New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy by Robert J. Spitzer

Author:Robert J. Spitzer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Apologetics, Philosophy, Religion & Science, Christian Theology, Religion
ISBN: 9780802863836
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Published: 2010-04-14T22:00:00+00:00

II.A. Description, Scientific Explanation, and Ontological Explanation

Ontological explanations are different from descriptions and scientific explanations. Descriptions relate data to an observer (e.g., the sun is rising). Scientific explanations relate data to other data through qualitative and quantitative apparatuses (e.g., the earth is rotating on its own axis and is orbiting around the sun). Obviously, true descriptions can be false explanations. Ontological explanation is distinct from scientific explanation because it relates data to necessary conditions rather than relating data to data. Thus, the question for ontology is, “What are the conditions necessary for the possibility of . . . ?”246

This kind of explanation seeks more than scientific explanation, for it desires to go beyond the mere articulation of relationships among data in, say, the equations of physics. For example, it is not satisfied with the equations of gravitation or the velocity and direction of an orbiting body. It wants to know what gravitation is, what velocity is, and what the spatial context of position and direction is. This “what” seeks to explain a less fundamental reality in terms of more fundamental ones. In order to get at this deeper or more fundamental reality, we commonly make recourse to necessity, that is, the conditions necessary for the possibility of gravitation, velocity, and direction. This pulls us into realities such as fields, space, time, and even space-time. These more fundamental realities, in turn, are open to even more fundamental explanations, which again pull us into even more fundamental conditions necessary for the possibility of the previous fundamental realities. We then begin to look at the nature of unity itself (as distinct from aggregate), existence, real possibility, pure existence, and unconditioned existence. This kind of procedure will guide the five steps of our inquiry into real time, below.

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