Not a chance
Subtitle: the myth of chance in modern science and cosmology
By: R.C. Sproul.
Publisher: Baker Books
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Grand Rapids, Mich.
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 234
ISBN-13: 9780801083860
Subjects: Serendipity in science.; Chance.; Science -- Philosophy.; Cosmology.
Description: Announcing the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the news reporter began: "Fifteen to 17 billion years ago the universe exploded into being." "Exploded into being?" mused R. C. Sproul. "Does this mean that 15 billion years ago the universe exploded from non-being into being? Then what exploded?" In Not a Chance Sproul takes a hard look at such conundrums: Just what is chance? Can it account for what is?

As a respected Christian apologist, theologian, and philosopher, R. C. Sproul might be expected to find causation through chance a hard pill to swallow. But in Not a Chance we learn that he is not alone.

Among others troubled by chance probability ... David Hume: "Chance is only our ignorance of real causes"; Charles Darwin: "I cannot look at the universe as a result of blind chance."; Albert Einstein: "Quantum physics is certainly imposing, but an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing ... I, at any rate, am convinced that He is not playing at dice.".

In a lively dialog with modern thinkers from Hume to Niels Bohr and Carl Sagan, Not a Chance consults laws of logic, linguistic and scientific theory, and mathematical understandings to probe the cause-effect relationship. Not a Chance invites all students of life to approach, with eyes open and mind alert, the wobbly pedestal from which chance rules modern cosmology.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-223) and index.
Table of contents: title: The soft pillow; title: The mask of ignorance; title: A quantum leap; title: The voice of reason; title: Light and the light; title: Framing the question; title: The policeman of science; title: Cosmos or chaos?; title: A being without a cause; title: No chance in the world