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Full Idea
The idea of a designed universe has not been utterly irrelevant to the scientific project; it is one of the beliefs that can give a scientist the faith that there are laws, waiting to be discovered, that govern all phenomena.
Gist of Idea
Science has been partly motivated by the belief that the universe is run by God's laws
Source
Peter Alexander (Ideas, Qualities and Corpuscles [1985], 03.3)
Book Ref
Alexander,Peter: 'Ideas, Qualities and Corpuscles' [CUP 1985], p.68
A Reaction
Of course if you start out looking for the 'laws of God' that is probably what you will discover. Natural selection strikes me as significant, because it shows no sign of being a procedure appropriate to a benevolent god.
| 15951 | Alchemists tried to separate out essences, which influenced later chemistry [Alexander,P] |
| 15959 | If the substantial form of brass implies its stability, how can it melt and remain brass? [Alexander,P] |
| 15963 | Science has been partly motivated by the belief that the universe is run by God's laws [Alexander,P] |
| 15975 | Can the qualities of a body be split into two groups, where the smaller explains the larger? [Alexander,P] |
| 15956 | The peripatetics treated forms and real qualities as independent of matter, and non-material [Alexander,P] |
| 15981 | Absolute space either provides locations, or exists but lacks 'marks' for locations [Alexander,P] |