Wittgenstein, Toulmin, and Hawking

Philosopher Carlin Romano has a nice article on Hawking and Mlodinow's The Grand Design in The Chronicle of Higher Education ("Cosmology, Cambridge Style: Wittgenstein, Toulmin, and Hawking"). The bullet points are...

• Many scientists take Hawking's side; others do not.
• Hawking admits: you can't prove God does not exist.
• "Hawking's orotund pronouncements about God are, to be charitable, simplistic." Philosophical Cambridge showed that a long time ago. Ludwig Wittgenstein and Stephen Toulmin "inoculated us against the naïve view that science shows God does not exist and is irrelevant to cosmology."
• Their message? "Scientists eager to delete God exceed their job description."
• Romano spends time discussing Wittgenstein's belief in God and his religious, Christian faith. It involves trusting the "historical narrative." I think it would be interesting to compare Wittgenstein's understanding of faith and giving himself over to the Grand Narrative of Christianity with N.T. Wright's understanding of the Grand Narrative. Romano gives a nice little synopsis of what has been called "Wittgensteinian fideism."
• Wittgenstein sought to preserve "the integrity of a nonscientific form of understanding." Wittgenstein didn't think his views would persuade a "typical western scientist." But Stephen Toulmin was not typical.
• Many years ago, in the last century, I studied philosophy of science with Harold I. Brown. What a great privilege that was for me, even though I did not realize it at the time! Brown introduced me to Stephen Toulmin who was, at that time, teaching at the University of Chicago. Toulmin, upon being influenced by Wittgenstein, morphed from being confident in "the scientific method" to a rejection of "the unitary notion of scientific methods. "There is no universal recipe for all science and all scientists," asserted Toulmin, "any more than there is for all cakes and all cooks. ... Much in science ... cannot be created according to set rules.""
• "Toulmin, in Wittgenstein's Vienna (Simon & Schuster, 1973), embraced Wittgenstein's skepticism toward science as deliverer of a unique, objective account of the world. He argued that such skepticism requires us to police science's positivist ambitions: Wittgenstein's "philosophy aims at solving the problem of the nature and limits of description. His world-view expresses the belief that the sphere of what can only be shown must be protected from those who try to say it."
  As a result, Toulmin, like Wittgenstein, never overvalued science. Science simply devises pragmatically useful descriptions. Rejecting "the naïve extrapolation of scientific concepts into nonscientific contexts," Toulmin extended his maturing vision to cosmology—Hawking's main concern."
• Hawking has ignored philosophy-of-science developments as he focuses on such hypotheses as splintered string theory and the vaunted M-theory of everything. "Ironically, as some reviewers have pointed out, it is he who seems not to have kept up with philosophy. Hawking insists that any notion that is "incompatible with modern physics" must be wrong. But the history of science's errors and misconceptions shows that extraordinary confidence to be unjustified. In arguing for a cosmology that's not exclusively scientific, Toulmin warned that the "disciplinary specialization of the natural sciences can no longer intimidate us into setting religious cosmology aside as 'unscientific.'"" (Emphasis mine)
• In conclusion, "Wittgenstein's and Toulmin's Cambridge antidote to Hawking's smugness about God and philosophy combines analytic acuity, mastery of scientific history, and, at times, pure art."

I found Romano's entire essay worth reading, and especially fascinating to me, reminding me of Dr. Brown's use of Wittgenstein and Toulmin as regards the history of science.

Testing Religious Knowledge; Teaching Religion in Public Schools

How much do you know about religion? Take the Pew Forum's 10-question pop-quiz here.

The Pew Forum has administered a 32-question survey to 3400 Americans and found them woefully ignorant on the subject. Boston U's Stephen Prothero writes: "In this, the first major study of religious literacy among American adults, Americans as a whole flunked, answering correctly 16 of 32 questions about Christianity, the Bible and the world’s religions - for an embarrassing score of only 50 percent."

Prothero makes an appeal for mandatory religion courses in public schools. He writes:

"In "Religious Literacy," I described our collective religious ignorance as a civic problem of the first order. How to hold politicians who pin their public policies to the Bible without knowing something about that text? And how to make sense of religious conflict in the Middle East without knowing something about Judaism, Christianity and Islam?...


...From time immemorial, and for better or for worse, human beings have been motivated to act politically, economically and militarily by their gods, scriptures and priests. Without making sense of those motivations, we cannot make sense of the world.

It is time to address our national epidemic of religious illiteracy. I have called in the past for mandatory public school courses on the Bible and the world's religions to remedy this problem. The time for such courses is now."

I've had a number of opportunities to speak on worldviews and comparative religions at Monroe High School in my community. (Michigan) My experience is that students want to learn and talk about such things. Given the massive influence religion has, has always had, and will always have on our world, it seems a no-brainer to proactively teach it in public schools.

