Love this podcast so much. As someone who doesn’t come from a religious background, I’ve just got to say this stuff is nourishment for my soul. I love that you guys come from a theological background, and while having grown away from that still approach those questions with curiosity and compassion.
I’d love to know if you guys have ever come across the work of the theoretical biologist / systems theorist Robert Rosen. His work centers around a critique of mechanism in science. He touches on the limitations of the algorithmic, the universal vs the particular, and the role of contradictions in science. He makes some interesting claims, like that perhaps we can view biology as in fact more “general”, and physics more “special”. Or that maybe contradictions are a defining factor of life itself.
Anyway I’d love to hear your thoughts if you are familiar with any of Rosen’s work, he’s a figure that’s influenced my political thinking in some weird and interesting ways. If not, try and check him out sometime. His thinking was summarized in his 1991 book Life Itself (not the Roger Ebert biography) if you ever have time to give it a looksy I highly recommend.