Ancient Wisdom and Modern Misconceptions: A Critique of Contemporary Scientism by Wolfgang Smith

Author:Wolfgang Smith [Smith, Wolfgang]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781621380214
Amazon: 1621380211
Publisher: Angelico Press
Published: 2013-06-28T22:00:00+00:00

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11. I have dealt with this question at length in Theistic Evolution: The Teilhardian Heresy, op. cit.

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The Pitfall of Astrophysical Cosmology

enterprise and the demonic realm; this has been seriously affirmed, for example, by the late Orthodox Hieromonk Seraphim Rose, and again by the Catholic historian Solange Hertz. It is not easy, of course, to document such a connection; but the surmise of demonic influence is neither irrational nor indeed improbable. When it comes to a major onslaught against the Catholic faith, it behooves us to recall the sobering admonition of St. Paul, which may well bear also upon the point here at issue: “Put on the armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of the world, against spiritual wick-edness in high places.”12 The demonic connection then, of which we speak, may prove in the end to be more than a pious fantasy.

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If physics be indeed “the science of measurement” as Lord Kelvin declares, it has to do first of all with operational truth: ontological interpretation is secondary and in a way optional. It is a private matter, one might say, which has to do with the philosophic orientation of the particular scientist. In the astrophysical domain, on the other hand, the case is different, for the simple reason that there is little if any operational truth in that realm. There can be no controlled experiments involving distant stars and galaxies! Moreover, the astrophysicist makes few predictions; and when perchance he does, he typically misses the mark by an order of magnitude or two. Unlike

“normal” physics, the object of astrophysics is simply to construct a model of the physical universe at large which agrees with the observable facts, i.e., the signals reaching our instruments of detection from the distant vistas of space. It is somewhat like seeking a mathematical formula to fit a pre-ordained set of data points. But normal physics entails incomparably more than that: it carries an operational truth, as I have said, which in fact forms the basis of our technology. Such is not the case with so-called astrophysics, which in fact differs radically from the textbook definitions of physical science.

12. Eph. 6:11–12.

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Ancient Wisdom and Modern Misconceptions

Now, my point is this: a natural science which is not operational in its rationale can only be ontological in its claims, which is to say that in the case of astrophysics ontological interpretation is no longer optional but primary. In this regard physics “in the large”

differs sharply from physics “in the small”: from quantum theory, that is, where operational concerns are paramount. When Niels

Bohr declared “there is no quantum world,” this contention was neither inconsistent with the principles of quantum theory nor abhorrent to the physics community at large; but imagine what the reaction would be if a scientist were to declare “there is no astrophysical universe”!

The ontology of astrophysics

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