While Gingrich Says Obama Acts "Kenyan, Anti-Colonial," What Does a Real Kenyan Anti-Colonialist Think? A Conversation with Novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o

While Gingrich Says Obama Acts "Kenyan, Anti-Colonial," What Does a Real Kenyan Anti-Colonialist Think? A Conversation with Novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Kenya On My Mind

I am "thinking Kenya" this morning. I'll arrive in Nairobi Oct. 21, stay there a few days, then travel west to Eldoret and the Rift Valley. There I'll be speaking and teaching at a pastor's conference for leaders from Kenya and Uganda.

This week I'm getting vaccinations for yellow fever, polio, hepatitis A & B, + anti-malarial medication to take with me.

I'm reading about Kenya - using Lonely Planet's guide. It's very good, and puts me in a mood of excitement. What a beautiful, amazing country Kenya is!

Eldoret is home and training area to Kenya's famous and elite long-distance runners. (Remember Kip Keino?)

The currency in Kenya is the shilling. One American dolar equals approximately 80 shillings.

I read the Daily Nation, Nairobi's newspaper. In today's DN there's an interesting article called "The Top 25 African Writers." At the head of the article there's a picture of Kenya's most famous writer, Ngugi wa Thiong’o. I just ordered Thiong'o's Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. Having done Ph.D work in linguistic semantics and neurolinguistics I will probably agree with Thiong'o's thesis that when, in a colonialist act, a foreign language is imposed on indigenous people, there is more going on here than learning a new language. With the new foreign language comes an entire history and power structure. So, the imposition is great, and devastating to a culture. Needed: decolonizing the African (and Kenyan) mind.

17 hours from take-off in Detroit to touchdown in Nairobi. Not bad when compared to the 25-hour trip to Bangkok a year ago.

Real Jesus-Followers Never Need to Be Coerced or Tricked Into Ministry

Torrey Pines, San Diego area

This morning at Redeemer, in the context of preaching Matthew 28:16-20, I gave our people a handout called Getting Involved in the Jesus Movement at Redeemer. I prefaced this by sharing what this handout is not about. My experience in the church is that often, when a pastor gives a handout like this, he's giving it to recruit people into various ministries. People think "Here comes the paper - the pastor wants us to sign up for something again."

That wasn't my purpose this morning. I said, "This is not about you signing up to be in some ministry. But this is for all who signed up for the Jesus Movement, and Jesus in Matthew 28 commissions all of you to go out and do the Kingdom stuff in the world, making disciples of all cultures and sub-cultures ("nations"; in Greek, ethne - ethnic groups [not "nation-states]). My handout was about how I now see the Jesus Movement at Redeemer. It was for all who have already enlisted in that Movement and want to forward it. For such real Jesus-followers, the fact that their Savior has called them to "Go" is enough. No coercion, guilt-manipulation, or trickery is needed.

At this stage of my life in Christ I feel less concerned than ever to pressure into supplying manpower for church programs. Real "church" is neither an entertainment center nor "institution"; rather, it's a Movement. People like myself who joined the Movement as a result of the experiential redemptive activity of their Lord Jesus do not have to be coerced to advance the Kingdom. But some need help and direction as to how where and how to plug in. As a pastor I need to disciple Jesus-followers in that direction.

What a relief, as a pastor, to be in a family like Redeemer! We have so many people who love Jesus and are creatively seeking God for ways to be part of the disciple-making movement.

The Jesus Movement at Redeemer

Here’s how you can become involved in the Jesus Movement at Redeemer.








First, remember our Mission:

The Mission of Redeemer Fellowship Church is the mission of Jesus.

• To advance the Kingdom of God

• To push back the kingdom of darkness

• To heal the sick

• To deliver the oppressed

• To raise the dead

• And to proclaim the Good News of Jesus and God’s Kingdom

Anything that strengthens or furthers or adds to the mission is potentially valuable.


You can be part of the mission in the following ways.

• Pray

 Join my e-mail prayer team. Write me at johnpiippo@msn.com and request to be placed on the e-prayer team.

 Join our Prayer Ministry Team.

• Get equipped for the mission

o Take Full Life in Christ

o Take Redeemer Ministry School classes

o Attend the equipping events planned ahead (e.g., Randy Clark’s School of Healing and Impartation)

o Lead a Home Group; be in a Home Group (contact me if you want to lead a group)

o Go to Friday nights at Newport Beach Café and hear many different Redeemer people preach and lead worship

• Assist in and contribute to our Mission outreaches

o Soup Kitchen (Tuesday and Saturday nights)

o Godworks Food Pantry (coming soon!)

o FLC – India

o NightLight Bangkok (the Dieselberg’s) • Sell NightLight jewelry

o Mercy House

o Chris & Lori Bajkiewicz

o MCOP

o Raise money and support for any of these and others.

 Start a short-term fund-raising effort for one of our outreach ministries - • Contact me with your idea.

• Serve in an area of ministry within Redeemer

o Children’s worker/teacher (disciple our kids!)

o Royal Rangers

o Sunday morning nursery worker

o Youth worker/teacher

o Ushers

o Caring for our building and grounds

o Visual arts

o Worship team

o Flags and banners

o Prayer team

o Office help

You have something to add to the Jesus Movement at Redeemer. Abide in Jesus. Get equipped. Serve. Reach out. Love. Give. Rejoice!

