books.
Dawkins, Richard. 2011. The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True. New York: Free Press.
Duhem, P. 1914. La Théorie Physique: Son Objet et sa Structure. Paris: Marcel Riviera & Cie, English Edition: Duhem, P. 1954. The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory, trans. P.W. Wiener. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Ellis, George. 2007. Issues in the Philosophy of Cosmology. In Philosophy of Physics, eds. J. Butterfield and J. Earman. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Frederick, Danny. 2013. A Puzzle About Natural Laws and the Existence of God. International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion 73: 269–283.
Goldstein, Sheldon. 2013. Bohmian Mechanics. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2013 Edition), ed. Edward N. Zalta. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2013/entries/qm-bohm/. Accessed 13 Jan 2015.
Grünbaum, Adolf. 1991. Creation as a Pseudo-Explanation in Current Physical Cosmology. Erkenntnis 35: 233–254.
Hawking, Stephen. 1988. A Brief History of Time. London: Bantam.
Hawking, Stephen, and Leonard Mlodinow. 2010. The Grand Design. New York: Bantam Books.
Kitcher, Philip. 1998. A Plea for Science Studies. In A House Built on Sand: Exposing Postmodernist Myths About Science, ed. Koertge Noretta. New York: Oxford University Press.
Laudan, Larry. 1990. Demystifying Underdetermination. In Scientific Theories, ed. C. Wade Savage. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 14. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
McGrath, Alister. 2003. A Scientific Theology, vol. 2. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
National Academy of Sciences 2008. Science, Evolution, and Creationism. http://www.nas.edu/evolution/TheoryOrFact.html. Accessed 19 Jan 2017.
Parsons, Keith. 1999. Defending Objectivity. Philo 2: 84.
Philipse, Herman. 2012. God in the Age of Science? A Critique of Religious Reason. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pinsent, Andrew. 2013. A Review of Herman Philipse’s God in the Age of Science? A Critique of Religious Reason. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/36607-god-in-the-age-of-science-a-critique-of-religious-reason/. Accessed 19 Jan 2017.
Plantinga, Alvin. 2011. Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Polkinghorne, John. 2005. Exploring Reality: The Intertwining of Science and Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Polkinghorne, John. 2006. Christianity and Science. In The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science, ed. Philip Clayton and Zachary Simpson. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Polkinghorne, John. 2011a. Science and Religion in Quest of Truth. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Polkinghorne, John. 2011b. Mathematical Reality. Meaning in Mathematics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Quine, W.V.O. 1951. Two Dogmas of Empiricism. Reprinted in From a Logical Point of View, 2nd ed., 20–46. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Stenmark, Mikael. 1997. What Is Scientism? Religious Studies 33: 15–32.
Stenmark, Mikael. 2003. Scientism. In Encyclopedia of Science and Religion. 2nd ed., ed. van Huyssteen, J Wentzel Vrede. New York: Macmillan.
Stoeger, William. 2010. God, Physics and the Big Bang. In The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion ed. Peter Harrison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Swoyer, Chris. 2010. Relativism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2010 Edition). ed. Edward N. Zalta. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/relativism/. Accessed 19 Jan 2017.
Swinburne, Richard. 1979. The Existence of God. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Swinburne, Richard. 2005. The Value and Christian Roots of Analytical Philosophy of Religion. Faith and Philosophical Analysis, ed. H. A. Harris and C. J. Insole. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Trigg, Roger. 1993. Rationality and Science: Can Science Explain Everything? Oxford: Blackwell.
Weinberg, Steven. 2009. Lake Views: This World and the Universe. London: Belknap.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Loke, A.T.E. (2017). The Question of Ultimate Origins. In: God and Ultimate Origins. Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57547-6_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57547-6_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57546-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57547-6
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)