A guy I work with shared this meme with my via text. I'm only guessing, but I believe the challenge it poses impressed him. Below is my response. Please forgive the formatting; it was texted ;)
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Brandon,
First, physics, as a thing, doesn't exist. Physics is a term
we use to describe
our observations of the seemingly inviolable regularities
and consistencies we
discover in the material (and sometimes immaterial) aspects
of our experience.
Physics, then, is a human activity, not a thing in itself.
Having better defined our terms, we can move toward an
answer to the question.
Since the problem was posed in somewhat simplistic, even
archaic Newtonian,
terms, I'll answer it in like.
Secondly, then, we should ask, what are the most basic
attributes of the laws we
discover that govern our experience of the physical world?
1st, they are
immaterial; they don't grow on trees and you can't stub your
toe on a
law--they're nonphysical entities. 2nd, they're invariable,
they're immutable;
that is, they don't change. If they did, they'd not be laws.
3rd, they're
universal. For example, the so-called law of gravity, which
is implicitly
invoked in this meme, it true regardless of place. 4th,
they're abstract, which
is to say that, they are true apart from any physical
instantiation. And
finally, laws of physics are absolute, they're irreducible.
Now that we know what we are talking about, we can ask a
final question: What is
the source and ontological grounding of these laws? That is,
where might we find
an entity in our experience that is immaterial, invariable,
universal, abstract,
and absolute? Or better, where might laws with these
attributes find residency?
Nothing in our physical experience can account for these
laws. Rather, these are
many of the same attributes of God, as revealed in Christ,
nature, history, and
scripture. In short, only if the God of Christian theism
exists could the laws
of physics exist. So, rather than asking, If physics, how
Jesus? Reality demands
the other way around: If not Jesus, then how on earth
physics!?! Jesus is the
Source and necessary precondition of physics and therefore
has little problem
ruling over such laws.
Does that help?
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