Theistic scientists attacked mechanism for excluding divine purpose and providence from nature

Evidence

In his Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation (1691), John Ray used plastic natures as an argument against the atheism implicit in the mechanical philosophy of Descartes, Gassendi, and Hobbes. In Ray’s opinion, Descartes had erred in his banishment of final causes and in his limitation of God’s role to the production of corpuscular matter constrained to obey a few simple laws. The first excluded human ability to discern God’s purpose within nature, the second his daily providential care. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 911

Categorization

• XREF: Shows religious resistance to mechanism, complicating the ‘mechanism won outright’ narrative; connects to course thread on how scientific claims are contested and socially selected. — connects to: Henry More framed technological power over nature as evidence of God’s providence — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 908; Monotheism’s disenchantment of nature enabled scientific exploration and atheism — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 561; Monotheism inadvertently planted the seeds of science and atheism — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 561 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Monotheism’s disenchantment of nature enabled scientific exploration and atheism #expands (0.85) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 561
• Monotheism inadvertently planted the seeds of science and atheism #expands (0.85) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 561
• Modern Western science displaced metaphysics and religion as the supreme authority over knowledge #expands (0.78) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 290