| Description |
xv, 332 pages ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-321). |
| Contents |
Introduction -- Overview -- The humanoid principle -- An anthropic or biocentric universe? -- A brief history of teleological thought -- Teleology, eutaxiology, and the concept of design -- Early background of teleological thought -- Greek and Roman philosophy -- Medieval philosophy -- Renaissance and early modern thought -- Eighteenth-century thought -- Nineteenth- and twentieth-century thought -- The influence of Darwinism on teleological thought -- The return to a scientific teleology -- Teleology and holism -- Conclusion -- The immediate background of the biocentric and anthropic principles -- Science acknowledges a beginning to the universe -- Evidence for the biocentric principle -- Where did the original evolving matter come from? -- Creation out of nothing? -- The cosmic prevalence of matter over antimatter -- The amount of matter in the universe and the rate of cosmic expansion -- The role of dark matter in cosmogenesis -- Evidence for the existence of dark matter -- The time frame for galaxy formation -- Big bang ripples: the "Holy Grail" of cosmology -- The roughness parameter -- The size of the universe -- The advantage of a sparse universe -- The temperature of nuclear stability -- The role of deuterium -- Design at the sub-atomic level -- Cosmic "coincidences" involving nature's fundamental constants -- Discussion -- Evidence for design in the invariant and cooperative aspects of nature's physical constants -- Cosmic repulsion -- Life and the degree of entropy in the universe -- The importance of the velocity of light in the evolution of life -- Photosynthesis and the surface temperature of the sun -- The historical increase of solar luminosity -- The transition to a non-toxic, oxidizing atmosphere -- Atmospheric oxygen maintenance -- The requirements for a stable water cycle -- The timing of the sun's T-Tauri wind -- The importance of the radio between photons and protons -- The smoothness of the microwave background -- The homogeneity of the universe -- Guth's inflationary hypothesis -- The marvel of intrastellar carbon formation -- The role of neutrinos and the weak nuclear force in the explosion of supernovae -- Large number coincidences -- The importance of three spatial dimensions for the evolution of life -- The existence of order vis-à-vis the second law of thermodynamics -- The three arrows of time -- The miracle of carbon -- The importance of nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus in biochemistry -- The miraculousness of water -- Discussion -- A tailor-made world -- The WAP and natural complexity -- The rapidity of life's evolution -- The relative size of the human body in the universal hierarchy of objects -- 5. Interpreting the evidence -- God and the nature of the quantum vacuum -- Value of the cosmological constant -- God and the primordial process of spontaneous symmetry breaking -- Inflation and contrivance -- Can inflation solve the horizon problem? -- Singularities in view of the divine -- What happened before the big bang? -- The creation of space and time at the beginning -- Additional biblical parallels with modern cosmology -- The miracle of perfect universal balance -- The mind of God and Bohm's concept of the implicate order -- Contrivance and the second law of thermodynamics -- Order out of disorder? -- God and the existence of self-generated order -- Natural selection and the origin of life -- A cosmic blueprint? -- The empirical nature of the biocentric principle. |
|
Making sense of the "coincidences" -- The probabilistic significance of the cosmic "coincidences" -- Coincidence or contrivance? -- Cosmic coincidences and the odds surrounding the evolution of life -- A Humean objection -- Alternative viewpoints -- The many worlds interpretation of the weak anthropic principle -- Campbell's criticism of the WAP -- The sum over histories interpretation -- The Genesis paradox resolved -- Murphy's law and the anthropic design argument -- The SAP to the rescue -- The equivalence of the SAP with the traditional concept of intelligent design -- A theistic interpretation of quantum mechanics -- God and Stephen Hawking's proposed no boundary condition to the universe -- What is there for God to do in the universe? -- Ours as one of the best of all possible worlds -- A proof for God? -- Varieties of proofs -- Data coherence and causality -- A probabilistic proof for the existence of God -- Scientific proof for a creator? -- The acceptability of indirect scientific evidence -- Scientific truth via the process of elimination -- Deducing the existence of God from the intelligence of the creation -- Holistic proof for the existence of God -- The overall case for intelligent design -- An anthropic or biocentric universe? -- Argument for an anthropic interpretation of the cosmological evidence -- The legitimacy of the moderate anthropocentric perspective -- Anthropocentrism in light of the weak and strong anthropic principles -- The WAP and the existence of extraterrestrial intelligences -- Solar eclipses and the size of the moon -- The prospect of divine omnipotence -- Creation ex nihilo -- The self-existence of God vs. the self-existence of matter -- Supernatural naturalism -- Modern cosmology and the adequacy of the process God -- Is the present universe worthy of a divine creator? -- God's true nature -- The case for natural theology -- The natural theologian's claims -- Natural theology and the threat from naturalistic evolution -- Response to Hume -- Kant's objections to the argument from design -- Is theistic belief falsifiable? -- The positive function of the natural atheologian's criticisms -- Conclusion -- Faith and the modern scientist -- Apologetics and the role of faith -- The origin of our modern concept of faith -- Epilogue: A call for a new type of scientifically minded universal theorist -- Appendix: In defense of the big bang: a theistic response to Eric J. Lerner's infinitely old plasma universe. |
| Subject |
God -- Proof, Cosmological.
|
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God -- Proof, Teleological.
|
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Anthropic principle.
|
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Natural theology.
|
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Religion and science.
|
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Anthropic principle. (OCoLC)fst00810171
|
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God -- Proof, Cosmological.
(OCoLC)fst00944104
|
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God -- Proof, Teleological.
(OCoLC)fst00944111
|
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Natural theology. (OCoLC)fst01034530
|
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Religion and science. (OCoLC)fst01093848
|
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Godsbewijzen.
|
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Antropocentrisme.
|
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Kosmologischer Gottesbeweis. (DE-588)4165372-5
|
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Natürliche Theologie. (DE-588)4041356-1
|
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Teleologischer Gottesbeweis. (DE-588)4078191-4
|
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Kosmologischer Gottesbeweis.
|
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Teleologischer Gottesbeweis.
|
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Natürliche Theologie.
|
| Other Form: |
Online version: Corey, Michael Anthony, 1957- God and the new cosmology. Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield, ©1993 (OCoLC)637134616 |
| ISBN |
0847678016 (cloth ; alk. paper) |
|
9780847678013 (cloth ; alk. paper) |
|
0847678024 (paper ; alk. paper) |
|
9780847678020 (paper ; alk. paper) |
|
