A Meaningful World: Intelligent Design As A Response To Secular Nihilism

http://helives.blogspot.com/2006/10/...ful-world.html


Thursday, October 26, 2006

Review: A Meaningful World


A Meaningful World by Benjamin Wiker and Jonathan Witt (IVP Academic,
2006) is the best ID book I have read. It deserves a special place in
this overcrowded genre, in part because it takes the preferred
approach. Recent books have championed ID with a kind of ice-cold
sterility, presumably to support the proposition that ID is a bona fide
science. Often the result is a sleep-inducing rehash of familiar
arguments written in impenetrable, impersonal, and unnecessary
technical language.

Wiker and Witt do not focus on ID as primarily a counter to evolution,
but as a response to the nihilism that permeates both our culture and
our schools. Instead of the standard ID methodology of challenging pure
naturalism where it enjoys a home-field advantage, an ill advised
tęte-ŕ-tęte within the domain of philosophic materialism, A
Meaningful World couches the dispute not as one "science" against
another, but as meaningfulness and beauty versus meaninglessness and
inelegance. Oh, the usual cast of factoids are present—biological
complexity and cosmological fine-tuning, but here they are but
refreshingly deemphasized supporting characters in an adventure that
transcends the purely scientific.

The only other ID book that is in this class is The Privileged Planet.
But even here we see a difference in approach. While Gonzalez and
Richards argue that the purely naturalistic explanation of a life
sustaining universe is so implausible as to be ugly, Wiker and Witt
turn it around: science's answer is so ugly as to be implausible. Both
approaches are reasonable. The former renders The Privileged Planet
more of a science book, while the latter gives A Meaningful World a
philosophical and even theological flavor.

Although the data point to a designer, Wiker and Witt realize that a
sighted watchmaker doesn't necessarily provide any more purpose or hope
than a blind one. Indeed, for believers the notion that an alien might
have designed terrestrial life is more repulsive than theistic
evolution. At least theistic evolution preserves a God in control. An
alien designer admits the possibility that we are the science project
of a pimply faced, diamond eyed, teenage D-student flunky. An ID that
proudly claims the designer need not be God is both bad science and
heretical theology. It's a view wherein a secondary cause can ascend to
a position of primacy, a view which is guilty of the same degradation
it purports to challenge. No consolation that our designer may have
been created by God, for that just leaves us, as creations of the
creatures, with no special place in God's mind.

A Meaningful World does not evoke the ennui of traditional ID. Here we
see the connections are much richer. Not merely data leading us to
design, but data, beauty and even human genius leading us to
acknowledge both design and meaningfulness. So-called design flaws are
not excused as optimization compromises, but are likened to the alleged
imperfections in Shakespeare's iambic pentameter which, when viewed
through a non-reductionist lens, are seen for what they a the
enhancements of a genius, not the ineptitude of a barely competent and
ultimately uninspiring poet.

Wiker and Witt also address the impossibility of meaningfulness or
beauty in a world explicable solely on the basis of philosophical
materialism. While plausibility arguments for the evolution of morality
and altruism may satisfy some, even if they are accepted they would
only explain a façade. An evolved morality is a meaningless illusion;
it is simply a survival mechanism. It's prettier, perhaps, than bigger
teeth or more a deadly venom, but ultimately it's just a variant on the
same theme, a theme that offers no purpose beyond procreation.

In A Meaningful World we read that the compulsion for survival is often
a poor explanation for human endeavors. Metallurgy first developed not
so that we could create harder weapons with which to kill our enemies
and ensure the continuation of our genes, but as a means to create more
beautiful works of art. In fact, the beauty of gold defies
explanation—it has no application in weaponry, it simply appeals to
something good within, something innate in our species, something
meaningful.

The absurdity of some of the most brilliant atheists is pointed out in
A Meaningful World through the example of the renowned physicist
Stephen Weinberg. In the penultimate paragraph of his book The First
Three Minutes, Weinberg describes human life as farcical, and that
scientific advancement only enhances his sense of pointlessness. Yet in
the final paragraph Weinberg reverses himself and claims there is
something special about the human species: our ability to study the
data that, in Weinberg's perspective, prove that it's all about
nothing. This is what A Meaningful World challenges, this nihilism writ
large, a cosmos whose only meaning is to reveal the absence thereof.

In stark terms, then, Wiker and Witt point out the hideousness of a
world without God as its designer. The only meaning it can offer, as
Weinberg candidly admits, and as you can find in arguments of Dawkins
and his followers, is the pursuit of science that reinforces our
meaninglessness. The only sacrament in the church of naturalism is the
celebration of the accident of our existence and the worthlessness of
our lives, and the only creed is the claim of an ironic noble cause
found in the scientific revelation of universal ignobility.

A Meaningful World is a partial antidote to this disease. There is
beauty and purpose in this world, some of it even man made. Taken as a
whole, along with but not subordinate to the familiar scientific ID
data, we see God. It's probably true that only those who have already
found God will see Him afresh after reading A Meaningful World, but
that's a wonderful and meaningful accomplishment.

