1964 Geloof en Wetenschap : Orgaan van de Christelijke vereeniging van natuur- en geneeskundigen in Nederland - pagina 80

RONDBLIK

56 GESCHIEDENIS,

TOEVAL,

VOORZIENIGHEID

De kernfysicus, en (smds 1952) Episcopaals geestelijke, dr Willian G Pollard betoogt in zijn boek „Chance and Providence, God's Action m a World Governed by Scientific Law", dat de theoretische kernfysica leidt tot aanvaarding van een „elementary barrier of chance and accident", waarachter de natuurwetenschap m het bijzonder en het menselijke denken m het algemeen principieel niet kan doordrmgen Een van de vele mooie passages, die me in dit boek troffen, is de volgende Misschien nodigt ze uit tot kennismaking Ik geef ze (blz 86 e v ) , bij wijze van bladvulling zonder commentaar ,When the Christian views history through the eyes of his secular colleagues and sees with them its innumerable alternatives and openness, he senses immediately that this is exactly the character which history, objectively considered, must have m order to be able to be the same as that which has been revealed to him as the history of which Christ is Lord The elementary barrier of chance and accident against which objective knowledge halts is just what is required to make this so It is what m his own experience of the mystery of grace, threading through the chances and accidents of his own life, he has come to recognize as the very means which God employs to prevent us from searching out the mystery of His will and of thereby succumbing to the danger which our smful nature makes inevitable — of using our knowledge of Him to achieve the purposes of our own wills Indeed, what is it other than the chance happening and the accidental development which foils the plans which men in their pride make for themselves' What else prevents man from making himself the captain of his soul and the master of his f a t e ' So the Christian does not resent or rebel against the barrier of chance and accident, but welcomes it gladly for what it is, humbling himself before it instead of vamly combatting it, because he knows that through it the lovely mystery of grace comes to him in his own life Secular man, on the other hand, cannot rest content with this barrier Simply to leave history open and indeterminate, making what has happened in the past and what can be planned for m the future simply quixotic and whomsical like the spin of a roulette wheel, is intolerable He pins his hopes of science's ability to probe somehow and sometime behind chance and accident, uncover their roots, and eliminate the uncomfortable openness and mdetermmacy which they introduce m history But as we have seen, chance appears to be essential to scientific knowledge, not because of any merely temporary inadequacy of science, but because the world which science investigates is made m a certain way If the laws built into the natural world really do permit through chance and accident many alternative courses for its history, as we Christians are convinced that they must, then secular man cannot by the very nature of things find anything withm nature herself capable of removing this mdetermmacy Once he comes to see this clearly, perhaps he will be willing to come with us, as we so ernestly wish that he would If he will but sample the rich heritage which we share and which we live, he will have his eyes opened to a new vista of reality out of which profound meaning, a revived senses of destiny, and a living purpose will emerge, as with a developing photograph, out of the blankness and meanmglessness which the mtellectual bondage to an exclusive dependence on scientific knowledge of nature menvitably produces This is our offer to him, and we hold the invitation ever open He will be welcome and received with joy when he comes " HRW

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