Organon F
Volume 26, February 2019, Issue 1, Pages 86–103
ISSN 2585-7150 (online) ISSN 1335-0668 (print)
Research Article | Special issue on Causality, Free Will, and Divine Action
Does Divine Intervention Violate Laws of Nature?
Ralf B. Bergmann
The present paper discusses processes in our world embedded in a dense net of causes and effects. The role of laws of nature is discussed using classical mechanics as an example to demonstrate that the behavior of objects is not determined by laws of nature on their own. Natural processes rather depend on the environment that implies forces and conditions under which these processes occur. These conditions are usually described in mathematical terms using suitable initial or boundary conditions or further constrains. This analysis may seem trivial but has an important consequence. Divine intervention appears not to violate natural laws, rather, new causes are introduced that lead to results that otherwise would not have occurred. A further consequence arises from the complexity of causal nets and the presence of probabilistic processes in our world as one may not be able to determine the causes that led to a certain effect.
Causation; causal processes; probabilistic processes; laws of nature; equations of motion; divine action; miracles.
Author
Ralf B. Bergmann
Affiliation
University of Bremen
Address
Faculty of Physics and Electrical Engineering, University of Bremen, Otto Hahn Allee NW1, 28359 Bremen, Germany
Received
13 July 2018
Accepted
29 November 2018
Published online
22 January 2019
Publishers
Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences
APA
Bergmann, R. B. (2019). Does Divine Intervention Violate Laws of Nature? Organon F, 26(1), 86–103. https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2019.26106
Chicago
Bergmann, Ralf B. 2019. "Does Divine Intervention Violate Laws of Nature?" Organon F 26 (1): 86–103. https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2019.26106
Harvard
Bergmann, R. B. (2019). Does Divine Intervention Violate Laws of Nature? Organon F, 26(1), pp. 86–103. https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2019.26106
© Ralf B. Bergmann
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