Henke 2022u

The Pool Game in C.S. Lewis’ Miracles and Its Citation in Lundahl (2022a) Fail to Demonstrate the Miracles Cannot Violate Natural Law

Kevin R. Henke

September 15, 2022

In Henke (2022a), I gave the following definition of a supernatural act or miracle:

“I define a supernatural act or “magic” as a feat that violates the laws of chemistry and/or physics.”

Mr. Lundahl did not like this definition. In Lundahl (2022a), he references a section out of Lewis (1960, chapter 8,) to argue that miracles “add to” rather than violate the laws of nature.

“This was answered by C. S. Lewis in Miracles - a miracle is not a break away from natural physics, chemistry, or biology, but an addition to them.

A physicist - this is probably from chapter 8, "Miracles and the Laws of Nature" starting on p. 87 in the 2012 edition by William Collins, arguably reproducing C. S. Lewis' second, reworked, original edition - a physicist on a steamer is watching the pool balls roll on a table of pool. He can calculate the rolling period of the steamer to perfection (or simply detect it by a watch with split seconds), he can see the movements already ongoing, he can calculate how this will go on, very easily after some time - but he can't calculate whether someone will take up a queue and hit a ball with it. If someone does, the physicist's calculations have been broken, but the laws of movement haven't.”

In Henke (2022b), I replied to his comments:

“The pool (billiards) analogy from chapter 8 of Lewis (1960) and summarized by Lundahl (2022a) is totally ineffective in defending the existence of the supernatural. It only illustrates that a physicist would have difficulty making predictions about a pool game if a human (not a supernatural being) unexpectedly decided to hit one of the balls in the middle of the game. Although the conditions of the pool game might change, notice that Mr. Lundahl admits that no “laws of movement” were violated in this account. That’s because humans, and not God, demons, angels, or other supernatural agents, were playing in this game. When humans play pool, we’re stuck obeying the laws of physics. Now, if God exists, he, by definition, is not necessarily forced to obey natural laws. He supposedly created natural laws and if he can create natural laws, then supposedly he can make exceptions or undo them. God could play pool by either using his supernatural powers or he might simply restrict himself to using only natural laws. If he exists, he could do anything he wanted to. God could remove the effects of gravity from a pool ball and cause it to pass through the ceiling or allow the atoms of the ball to pass through the table, but humans can’t do these things.” [my emphasis]

Lundahl (2022i) then comments on the bolded part of my paragraph:

“But the point is, the scientist and his interlocutor weren't playing pool - they were observing the movements of pool balls on a pool table on a steamer. And the interlocutor picking up the queue is very similarily an exception (or interruption) of that process which was being observed.”

With this pool game analogy, C.S. Lewis and Lundahl (2022i) are trying to argue that the supernatural could start or interrupt the flow of a natural event without breaking any laws of nature just as an interlocutor can unexpectedly pick up a queue and interrupt a pool game without breaking any laws of nature. Yes, that is possible as I already admitted in Henke (2022b) and as I previously reiterated in Henke (2022t). However, have C.S. Lewis and Lundahl (2022i) shown that God or any other supernatural being, if they exist, cannot or would never want to violate the laws of nature? No. With this pool analogy, have C.S. Lewis and Lundahl (2022i) shown that miracles cannot ever violate the laws of nature? No. Once they demonstrate that supernatural beings actually exist, then we might be able to find out how they do miracles. If it turns out that God is incapable of changing or violating the laws of nature, is he really omnipotent or is he just another being forced to comply with the laws of nature?

Reference:

Lewis, C.S. 1960. Miracles, 2^nd ed., printed 1974: Harper One: HarperCollinsPublishers, 294pp.