"The Quantum State of the Universe", Nuclear Physics (1984) <!-- B239, p. 258 -->
Context: Many people would claim that the boundary conditions are not part of physics but belong to metaphysics or religion. They would claim that nature had complete freedom to start the universe off any way it wanted. That may be so, but it could also have made it evolve in a completely arbitrary and random manner. Yet all the evidence is that it evolves in a regular way according to certain laws. It would therefore seem reasonable to suppose that there are also laws governing the boundary conditions.
“To a reasonable mind the Divine attributes must appear, not diminished or reduced in any way, by supposing a creation by law, but infinitely exalted. It is the narrowest of all views”
Source: Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844), p. 156-157
Context: To a reasonable mind the Divine attributes must appear, not diminished or reduced in any way, by supposing a creation by law, but infinitely exalted. It is the narrowest of all views of the Deity, and characteristic of a humble class of intellects, to suppose him acting constantly in particular ways for particular occasions. It, for one thing, greatly detracts from his foresight, the most undeniable of all the attributes of Omnipotence. It lowers him towards the level of our own humble intellects. Much more worthy of him it surely is, to suppose that all things have been commissioned by him from the first, though neither is he absent from a particle of the current of natural affairs in one sense seeing that the whole system is continually supported by his providence.
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Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802) 100
Scottish publisher and writer 1802–1871Related quotes
“Mind is the Maker, for no reason at all, for all this creation, created to fall.”
Source: The Dharma Bums
Gnostic Society Library, From the Western Mystical tradition http://www.gnosis.org/library/coll.htm
The Spiritual Espousals (c. 1340)
From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe (1957).
Source: 1990s, Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology (1999), p. 206
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 32.
“Life is divine Chaos. It's messy, and it's supposed to be that way.”
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 268.