Return of the God Hypothesis: Breakthroughs in Physics, Cosmology, and Biology Seeking Evidence for the Existence of God

by Stephen C. Meyer

they thought that the order in nature was the product not of logical necessity, but of rational deliberation and choice, what the Scottish theologian Thomas Torrance calls “contingent rationality.”50 By reaffirming the doctrine of creation and the sovereignty and freedom of God to create as God saw fit, Tempier’s decree in 1277 emphasized this principle. This transposition in thinking led to a different approach to the study of nature in the centuries following Tempier’s decree. Just as there are many ways to paint a picture or design a clock or organize the books in a library, there are many ways to design and organize a universe. Because it had been chosen by a rational mind, the order in nature could have been otherwise. Thus, the natural philosophers could not merely deduce the order of nature from logical first principles; they needed to observe nature carefully and systematically.