For many, there seems to be a strict disjunction: either we seek to explain the origin of life in terms of purely natural processes or we appeal to some kind of divine intervention that bridges the distinction between the non-living and the living. Must one accept the need to choose between natural and divine causality in explaining the origin of life? Are the causes that exist in the natural order sufficiently robust to explain the origin of living things? What is the relationship between divine causality and the causality of creatures in addressing this question? In particular, does the analysis of natural causes and creation set forth by Thomas Aquinas provide the basis for an adequate explanation of the initial emergence of life?
16 October 2022
Causes and the Origin of Life: Philosophy of Nature, Metaphysics, and Theology
Lecture Two in The Origin of Life and Nature Before Sin, with William E. Carroll, PhD, Emeritus Research Fellow in Philosophy, Theology, and Science, Aquinas Institute, Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford.
For many, there seems to be a strict disjunction: either we seek to explain the origin of life in terms of purely natural processes or we appeal to some kind of divine intervention that bridges the distinction between the non-living and the living. Must one accept the need to choose between natural and divine causality in explaining the origin of life? Are the causes that exist in the natural order sufficiently robust to explain the origin of living things? What is the relationship between divine causality and the causality of creatures in addressing this question? In particular, does the analysis of natural causes and creation set forth by Thomas Aquinas provide the basis for an adequate explanation of the initial emergence of life?
For many, there seems to be a strict disjunction: either we seek to explain the origin of life in terms of purely natural processes or we appeal to some kind of divine intervention that bridges the distinction between the non-living and the living. Must one accept the need to choose between natural and divine causality in explaining the origin of life? Are the causes that exist in the natural order sufficiently robust to explain the origin of living things? What is the relationship between divine causality and the causality of creatures in addressing this question? In particular, does the analysis of natural causes and creation set forth by Thomas Aquinas provide the basis for an adequate explanation of the initial emergence of life?
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