Organon F

Volume 26, February 2019, Issue 1, Pages 86–103

ISSN 2585-7150 (online) ISSN 1335-0668 (print)

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

E-mail

Ralf.B.Bergmann@t-online.de

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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