Scientific exploration, particularly in the domain of physics, can be summarised as the investigation into what causes what. Hugely influential ideas in the contemporary scientific paradigm, such as evolution, genetics, and the Big Bang theory, all have this methodology at their core.
According to my own philosophical perspective, however, there is one cause of all supposedly differentiated processes, which is God. From this viewpoint, the past doesn’t cause the future, but instead there is only a present moment unfolding in which change, wherever it takes place, is directed and animated by God.
This perspective, a kind of ‘occasionalism’, says that an event will only happen on any occasion if God wills and directs it to take place. The so-called ‘laws of physics’ are not absolute, and can be overruled by God at any time, which is what happens in the case of events that religious people often describe as miracles.
The cause and effect paradigm has become deeply embedded in the contemporary zeitgeist, so that we speak about nearly every event in terms of what caused it. But this is a kind of madness — if I choose to do a little dance around my living room right now, could anyone seriously argue that my every gesture is merely the result of a chain of causes and effects leading back to the first moment of our universe’s creation?
Surely, such a perspective is absurd. The correct perspective is radically different: The solution to the scientific problem of what causes what is simply that God causes everything. God is active and living, controlling and unfolding all events in the present moment, which is all that exists. I wholeheartedly believe this to be true, and if you spend some time meditating upon your present moment experience, you may discover this truth for yourself.
For an in-depth exploration of the perspective that God is in control of everything that happens, including how this perspective relates to moral issues, to science, and to leading world religions including Christianity, check out my 2019 book entitled ‘God’s Grand Game: Divine Sovereignty and the Cosmic Playground’, available here.
(Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)
Perfect Chaos 