"THE INVISIBLE GARDENER OR THE BLIND WATCHMAKER?": AN ARGUMENT "FROM THE LAWS OF NATURE" IN THE CONTEXT OF THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN THEISM AND NATURALISM

This article examines the argument proposed in the philosophy of Richard Swinburne " from simple laws of nature" or " from the success of science". The argument is to point to the fact that the development of science has led to the discovery of universal and simple (that is, knowable) laws of nature, which confirms a certain correlation between human cognitive abilities and the structure of the world. Such a correlation is probable, according to Swinburne, only under the condition of the existence of God as an intelligent Creator of nature and a person who created the world consciously according to such laws that can be known by rational beings. Swinburne emphasizes that, with this type of reasoning, God is not considered as a "God of the gaps" (that is, as a hypothesis explaining what science has not yet been able to explain). On the contrary, the very success of science in explaining the laws of the existence of the world can be considered as a justification for the existence of God, who created nature according to such laws that a person (scientific community) is able to reveal with certain intellectual efforts. In the article, the argument "from simple laws of nature" is analyzed in the context of the controversy between realism and anti-realism in the interpretation of laws of nature. It is inferred that the argument "works" only under the condition of a realistic interpretation of laws of nature, in which they are interpreted as something objective, existing independently of the knowing person. If the researcher proceeds from anti-realism in the interpretation of laws of nature and considers them as the fruit of human intellectual activity (laws are formulated, not discovered), then the correlation between the structure of the world and the human mind cannot be detected. Consequently, it cannot be concluded that there is an intelligent Creator who established the prerequisites for such a connection. The argument "from laws of nature" is also considered in the article in the broader context of the controversy between theism and naturalism, the essence of which was figuratively expressed in the middle of the 20th century by the British philosopher John Wisdom in the form of the parable of the Invisible Gardener. It is concluded that Swinburne's argument modernizes the controversy between the Believer and the Skeptic from this parable, since it makes the subject of their interest not only plants in the garden (empirical facts), but also their own intellectual activity (the success of science).