Cosmology and the Problem of Evil: God and the Second Law.

For decades, a discussion has raged over the explanation of the peculiarity of our universe due to its fine-tuned constants. One explanation is that ours is one of an infinite number of randomly produced universes. Another is that a beginningless ground of nature or God produced our universe. The mo...

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Published in:Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science Vol. 60; no. 3; pp. 1 - 24
Main Author: Cahoone, Lawrence
Format: Article
Published: Open Library of Humanities Sep2025
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Cosmology and the Problem of Evil: God and the Second Law.
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        au: Cahoone, Lawrence
        affil: Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, USA
      su:
        Universe
        God
        Physical cosmology
        Second law of thermodynamics
        Theodicy
        Thermodynamics
        Philosophy of nature
      sug:
        subj:
          Universe
          God
          Physical cosmology
          Second law of thermodynamics
          Theodicy
          Thermodynamics
          Philosophy of nature
      ab: For decades, a discussion has raged over the explanation of the peculiarity of our universe due to its fine-tuned constants. One explanation is that ours is one of an infinite number of randomly produced universes. Another is that a beginningless ground of nature or God produced our universe. The most serious argument against the notion of a God remains the problem of evil. But the same century that produced the idea of an evolutionary universe produced a "process" notion of God, rejecting omnipotence and omniscience and making God partly corporeal. The question lying behind the discussion of fine-tuned constants is what could have caused this particular universe, a world of order, disorder, and hazard, which took ten billion years to produce the local complexities of life and mind. One explanation is a God subject to internal limitations that apply to the universe as well. Such a Ground of Nature is likely not only to be partly physical but also subject to the laws of thermodynamics.
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    language: English
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