The Limits of a Limitless Science and Other Essays

Rating:
Summary: I liked this book
Review: This work contains 15 essays written by Stanley Jaki, a well-known Benedictine priest and author of numerous works on the relationship between science and religion. The essays concern a number of topics familiar to Jaki's readers such as artificial intelligence, SETI, evolution, cosmology, and others. I enjoyed best the essays in the book in which Jaki discusses the concepts of purpose, causality, and creation. Contrary to some, he forcefully argues that these concepts are primarily philosophical and theological, rather than scientific. This leads to a number of important conclusions, such as the Heisenberg uncertainty principle cannot be used to show that causality doesn't exist since it concerns measurement. [p. 133-34.] In addition, science cannot prove the eternity of the universe. [p. 137.] "That the universe owes its ultimate origin to a creation out of nothing is a philosophical inference based on its metaphysical contingency and not a conclusion from empirical observation." [p. 138.] It would make an interesting study to compare Jaki's position with that of the intelligent design movement, such as W. Dembski and M. Behe.

Rating:
Summary: I liked this book
Review: This work contains 15 essays written by Stanley Jaki, a well-known Benedictine priest and author of numerous works on the relationship between science and religion. The essays concern a number of topics familiar to Jaki's readers such as artificial intelligence, SETI, evolution, cosmology, and others. I enjoyed best the essays in the book in which Jaki discusses the concepts of purpose, causality, and creation. Contrary to some, he forcefully argues that these concepts are primarily philosophical and theological, rather than scientific. This leads to a number of important conclusions, such as the Heisenberg uncertainty principle cannot be used to show that causality doesn't exist since it concerns measurement. [p. 133-34.] In addition, science cannot prove the eternity of the universe. [p. 137.] "That the universe owes its ultimate origin to a creation out of nothing is a philosophical inference based on its metaphysical contingency and not a conclusion from empirical observation." [p. 138.] It would make an interesting study to compare Jaki's position with that of the intelligent design movement, such as W. Dembski and M. Behe.