{"id":5623,"date":"2009-06-05T06:49:35","date_gmt":"2009-06-05T11:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/"},"modified":"2009-06-05T06:49:35","modified_gmt":"2009-06-05T11:49:35","slug":"friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday is for Friends: Logan Paul Gage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This is a two-part series by Logan Paul Gage, of the Discovery Institute, about Intelligent Design. We posted part one last week \u2014 this is part two, and today\u2019s post covers two themes: God and beauty.<\/i><\/p>\n

Intelligent design and the deity<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\"DiscInst.jpg\"<\/span>In the predominant
\nnarrative, Charles Darwin was a humble scientist who proposed a
\nstrictly scientific theory.\u00a0 Upon publication of The Origin of Species
\nin 1859, religious folks like Bishop Wilberforce voiced theological
\nobjections to it; and thus began the most salient episode in the \u2018war
\nbetween science and religion.\u2019\u00a0 Many Christians adopt a similar
\nnarrative, but suggest this was all a misunderstanding; Darwin\u2019s theory
\nsimply has nothing to do with religious or philosophical questions.<\/p>\n

If
\nI may be so bold, I\u2019d like to suggest that both narratives are wrong.\u00a0
\n(For a good, short critique of the \u201cconflict thesis\u201d of science and
\nreligion, see God\u2019s Undertaker by Oxford\u2019s John Lennox.)\u00a0 If one reads
\nThe Origin, the fact that Darwin is presupposing certain views of God
\nand creation fashionable in Victorian England is striking.\u00a0 This theory
\ninvolved more than strictly scientific questions from the beginning.<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

<!\u2013
\ndocument.write('\"TwitThis\"<\/a>\u2018);
\n\/\/\u2013><\/p>\n


\nOne
\nsuch theological conception common in this debate (touched upon by RJS
\nin a recent post) involves whether God is a \u201ctinkerer.\u201d\u00a0 Kenneth
\nMiller, Catholic Darwinist of Brown University, sums up this view
\nwell.\u00a0 He thinks that neo-Darwinism\u2019s view of God is better than ID\u2019s:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe
\nGod of the intelligent design movement is way too small\u2026.\u00a0 In their
\nview, he designed everything in the world and yet he repeatedly
\nintervenes and violates the laws of his own creation.\u00a0 Their God is
\nlike a kid who is not a very good mechanic and has to keep lifting the
\nhood and tinkering with the engine.\u201d<\/p>\n

As C.S. Lewis was fond of
\npointing out, divine action does not require the breaking of laws of
\nnature.\u00a0 So let\u2019s set that aside and make two other observations.<\/p>\n

First,
\nif ID is only the proposition that an intelligent cause explains some
\nfeatures of nature better than mere material causes, then the ID
\nadvocate is not necessarily committed to intervention in the process of
\ncreation.\u00a0 God could (intelligently) set up nature to unfold a certain
\nway.\u00a0 He need not intervene in \u201cgaps.\u201d\u00a0 All ID requires is that
\nintelligent design was involved and that the effects of this design are
\nempirically discernable.<\/p>\n

Michael Behe, for example, thinks there
\nwere probably not any interventions by God in creation.\u00a0 Other ID
\ntheorists think otherwise.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Second, and more to our point, as
\npost-modern philosophers of science often point out, even the questions
\nwe ask are from a certain frame of reference.\u00a0 Miller seems to ask,
\n\u2018Why would God create a world which he has to tinker with?\u2019\u00a0 But
\nwouldn\u2019t it be equally valid to ask, \u2018Why would God design a process in
\nwhich he isn\u2019t going to be involved?\u2019<\/p>\n

Is \u201ctinkering\u201d really the
\nonly way to look at it?\u00a0 Tinkering is a rather loaded term.\u00a0 Did Monet
\n\u201ctinker\u201d or did he add detail, richness, and complexity?\u00a0 Would Monet
\nhave been a better artist if instead of tinkering with paintings he
\ncreated a machine which relied upon a random number generator to
\nmanufacture them without his involvement?\u00a0 It might have saved him some
\nwork, but it wouldn\u2019t have let him be an artist.\u00a0 (And one supposes God
\nisn\u2019t too concerned with saving work.) \u00a0<\/p>\n

St. Thomas often relied
\nupon the principle that effects cannot be greater than their causes.\u00a0
\nIn this regard, wouldn\u2019t it be odd if the creator of artists should not
\nalso be an artist?

The origin of beauty<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

This is the third in a series of three posts, Intelligent Design and the Artist\u2019s Soul.<\/p>\n

Benjamin
\nWiker and Jonathan Witt\u2019s masterful book A Meaningful World:\u00a0 How the
\nArts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature gives the following
\nillustration of how modern scientific reductionists treat nature and
\nthe arts:<\/p>\n

Imagine hearing the following
\naccount of one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart\u2019s symphonies:\u00a0 \u2018We have been
\nable to prove that this particular symphony is actually reducible to a
\nseries of notes that happen to be played both at the same time in
\nchords and one after another, creating a string of disturbances in the
\nair caused by different frequencies.\u00a0 We realize, of course, that these
\ndisturbances cause further disturbances in the audience, due in part to
\nthe presence of Earth\u2019s particular atmosphere and in part to the effect
\nsuch disturbances have on the apparatus of the ear as transmitted by
\nneurons to the brain\u2013so disturbing, in fact, that some break into
\nvoluntary tears, remarking that they seemed to be hearing the very
\nharmonies of heaven.\u00a0 Happily, we now know that there is nothing more
\nto Mozart\u2019s work in particular and to music in general than mere notes,
\nthemselves reducible to waves disturbing air.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When
\nChristian intellectuals hear such things, their general response is to
\nthink that they can have their Darwinian cake and merely scrape off the
\nreductionist icing.\u00a0 But Darwinism, if I may continue the strained
\nmetaphor, is, it turns out, a layered cake with icing all throughout.<\/p>\n

