The Divine Lawmaker
Lectures on Induction, Laws of Nature, and the Existence of God
Foster, John Brasenose College, University of Oxford
Print publication date: 2004 (this edition)
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: April 2004
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-925059-2
doi:10.1093/0199250596.003.0010
John Foster
In order to make provision for laws, we have to suppose that God creates the universe by directly creating it in its initial state and prescribing certain modes of transition by which its state at one time gives rise to its states at subsequent times. For various reasons, we have to think of this as only the main part of God's creative work. The most interesting reason is that it is plausible to suppose that, in prescribing the modes of transition, he adds a qualification that leaves him the freedom to subsequently intervene, on any particular occasion, and deflect things from their provisionally ordained course. This would allow us to think of God, in accordance with the orthodox theological view, as exercising direct control over all that happens in the universe. Finally, now that we are accepting that laws are created by God, we need to transform the nomological-explanatory solution to the problem of induction into a theological-explanatory solution.
Keywords: control, God, intervene, laws, modes of transition, nomological-explanatory, preordained, theological-explanatory, universe,
doi:10.1093/0199250596.003.0010
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