Abstract:
This doctoral dissertation seeks to present a reflection about faith and reason. To do this we occupied ourselves in investigating the concepts which characterize the phenomena observed in the theory of chaos according to physics-mathematics and, thus, employing these concepts – in a comparative analysis – the dialog in the construction of analogies was made possible with the goal of mentioning the relations of God with the world in the perspective of the Reformed Christian faith. For the goal to be reached, resources from the reading, review and systematization of a theoretical referential founded on authors in the areas of physics and mathematics dealing with the subject that was researched – physics-mathematics - were used: Ian G. Barbour, Amir D. Aczel, Edgar de Alencar Filho, Yoav Ben-Dov, Silvio Bergia, Umberto Bottazzini, Richard P. Brennan, Alberto Gaspar, Niccoló Guicciardini, Michio Kaku, Mario Livio, Gérard Lebrun, Paul L. Meyer, Richard Morris, Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, John Polkinghorne, Ilya Prigogine, David Ruelle, Raymond A. Serway, James Gleick, James D. Stein, Ian Stewart, Tipler – among others – and as to the Reformed Christian faith, the following were used: The Belgic Confession (1561), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the Second Helvetic Confession (1566), the Dort Canons (1619), the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), the Westminster Small Catechism (1647), The Westminster Larger Catechism (1648). To be highlighted in these readings are the writings of the renowned theologian, Saint Augustine: The City of God, the Spirit and the Word, Nature and Grace, The Grace of Christ and Original Sin, Grace and Freedom, Correction and Grace, the Predestination of the Saints, the Gift of Perseverance, the Confessions and Free Will. The initial development took place in the perspective of the predominant concept in the theory of chaos which says there is a prevailing order within disorder, just as there is the manifestation of disorder within full order. In applying this concept, a parallel was made with the soteriological approach in which was presented that apparently unstructured and random phenomena are, in fact, obeying simple laws, and, therefore, apparently are similar to a behavior without law, even though being totally governed by law. Thus, one was left with deciphering which law it was. In the sequence of the study, an investigative approach was carried out about the relation involving the physics-mathematics concepts and the sustaining and strengthening pillars of the Reformed Christian Faith in which the conceptual part of time was presented in the person of Saint Augustine, and on the other side, the Newtonian theories which advance to the Einstein theories, culminating in an analogy to the writings presented by the bishop of Hippo. Finally, an analysis was carried out about infinity which, in the theological perspective, dealt with eternity and in the mathematical perspective an infinity larger than other infinities was demonstrated in an analogy between both sciences. At the end of the research it was concluded – by the demonstrations presented – that there is a harmony in the conceptual application of the physics-mathematical chaos in dialog with theology and, thus, the issues presented in the dissertation were fulfilled.
