Philosophy of Religion Research

Blind Chance and Divine Guidedness: Reconstructing a Compatibilist Account Inspired by Polkinghorne's Approach Regarding the Mechanism of Divine Action

Document Type : Original Research

Authors

1 Researcher, Center for Science and Theology, Institute for Science and Technology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Professor, Department of Philosophy of Science, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor, Department of Occidentology, Research Institute for Islamic Culture and Thought (IICT), Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Compatibilism is the position that considers evolutionary theory and interventionist theism to be compatible. Compatibilists see the directedness of the components or features of the biosphere to be compatible with the chance-driven nature of the evolutionary process. An important question facing the compatibilist is: How is it possible for blind and undirected chance events to shape a purposeful and directed biosphere? To answer, the compatibilist must provide a model of chance events whose aggregate can be considered directed. In this paper, we will examine two candidate models for this aim. First model, which we called the “Polkinghorne model,” includes following elements: the insufficiency of reductionism, top-down causation, ontological gaps, holism & contextualism, the existence of chance in the universe, divine agency and active information, dual-aspect monism, and objective becoming. Then we argue that the last three elements are not necessary for compatibilist purposes, so the more appropriate model, which we called the “modified Polkinghorne model,” is weaker than the Polkinghorne model. Thus, we show that the theory of evolution is consistent with the claim that, despite the chance nature of the events that form the biosphere, at least some aspects of the biosphere are directed.

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Main Subjects

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Philosophy of Religion Research
Volume 23, Issue 2 - Serial Number 46
December 2025
Pages 21-42