Book reviews:Novak on Christopher Hitchens

In his thoughtful reflection on Hitchens' current book, God Is Not Great, Michael Novak explains:

If all we had to depend upon were science, empiricism, and our own inquiring minds, we might still have discovered the existence of God (but not the God of Judaism and Christianity) — as did the ancient Greeks and Romans. Reason might well have shown us — did, in fact, show us — that there is a living intelligence deep down in everything on earth and in the skies above. All earthly things are alive with reasons, connections, and also with oddities yet to become better understood, puzzles yet to be solved. We learn by experiment that if we apply our minds to trying to understand how things truly are, how they work, how they are best used, there seems always to be some intelligible light within things that yields up precious satisfactions to the hungry mind. Everything that is seems understandable — in principle, if not just yet.

Novak provides a most interesting reflection on the relationship between Christianity in Europe and the growth of the mindset required for the development of science - in particular the concept that not only is the universe the product of a divine mind but that one's own mind is a reflection of that divine mind. Therefore, at least in principle, it ought to be possible to discover the workings of nature.

One thing I found interesting while writing The Spiritual Brain was the sharp contrast with the materialist view. A number of materialists have recently announced that our brains have not evolved to understand materialism and that is why most people don't accept it.

With such lame-o excuses functioning as arguments, no wonder materialism is in trouble. If it is really true that "our brains haven't evolved" to understand materialism, the most likely explanation is that materialism is not a correct account of the universe in which we live. The Spiritual Brain surveys, among other things, the physical evidence against materialism.

Predictions: Ideology dead but spirituality lives?

From the May 2007 edition of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, an ecumenical Christian mag, a comment on the future of ideology (no) vs. spirituality (yes):

"We will live in a world that will seem and be as Christian as today it seems scientific," believes the French anthropologist Rene Girard, writing in a new book, Truth or Weak Faith (Verita o fede debole). "Philosophies in fact are almost dead. Ideologies are virtually deceased; political theories are almost altogether spent. Confidence in the fact that science can replace religion has already been surmounted. There is in the world a new need for religion." Moral relativism, he argues, "is the product of the failure of modern anthropology, of the attempt to resolve problems linked to the diversity of human cultures. Anthropology has failed because it has not succeeded in explaining the different human cultures as a unitary phenomenon," which Christianity does.

This item is not available just yet at the archives, but lots of other good stuff is. Search on "Girard" for material by/on this interesting French thinker.

For my part, I don't agree that the world seems terribly scientific today. For most people committed to science, science is a superstition that tells them that they are really just primate apes (and therefore not really responsible for their actions) and that the Earth and the universe are all just some big accident. And the future lies in programming people to be, ... well, whatever we need them to be. That is one of the last ideologies standing, as a matter of fact, and - currently - anyone who crosses it gets in big trouble.

(Note: I've been writing an index (to pay bills), and dealing with a news item at my other blog, the Post-Darwinist, but I will try to post here at least once a day anyway. There is so much to post - if we had world enough and time ... )

My other blog is the Post-Darwinist, detailing events of interest in the intelligent design controversy.

Toronto-based Canadian journalist Denyse O'Leary (www.designorchance.com) is the author of the multiple award-winning By Design or by Chance? (Augsburg Fortress 2004), anoverview of the intelligent design controversy, and of Faith@Science. She was named CBA Canada's Recommended Author of the Year in 2005 and is co-author, with Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, of the forthcoming The Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist's case for the existence of the soul (Harper 2007).