From the recent book by John Haught on Science and Faith: a new introduction …
«Before the rise of modern science, the theological doctrine of creation had for centuries already suffused the Western mind with a sense that the world is a contingent creation of God. To say that the world is “contingent” is to say that it need not have existed at all. Obviously the world exists, but to people of faith it is dependent on God’s goodness for both its existence and its specific characteristics. This theological understanding of a contingent universe, we propose, gives a stature to empirical inquiry and scientific method that the ancient idea of an eternal, uncreated world does not.»