Continue Wiker and Witt:<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch
\nreductionism displays the kind of bluntness of soul we found in Sigmund
\nFreud, which could reduce the glory of Hamlet to the irrational
\ngurglings of sexual desire.\u00a0 It is the precise bluntness of soul that
\nled Charles Darwin to reduce the origin of music to mating calls and,
\nhence, to the sexual desire that drives sexual selection.\u201d<\/p>\n

The
\nauthors refer here, of course, to Darwin\u2019s reductionist account of
\nmusic in The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex.\u00a0 Many
\nChristians think science determines the \u2018how\u2019 and religion determines
\nthe \u2018why.\u2019\u00a0 But we see here that in the strange case of Darwinism, this
\nsimply won\u2019t do.\u00a0 Natural selection swallows up other causal chains.\u00a0
\nThe \u2018why\u2019 of natural phenomena reduces to \u2018because it enhanced
\nreproductive success.\u2019\u00a0 And beauty\u2013to the artist\u2019s great horror\u2013is no
\nexception.<\/p>\n

As University of Chicago biologist Jerry Coyne
\nwrites, \u201cany injection of teleology into evolutionary biology violates
\nprecisely the great advance of Darwin\u2019s theory: to explain the
\nappearance of design by a purely materialistic process\u2013no deity
\nrequired.\u201d<\/p>\n

In chapter six of The Origin, Darwin further destroys
\nthe beauty of beauty, demoting it to an illusion which, once again,
\nenhances reproductive fitness.\u00a0 Darwin there writes that if his theory
\nis truth, nothing in nature was created for the beauty of man.\u00a0 Nor is
\nbeauty of any real substance, but completely arbitrary.<\/p>\n

The
\nDarwinian, at least in his philosophical commitments, is tone deaf.\u00a0 As
\nA.N. Wilson (the great biographer of C.S. Lewis) recently wrote of
\nphilosophical materialists in explanation of his re-conversion to
\nChristianity, \u201cthey seem to me like people who have no ear for music,
\nor who have never been in love.\u00a0 It is not that (as they believe) they
\nhave rumbled the tremendous fraud of religion\u2013prophets do that in
\nevery generation.\u00a0 Rather, these unbelievers are simply missing out on
\nsomething that is not difficult to grasp.\u00a0 Perhaps it is too obvious to
\nunderstand; obvious, as lovers feel it was obvious that they should
\nhave come together, or obvious as the final resolution of a fugue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nature\u2019s
\ndesign is just like this.\u00a0 Too obvious to grasp.\u00a0 (As Lewis said, fish
\ndon\u2019t feel wet.)\u00a0 But this is why we need the artist.\u00a0 For the artist
\nsenses the transcendent and eternal in the mundane and temporal.\u00a0 She
\nmakes plain what should be plain; stirs in us what is simmering
\nunconsciously.\u00a0 Conveys the immaterial through the material.<\/p>\n

So
\nwhy have so many of the best artists of our generation, even rather
\nsecular ones\u2013the Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.s, the Tom Wolfes, etc.\u2013been
\nunable to shake their skepticism of Darwinian fairytales?\u00a0 Because
\nDarwin\u2019s view strikes at the heart of the artist\u2019s soul, reducing all
\npurposes, all agency actually, to survival.\u00a0 The Darwinian world is no
\nlonger a shadowland, for it is without Sun.\u00a0 To the artist, however,
\nsuch reductionism will ever echo falsely in the quiet hour, when
\nanother world whispers.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a two-part series by Logan Paul Gage, of the Discovery Institute, about Intelligent Design. We posted part one last week \u2014 this is part two, and today\u2019s post covers two themes: God and beauty. Intelligent design and the deity In the predominant narrative, Charles Darwin was a humble scientist who proposed a strictly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[480],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-and-faith"],"yoast_head":"\nFriday is for Friends: Logan Paul Gage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is a two-part series by Logan Paul Gage, of the Discovery Institute, about Intelligent Design. We posted part one last week -- this is part two, and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Friday is for Friends: Logan Paul Gage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is a two-part series by Logan Paul Gage, of the Discovery Institute, about Intelligent Design. We posted part one last week -- this is part two, and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-05T11:49:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/imgs\/DiscInst.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/\",\"name\":\"Friday is for Friends: Logan Paul Gage\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-06-05T11:49:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-06-05T11:49:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"This is a two-part series by Logan Paul Gage, of the Discovery Institute, about Intelligent Design. We posted part one last week -- this is part two, and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Friday is for Friends: Logan Paul Gage\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Friday is for Friends: Logan Paul Gage","description":"This is a two-part series by Logan Paul Gage, of the Discovery Institute, about Intelligent Design. We posted part one last week -- this is part two, and","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Friday is for Friends: Logan Paul Gage","og_description":"This is a two-part series by Logan Paul Gage, of the Discovery Institute, about Intelligent Design. We posted part one last week -- this is part two, and","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2009-06-05T11:49:35+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/imgs\/DiscInst.jpg"}],"author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/","name":"Friday is for Friends: Logan Paul Gage","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-06-05T11:49:35+00:00","dateModified":"2009-06-05T11:49:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"This is a two-part series by Logan Paul Gage, of the Discovery Institute, about Intelligent Design. We posted part one last week -- this is part two, and","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/06\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-logan-paul-gage-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Friday is for Friends: Logan Paul Gage"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}