That is definitely a "keeper" and will be bookmarked for future reference.
As you clearly explained, final cause at the immanent level does not necessarily entail theological issues. Moreover, final cause is essential to understanding biological systems.
For instance, it would be counterproductive to deny the liver has a function.
But truly the Newtonian paradigm ignores final cause and thus is not adequate for biological investigations.
In my view, the other three causes are addressed by the Newtonian paradigm, e.g. formal cause by physical laws/constants, material cause by matter/energy and efficient cause by momentum/inertia (which entails gravity, i.e. equivalence principle.)
I would see space/time as the domain of Immanent Cause and being as the domain of Cosmic Cause.
...final cause is essential to understanding biological systems.... For instance, it would be counterproductive to deny the liver has a function....
In my view, the other three causes are addressed by the Newtonian paradigm, e.g. formal cause by physical laws/constants, material cause by matter/energy and efficient cause by momentum/inertia (which entails gravity, i.e. equivalence principle.)
Formal cause — physical laws/constants
Material cause — matter/energy
Efficient cause — momentum/inertia (entailing gravity)
Final cause — the cause which entails the other three causes (i.e., which effects causal closure, so that efficient cause is constrained to within the system); the limit, purpose, or functional goal that seems to act "from the future" (e.g., Alex Williams' inversely-causal metainformation).
If that sounds strange, maybe Aristotle can clear it up for us:
...the final cause is an end, and that sort of end which is not for the sake of something else, but for whose sake everything else is; so that if there is to be a last term of this sort, the process will not be infinite; but if there is no such term, there will be no final cause, but those who maintain the infinite series eliminate the Good without knowing it (yet no one would try to do anything if he were not going to come to a limit); nor would there be reason in the world; the reasonable man, at least, always acts for a purpose, and this is a limit; for the end is a limit. — Aristotle Metaphysics Book II, Part 2Dearest sister in Christ, you wrote: "I would see space/time as the domain of Immanent Cause and being as the domain of Cosmic Cause." Thank you oh so very much for this marvelous insight! I can see that, too.For the final cause is (a) some being for whose good an action is done, and (b) something at which the action aims; and of these the latter exists among unchangeable entities though the former does not. The final cause, then, produces motion as being loved, but all other things move by being moved. — Ibid. Book XII, Part 7
To God be the glory!