Starting Science from God

Contents:

• Details
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• I. Preliminaries
  • 1. Introduction
    • 1.1 Theistic postulates
    • 1.2 Theism and science
    • 1.3 Laying the foundations
  • 2. A Short History of Theistic Ideas
    • 2.1 Greek philosophical foundations
    • 2.2 Christian theism
    • 2.3 The scientific revolution
    • 2.4 Insights and critiques
    • 2.5 Creation and evolution
    • 2.6 Consciousness and process
    • 2.7 Quantum influences
  • 3. A Way Forward
    • 3.1 Conflict or integration?
    • 3.2 Changes to science
    • 3.3 Changes to theology
    • 3.4 Religious scriptures
    • 3.5 New frameworks
    • 3.6 Authority and evidence
• II. Ontology
  • 4. Power and Substance
    • 4.1 Substance
    • 4.2 Dispositions
    • 4.3 Scientific analyses of powers or dispositions
    • 4.4 Dispositions in nature
    • 4.5 The proposed ontology
    • 4.6 Discussion
    • 4.7 Quantum physics
    • 4.8 Dispositions in psychology
    • 4.9 Intentionality of the mental
  • 5. Multiple Generative Levels
    • 5.1 Beyond simple dispositions
    • 5.2 Derivative dispositions
    • 5.3 Physical derivative dispositions
    • 5.4 Psychological derivative dispositions
    • 5.5 Analysis of generative sequences
  • 6. A Dynamic Ontology
    • 6.1 Dispositions as units of understanding
    • 6.2 History of substance
    • 6.3 Natural laws?
    • 6.4 Philosophy of levels
    • 6.5 Identity, change and essence
• III. A Scientific Theism
  • 7. Plan of Approach
  • 8. The ‘I am’
    • 8.1 Being itself
    • 8.2 Assertions that ‘God is X itself’
    • 8.3 The Argument from Being
    • 8.4 Consequences
  • 9. God is Not Us
    • 9.1 Unselfish love
    • 9.2 Selflessness and personal unselfishness
    • 9.3 God is good
    • 9.4 The Argument from Love
    • 9.5 Combining the Arguments from Being and Love
    • 9.6 Analogical and literal language
  • 10. Images of God
  • 11. God is Love
    • 11.1 Love Itself
    • 11.2 Love and substance
    • 11.3 Love and thought
    • 11.4 Summary
  • 12. God is Life Itself
    • 12.1 Life
    • 12.2 Life of created beings
    • 12.3 But we do appear to live!
    • 12.4 Appropriating life
  • 13. God is both Simple and Complex
  • 14. God is Wisdom and Action
    • 14.1 Knowing causes and loves
    • 14.2 Abstract knowledge
    • 14.3 Divine Wisdom
    • 14.4 Relating Love and Wisdom
    • 14.5 God as the source of our own understanding
    • 14.6 God is Action
    • 14.7 A triad within God
  • 15. God is Transcendent and Immanent
    • 15.1 Transcendence
    • 15.2 Immanence
    • 15.3 Omnipotence
    • 15.4 Eternity
  • 16. We Act Sequentially
    • 16.1 Time
    • 16.2 Foreknowledge
    • 16.3 The future
    • 16.4 Freedom
  • 17. We are Composite, as Spiritual, Mental and Physical
    • 17.1 Retaining life
    • 17.2 Spiritual, mental and physical
    • 17.3 Realms
  • 18. We are Sustained by Influx From God, Directly and Indirectly
    • 18.1 Spiritual, mental and physical operations
    • 18.2 Is this occasionalism?
    • 18.3 Multiple spaces and discrete degrees
    • 18.4 Consequences of discreteness
    • 18.5 Direct and indirect life from God
    • 18.6 Influx
    • 18.7 Consciousness
  • 19. God is Equally Present in All Subparts
    • 19.1 Subparts as enneads
    • 19.2 Explorations
  • 20. The Theistic Universe
    • 20.1 Support for the dynamic ontology
    • 20.2 Life from God
    • 20.3 Mirrored functions as correspondences
    • 20.4 Persons and their identity
    • 20.5 Intentionality
    • 20.6 Law and divine intervention
• IV. Theistic Science
  • 21. Methods
    • 21.1 Beginning theistic science
    • 21.2 Methodology of levels
  • 22. Discrete Degrees in the Mind
    • 22.1 Minds
    • 22.2 Microscopic mentality
    • 22.3 Whole-person mentality
    • 22.4 Order of production vs order of growth
    • 22.5 Substructures
    • 22.6 Stages of emotional development
  • 23. Spiritual Discrete Degrees
    • 23.1 What is the spiritual?
    • 23.2 Common misconceptions
    • 23.3 Sub-degrees of the spiritual
    • 23.4 Spirituality in life
    • 23.5 Heavenly states
  • 24. Discrete Degrees in Nature
    • 24.1 Physical sub-degrees
    • 24.2 Sub-sub-degrees of the physical
    • 24.3 Existing physics
    • 24.4 Selections: new physics?
    • 24.5 Pre-geometry: new physics?
  • 25. Mind-body Connections
    • 25.1 Relations between degrees
    • 25.2 Mind-body connections
    • 25.3 Correspondences
    • 25.4 Distinct minds and bodies
    • 25.5 Spiritual-natural relations
    • 25.6 The human (functional) form
• V. Applications
  • 26. Evolution
    • 26.1 Causal explanations
    • 26.2 God needs evolution
    • 26.3 Descent by modification
    • 26.4 Why evolution is true
    • 26.5 Evidence
  • 27. Consciousness
    • 27.1 The hard problem
    • 27.2 Awareness
    • 27.3 What awareness is not
    • 27.4 Awareness in animals and plants
    • 27.5 Timing issues
    • 27.6 Parapsychology
  • 28. Spiritual Growth
    • 28.1 The need for spiritual growth
    • 28.2 Permanent development
    • 28.3 What spiritual growth is not
    • 28.4 Stages of spiritual growth
  • 29. Errors and Evils
    • 29.1 The problem of evil
    • 29.2 Mackie’s logical problem of evil
    • 29.3 Divine versus Absolute omnipotence
    • 29.4 Real questions
• VI. Discussion
  • 30. Metaphysics
    • 30.1 Rational theology
    • 30.2 Firsts and lasts
    • 30.3 Rationality and love
    • 30.4 Divine immanence
    • 30.5 Mental dualism
  • 31. Formal Modeling
    • 31.1 Is modeling possible here?
    • 31.2 Physical models
    • 31.3 Causal sets
    • 31.4 Associative spaces
    • 31.5 Cognitive and connectionist nets
    • 31.6 Self-aware artifacts?
    • 31.7 The recursively nested hierarchy
  • 32. Possible Objections
    • 32.1 Logical formulation
    • 32.2 Philosophy
    • 32.3 Theology
    • 32.4 Psychology
    • 32.5 Biology
    • 32.6 Physics
  • 33. Conclusions
  • A. Theistic Postulates
    • Simplified Theistic List
  • B. Further Resources
    • Related works by the author
  • Bibliography
  • Index
    • Footnotes