Causality, Chance, Providence and Design: Aquinas and Barbour on the Independence between Science and Religion
The absolute and total distinction between primary and secondary causality is not, despite Ian Barbour’s opinion, a Thomist distinction. This is the reason why the distinction cannot be used as a tool by the defenders of the thesis that science and religion are completely independent fields of knowledge. On the contrary, the distinction, in its original understanding, allows us to explain how chance is compatible with providence or design. It is, therefore, a useful tool for those trying to build what Barbour calls an integration between science and religion.
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