Compos Mentis

The Multitalented Mr. Leibnitz

As you may possibly have surmised, today's post also comes thanks to the writings of Gottfried Leibnitz. He just happens to be a hero of mine, by the way. Not because he was incredibly insightful and bright, but because he was such a prodigous polymath. Not only was he an amazing philosopher, but he was an innovating mathematician who invented the calculus at about the same time as Newton, and a renowned statesman. I was reading some of his letters (he was a prodigous correspondent, also) to a disciple of Newton when this very interesting subject came up.
Newton was a very religious man. He thought his description of the Universe showed the perfect balance of God's workmanship and his authority. There was just enough unaccounted for to explain God's divine intervention. Today, this idea is mocked by many scientists, giving rise to the name 'god of the gaps,' a God who is merely the answer to a question we don't know. The idea still continues today. I was reading a letter written to National Geographic by a man who knew God was the 'Dark Matter' that physicists were having difficulties describing.
Leibnitz refutes this idea in his letter to this disciple of Newton's. He says that to claim that God didn't have enough foresight to make a self-running Universe is more of a slander against God than denying Him the power of intervention in the Universe. Also, couldn't God, with perfect foreknowledge, know of problems to come, and then set up a natural reaction to fix it at that time without having to resort to miraculous intervention? Using the standard analogy of the time, Leibnitz claims that it is only the bad watchmakers who have to make adjustments to their work. The good ones do it right the first time.
So there's my 18th century warning to zealous 21st believers. Don't lessen your idea of God by forcing Him to be a god of the gaps. If there is a problem with the physical description of science then science usually sets it right. How many people today believe in an aether that pervades the universe, like scientists in the nineteenth century? If you have a theological problem with science, then realize that God made the Universe the way He wanted it. Science is not supposed to be atheistic or theistic, but agnostic. It gives no evidence about God either way. It only describes what is there. So just relax.

posted by Emmett @ 16:17