Next Meeting...

March Meeting

Order:  What it is... What it is not...

A presentation by

Alex Sich, Ph.D

Dr Alex Sich, Ph.D

Thursday

March 7th - 7:00 PM

In Person & ZOOM


Room 108
Johnson Ferry Baptist Church
955 Johnson Ferry Rd, Marietta

Directions to Johnson Ferry Baptist

(See Sidepanel for joining ZOOM)


The modern empirical sciences (MESs) presuppose the world which scientists investigate is knowable, ordered, and predictable. However, scientists cannot explain what “order” is nor why the world is ordered in the first place. Indeed, “order” is not like a rock whose properties can be measured. So, what is “order”? An understanding of what “order” is—and whatever its source may be—must be arrived at by means other than the MESs.

The idea that the universe—its physical existence and its moral laws—is entirely the work of a single God is what made Judaism’s monotheism different from all religions that preceded it, and what made it (eventually in its union with Greek thought as “baptized” in Christianity) fertile ground for the flowing of philosophy and science, i.e., the all-encompassing term: “human reason”. Indeed, metaphorically stated, faith and reason are the two wings upon which the human soul rises to God.

All things ordered...


Join us as Dr. Sich explores the topic of “order”: what it is and why all the sciences depend on it. The (a) truth of revealed knowledge grasped through faith and (b) the truth of humanly-obtained knowledge of the orderly created world grasped through reason, can never contradict each other if pursued honestly. Since God cannot contradict Himself, the inherent order of the created world (which precludes—by definition—disorder, chaos, causal randomness, etc.) must in some way be able to reveal its Creator. The interesting question is “how?”... so stay tuned!


Alex Sich, Ph.D


Dr. Alexander R. Sich is Assistant Professor of Physics at Kennesaw State University. He earned a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering and Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an M.A. in Soviet Studies from Harvard University, an M.A. in Aristotelian-Thomistic Philosophy from Holy Apostles College and Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Sich’s doctoral research was conducted in Ukraine at the site of the 1986 Chornobyl disaster, where he was the first westerner permitted to live and conduct research within the 30-km Exclusion Zone. His dissertation explored what actually transpired at Unit-4 following its initial destruction—exposing the false narrative presented by the Soviets to the IAEA.

Dr. Sich’s professional experience includes working for (1) the Nuclear Safety Account of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, (2) the Department of Energy Pacific Northwest National Laboratory—for which he was the DOE’s Representative on Nuclear Safety in Ukraine and also Senior Project Coordinator as part of an International Consortium that managed initial decommissioning activities at Chornobyl Unit-4, and (3) the Department of State to support Science and Technology Center of Ukraine in efforts to engage former Soviet WMD scientists in the conversion of military science expertise to civilian uses. Additionally, Dr. Sich was a Fulbright Senior Research and Teaching Fellow at the Ukrainian Catholic University during 2014-15, and he has taught physics, the philosophy of nature, mathematics, and engineering statics since the Fall 2009.

Dr. Sich has delivered 74 presentations and interviews, and has 64 publications or which 14 are peer reviewed—including in the Wall Street Journal, Newsday, Boston Globe, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, Nuclear Engineering International, Nuclear Safety, the chapter on Chornobyl in the Encyclopedia of Nuclear Energy, National Review Online, The Diplomat, a chapter critical of Intelligent Design in a compendium on the topic, and others. He has written not only on matters of nuclear safety but on the philosophy of nature—focusing on the relationship of the natural sciences and philosophy, and also on issues of faith and the ongoing war of Russia against Ukraine.