God’s Providence in Nature

I was at the annual meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation (the fellowship of Christians in Science in the USA) a couple of weeks ago. One of the talks that I heard was by Gregory Bennett, a geologist – and I’d be interested to hear what the theologians and philosophers think of it.

God’s providence – the way in which he acts in the universe – provides a basis for science and technology. The fact that an experiment gives the same result today and tomorrow has to be taken for granted or you couldn’t do science – it just happens, and that’s why we have ‘laws of nature’. But within a Christian worldview that makes perfect sense.

Gregory Bennett put forward a detailed analysis of providence:

1. God constantly sustains the world so that the properties of things are preserved.
2. God cooperates with created things, directing their distinctive properties to cause then to act as they do.
3. God directs all things to accomplish his purposes.

So God is very hands on and ‘does’ everything – even making my pen fall to the ground when I drop it. This is a very active kind of sustaining, and is consistent with the language of God sustaining and providing rain, food and so on that occurs throughout the Bible.

I have sustained him with grain and new wine (Genesis 27:37)

He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. (Psalm 147:8)

He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call. (Psalm 147:9)

Bennett described ordinary providence – working through ‘secondary causes’ that we can understand scientifically in terms of the regular operation of things in the world, and extraordinary providence – where no secondary cause can be seen. Extraordinary providence would be a miracle (in my opinion not the only kind of miracle – I think miracles of timing also happen) – something that draws attention to God and his interaction with us.

You can listen to the whole talk here.