Necessity Of Natural Laws, Divine Action and Miracle -Can God Act in the World?-
Journal Name:
- Sakarya Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi
Keywords (Original Language):
Author Name | University of Author | Faculty of Author |
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Abstract (2. Language):
In this essay, first, I concentrate on the issue of miracle, divine action and divine intervention
according to Enlightenment thinkers. Liberal teologians such as Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976),
after Laplacian determinist metaphysics was added to the Newtonian mechanics, found that
divine action in the world is contrary to the necessity of natural laws, i.e., to their being
secientific and they defended a semi-deist view of “hand-off theology.” Many modern
theologians defended outdated Laplacian determinist metaphysics for the sake of complying
with scientific standards. Then, I discuss famous causality debate between al-Ghazali and Ibn
Rushd in the light of the divine action and the New Scientific Picture that is intensively
debated in the contemporary philosophy of religion. Here, contrary to the claim of Ibn Rushd, I
argue that if quantum mechanics is correct, then al-Ghazali do not uproot science and his view
that causality is contingent is more scientific and more modern than that of Ibn Rushd’s
position. Finally, I point out that outside of the theological project of al-Ghazali, in his
epistemological project, al-Ghazali believes that natural laws are certain and I argue that he
follows a middle way in this regard.
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