On 15 Nov 2006 13:15:14 -0800, in a place far, far away, "Sound of
Trumpet" made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:


http://helives.blogspot.com/2006/10/...ful-world.html


Thursday, October 26, 2006

Review: A Meaningful World

snip

This has nothing to do with space policy.

"Sound of Trumpet" wrote on 15 Nov 2006:

Who cares what he wrote, I'm more interested in the moniker. Isn't "Sound
of Trumpet" a euphemism for farting?

On 15 Nov 2006 13:15:14 -0800, "Sound of Trumpet"
wrote:

A Meaningful World by Benjamin Wiker and Jonathan Witt (IVP Academic,
2006) is the best ID book I have read.

That may even be true.
[snip]

Wiker and Witt do not focus on ID as primarily a counter to evolution,
but as a response to the nihilism that permeates both our culture and
our schools. Instead of the standard ID methodology of challenging pure
naturalism where it enjoys a home-field advantage, an ill advised
t?te-?-t?te within the domain of philosophic materialism, A
Meaningful World couches the dispute not as one "science" against
another, but as meaningfulness and beauty versus meaninglessness and
inelegance.

Huh? But wait! Wasn't the original question not which approach was
prettier, but which one was more nearly matched to the Real World
(TM)?

Puzzledly,
Jack Tingle

PS: Go for it SoT; your posts are getting wackier and more
entertaining.

A Meaningful World by Benjamin Wiker and Jonathan Witt (IVP Academic,
2006) is the best ID book I have read.

A straight line if ever I've heard one.

Review: A Meaningful World


A Meaningful World by Benjamin Wiker and Jonathan Witt (IVP

Oh good, another book to refile under "fiction" when I find it in the
"Science" section at Borders.

The Other Kim
kimagreenfieldatyahoodotcom

On Wed, 15 Nov 2006 13:15:14 -0800, Sound of Trumpet wrote:


http://helives.blogspot.com/2006/10/...ful-world.html


Thursday, October 26, 2006

Review: A Meaningful World


A Meaningful World by Benjamin Wiker and Jonathan Witt (IVP Academic,
2006) is the best ID book I have read. It deserves a special place in
this overcrowded genre, in part because it takes the preferred
approach. Recent books have championed ID with a kind of ice-cold
sterility, presumably to support the proposition that ID is a bona fide
science. Often the result is a sleep-inducing rehash of familiar
arguments written in impenetrable, impersonal, and unnecessary
technical language.

Wiker and Witt do not focus on ID as primarily a counter to evolution,
but as a response to the nihilism that permeates both our culture and
our schools. Instead of the standard ID methodology of challenging pure
naturalism where it enjoys a home-field advantage, an ill advised
tęte-ŕ-tęte within the domain of philosophic materialism, A
Meaningful World couches the dispute not as one "science" against
another, but as meaningfulness and beauty versus meaninglessness and
inelegance. Oh, the usual cast of factoids are present—biological
complexity and cosmological fine-tuning, but here they are but
refreshingly deemphasized supporting characters in an adventure that
transcends the purely scientific.

In short, you want a nice, fuzzy, warm "answer" because you can't deal
with reality.

--
Mark K. Bilbo
------------------------------------------------------------
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language
is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't
just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other
languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their
pockets for new vocabulary." -James D. Nicoll

ID'ers and creationists are devil-worshipers and traitors to the United
States of America, who will burn or, assuming that Dante has it right,
freeze in the lowest circle of Hell for all eternity.

--
John W. Kennedy
"The blind rulers of Logres
Nourished the land on a fallacy of rational virtue."
-- Charles Williams. "Taliessin through Logres: Prelude"

In article . com,
"Sound of Trumpet" wrote:

http://helives.blogspot.com/2006/10/...ful-world.html


Thursday, October 26, 2006

Review: A Meaningful World


A Meaningful World by Benjamin Wiker and Jonathan Witt (IVP Academic,
2006) is the best ID book I have read. It deserves a special place in
this overcrowded genre, in part because it takes the preferred
approach. Recent books have championed ID with a kind of ice-cold
sterility, presumably to support the proposition that ID is a bona fide
science. Often the result is a sleep-inducing rehash of familiar
arguments written in impenetrable, impersonal, and unnecessary
technical language.

Not to mention that it's utter nonsense.
--
John Hachmann aa #1782

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire

Contact - Throw a .net over the .com

On Wed, 15 Nov 2006 23:19:24 -0800, johac
wrote:

In article . com,
"Sound of Trumpet" wrote:

http://helives.blogspot.com/2006/10/...ful-world.html


Thursday, October 26, 2006

Review: A Meaningful World


A Meaningful World by Benjamin Wiker and Jonathan Witt (IVP Academic,
2006) is the best ID book I have read. It deserves a special place in
this overcrowded genre, in part because it takes the preferred
approach. Recent books have championed ID with a kind of ice-cold
sterility, presumably to support the proposition that ID is a bona fide
science. Often the result is a sleep-inducing rehash of familiar
arguments written in impenetrable, impersonal, and unnecessary
technical language.

Not to mention that it's utter nonsense.

Well, of course he wouldn't mention that. When nonsense is all you
have to offer, you don't want to point out what it is.

--
Bill Snyder [This space unintentionally left blank.]