In hmolscience, blind force, similar to living force (vis viva) or dead force (vis mortua), is a anthropomorphized physics jargon, an anti-religion neoplasm, so to say, that attributes “sightlessness” to force, i.e. a force that is blind; used commonly in religion vs science discussions.
Overview
In c.1800, Friedrich Schiller, in his “Pathos” essay, was referring to “instinct” as a “blind force”. (Ѻ)
In 1832, English freethinker Job Nott (Ѻ), a fan of Thomas Paine and Voltaire, in his article “Re-Action” described “passion” and “prejudice” as being under the operation of “blind force”. [1]
In 1899, Ernst Haeckel, in his The Riddle of the Universe, in the wake of Darwinism, outlined the then-prevalent five main variants of creation, the first of which he termed “dualistic creation”, which, via citation to Johannes Reinke’s The World as Fact (Die Welt als That) (1899), is described as follows: [2]
“God restricted his interference to two creative acts. First he created the inorganic world, mere dead substance, to which alone the law of energy applies, working blindly and aimlessly in the mechanism of material things and the building of the mountains; then god attained intelligence and communicated it to the purposive intelligent forces which initiate and control organic evolution.”
Here we see forces conceptually divided into two types, firstly: forces working “blindly” on “dead mechanism” in inorganic world, governed by the conservation of energy, secondly: forces that are in communication with god.
Quotes
The following are example quotes:
“In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”
— Richard Dawkins (1995), River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life (compare: Adams creed) [3]
See also
● Blind chance
References
1. Nott, Job. (1932). “Re-Action” (Ѻ), The Bristol Job Nott: Laboring Man’s Friend, No LI, Nov 29.
2. Haeckel, Ernst. (1899). The Riddle of the Universe: at the Close of the Nineteenth Century (translator: Joseph McCabe) (pg. 236). Harper & Brother, 1900.
3. Dawkins, Richard. (1995). River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life (pgs. 132-33) (Ѻ). Basic Books, 2008.
