Wolfheart Pannenberg's engagement with the natural sciences

Wolfheart Pannenberg was a theologian I have taken great interest in for his insight of how theology should engage with the truth claims from all forms of human enquiry and experience. Central to this is Panneberg's engagement with the natural sciences, in particular physics. For Pannenberg if the God of the Bible is the great creator, then when cannot understand the natural world without reference to God. By contrast if nature can be understood without reference to God then a creator God cannot exist. This led Pannenberg to engage with the works of physicist Frank Tipler who claimed to be able to deduce the existence of God and eternal life from physics, in his work the Physics of Immortality. As well as being influenced by Tipler, Pannenberg has influenced Tipler, and this is apparent in his work The Physics of Christianity. Another contribution I have found to be of particular interest is Pannenberg's re-evaluation of the definition of miracles and the implication this has on the natural sciences as a result. 

Pannenberg was a 20th theologian who engaged extensively 

with the natural science

In the physics of immortality Tipler claims that once life comes into being it will never die out. This entails that carbon-based life will eventually die, but life as intelligence will continue on in an artificial form. This intelligence will take over the entire universe forcing its collapse. In this collapse phase computational capacity will increase without limit allowing for life to emulate the universe, resurrecting the dead for eternity as a result. The universe eventually ends with a big crunch, condensing to a single point which Tipler identifies as a final singularity. This appears to have been refuted by finding of the universe’s acceleration, as a result of Dark Energy, which makes a re-collapse of the universe unlikely.  However, it is possible that this Dark Energy could still be used by life to bring about the omega point if life could utilise this energy. The final singularity is an Omega Point, a point where there is maximal computer capacity, making it immanent as well as transcendent in its point at spacetime. Tipler identifies these properties with a God with personality, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence and eternity. 

Physicist Frank Tipler has influenced

Pannenberg's engagement with the natural sciences

more than anyone else- they were good friends

Pannenberg has noted that at the Omega Point times description of the universe gets revered, the final future marking a new creation, God drawing his creatures into communion with himself throughout the history of the universe. Furthermore, the properties of the Omega Point are in line with Biblical claims on God. God is the content of promises of the future "I shall be who I shall be". He is also the God of the Kingdom who brings about and reigns as king over the kingdom. The re-collapsing of the universe in Tipler's cosmology also seems to fit with Revelation 6:14 where its seen "the heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up". 

In relation to this Pannenberg notes that Christian theology sees the universe as created by God, described from God's viewpoint rather than from extrapolation from the universe. As such the creation is contingent, meaning that it need not be from God's viewpoint. The universe could not exist at all or be entirely different. By contrast the Christian idea of God claims that God is necessary- God existing in himself, not possible for him to not exist. God's existence therefore just is, in the words of Aquinas God is the "uncaused first cause". The universe does not exist necessarily as God does, rather it is a manifestation of God's will and love. This view relates to the universe's uniqueness, this loving act of creation being linked with eschatology wherein the end times where the dead are resurrected, bought into eternal communion with God participating in his light.  

Tipler himself sees eschatological resurrection of the dead in God's selfless love. There is no necessity in the resurrection of the dead, but as the Omega Point is also the creator its deemed appropriate. Pannenberg strengthens this through engagement with the way creation comes from God's loving will.

This also fits in well with Pannenberg's view of eschatology wherein you can only understand something when you have the whole, the meaning and purpose of life and the universe linked with its future. It is this view of eschatology that causes Pannenberg to welcome ideas from science on how the new creation will come about, as we cannot know what the end times truly are until they have taken place and one is able to look back. 

It is also worth noting that Pannenberg and Tipler both see evidence of God in the origin as well as the end of the universe. One of the predictions of General Relativity is that the universe begins with an initial singularity. The laws of physics do not apply at a singularity, as physical quantities become infinite at a singularity, the laws of physics only able to govern finite quantities. As such no laws of physics can apply to a singularity, the singularity being beyond the laws of physics. Fred Hoyle has spoken on how it is more accurate to think as the laws of physics as being derived rather than applied to the singularity, the singularity therefore being the cause of the physical universe. Thomas Aquinas defined God as the uncaused first cause, something which scientists have offered evidence for in the singularity theorems, as such supplying evidence for the existence of God.

Tipler's work has been heavily criticised for its scientific and metaphysical claims. For life to continue on as artificial intelligence humans have to be reduced to information processing machines, and Tipler himself identifies as a physics imperialist who wants to reduce all fields of inquiry to physics. Pannenberg disagrees with this point however, seeing theology as the queen of the sciences, physics as an approximation to theology. Furthermore, Tipler's work is extremely speculative- it is debated whether there will even be a time when artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence, much less this intelligence gaining control of the entire universe. The final stages of the universe also must take on very specific circumstances if life is to survive the destruction of the very universe itself.

Of more interest to me is Pannenberg's dealing with the concept of miracle. Pannenberg sees the standard definition of miracle as "a violation of the laws of nature" as irreconcilable with natural law. Natural law by its universal nature does not allow for exceptions. This definition of miracle is associated with David Hume, so by defining miracle in such a way Hume was able to conclude that we cannot have good reason to believe that miracles occur. To overcome this challenge Pannenberg disagrees with this definition of miracle, citing Augustine who saw miracles as unusual events that we are not accustomed to in nature, which however do not violate the course of nature. These unusual events are signs of God's special activity in creation. It is this conception of natural law that influenced Frank Tipler's the physics of Christianity, as it allowed for the possibility of science to test the validity of miracle claims.

I find Pannenberg's engagement with the natural sciences to be an important contribution. The way that he willingly sought to demonstrate the validity of God's existence by science is very honourable, however in doing so I think Pannenberg ended up engaging with overly speculative ideas which have been extensively critiqued. I suggest anyone with an interest in Christian view of creation and natural theology to read Pannenberg's work, however, take it with a sceptical eye and be sure to consult the works of other thinkers such as John Polkinghorne alongside it.