If you want to talk with me about any of these please give me a call.

Christian Hipsters

Christian hipsterism - beer drinking, Jon Stewart-watching, Thomas Kincade-avoiding, art museum-imbibing, intellectually rigorous (at least trying to be), Sartre-reflecting (actually reading L'Etre et Le Neant??? - l'Être et le nÉant de sartre et dans la thÉorie de la relativitÉ restreinte ), Radiohead/Arcade Fire earbudding, fair trade coffee-sipping, tobacco smoking, Toms shoes-wearing, thrift store-shopping, Steinbeck-reading, cool-walking, Bible-studying, Jesus-loving, hip-Kingdom people of God.

Well, way back in the early 70s I was an ex-drugging, bell bottom-wearing, long-hairing, psychedelic Jesus-loving, flower-bearing, sandals-walking, VW-vanning, C.S. Lewis-quoting, Wittgenstein-reading, Larry Norman-listening, beard-growing, street-witnessing, rock guitar-playing, caffeine-guzzling, peace-loving, tie dye shirt-flaunting, folk-singing, groovy-Kingdom God child.

The Non-boring, Amazing Jesus



Tree in Monroe

 It was 1990. I was teaching at a theological seminary in Singapore. Albert Kang, one of the leaders of the seminary, was sitting with me at a "steamboat" luncheon (aka "hot pot"), when he leaned towards me and said words that have never left me: "The Church is a movement, not an institution." Oh yeah. That's right!

"Church" is not about committees arguing over whether to carpet the sanctuary and, if so, what kind and color the carpet should be. Real "Church" is not about maintenance. Jesus did not come to maintain the status quo. Real "Church" moves and flows, led by the Holy Spirit, changing direction as the Spirit guides. "Institutional" churches are dying precisely because they are that; viz., "instutional." 40 years ago I signed up for a Movement, not an Institution. As far as I can tell I'm still in the Jesus Movement, the now-moving of God's Spirit, and it is exhilarating!

None of the original 12 ever complained that following Jesus was boring. They did complain of other things, but never that. The thought "What is He doing now?!" did often come into their minds. Re. "boredom": "boredom" is not having nothing to do; "boredom" is finding no meaning in what one is doing. A Christian could be on every church committee there is and be very bored with it all, as well as very burned-out-spiritually-deep-fried-to-a-crisp.

I like what one 35-year-old Jesus-follower from California said re. this: "Christians have become political, judgmental, intolerant, weak, religious, angry, and without balance. Christianity has become a nice Sunday drive. Where is the living God, the Holy Spirit, an amazing Jesus, the love, the compassion, the holiness? This type of life, how I yearn for that." (In David Kinnaman, unchristian, 35)

Me too. Put down the books about Jesus and return to the Big 4 - Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John, and you'll have a Barthian epiphany as the strange new world of Jesus opens up before you.

Randy Clark Conference Registration at Redeemer

Randy Clark brings his School of Healing and Impartation to Redeemer Jan. 12-15, 2011.

For information + registration click here.

(Thanks Josh B!)

God Helps Us to Live the Way God Asks Us to Live



Dome of the Rock, Temple Mount, Jerusalem

 Atheist Peter Singer of Princeton and Christian theist John Hare of Yale dialogue on: "Moral Mammals: Does Atheism or Theism Provide the Best Foundation for Human Worth and Morality?" (In Dallas Willard, ed., A Place for Truth, 169-194) Give props to them both for an intellectual, calm, non-psychologizing non-ad-hominem-circumstantial (yay!!!) discussion.

I like Hare's answer when asked "How do you understand the role of Jesus Christ and his life and teachings for an understanding of morality? In thirty seconds, please."

Hare responds: "Jesus is a model for me of how human life should be, of giving his life for others and reaching out to the weakest. But if it's just a model, and this is Kierkegaard's point, it produces despair, because I don't seem to be able to live that way by my own resources. So it's important to me that with the model comes the power to live that way. God actually helps us to live the way God asks us to live." (191-192)

Very well said - as good as one could do in 30 seconds! In Hare's statement we have the following Christian truths:

• Real Jesus-following (as distinguished, e.g., from Islam) is not about following rules, or viewing the Bible as a rulebook.
• On one's own one cannot live like Christ.
• As we abide in Christ we receive resources from God to live such a life.
• See John chapters 14-16.

Re. Singer, I like his atheism in the sense that, on atheism, Singer makes sense. He carries himself well in dialogues like this. However, since nobody's perfect, consider Singer here as he comments on the story of the withered fig tree.

"Then there's the incident of the fig tree. Jesus saw a fig tree and asked for some fig and was told there were no figs. One of the Gospel accounts says, "Because the time of figs was not." It wasn't a useless, barren fig tree; it just wasn't the season for figs. But Jesus cursed it, and the next day the disciples come past it and say "Look, it died." That seems a very petulant act, I have to say." (Ib., 193)

Not at all, of course. Singer's surface-reading of the story leads him to casually and mistakenly dismiss it as "a petulant act" by Jesus. To understand this begin with N.T. Wright. (Here, e.g., 421 ff.)