Sunday, May 05, 2013

"The laws of nature produce no events: they state the pattern to which every event--if only it can be induced to happen--must conform, just as the rules of arithmetic state the pattern to which all transactions with money must conform--if only you can get hold of any money. Thus in one sense the laws of nature cover the whole field of space and time; in another, what they leave out is precisely the whole real universe--the incessant torrent of actual events which makes up true history. That must come from somewhere else. To think the laws can produce it is like thinking that you can create real money by simply doing sums. For every law, in the last resort, says: If you have A, then you will get B. But first catch your A: the laws won't do it for you."

-C.S. Lewis

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