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Title: Moral Darwinism: How We Became Hedonists by Benjamin Wiker, William Dembski ISBN: 0-8308-2666-1 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: July, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (8 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Anti-evolutionists explore the roots of culture clash
Comment: This is a very engaging book that raises some of the central issues in the clashing of our Semitic cosmology with the modern materialist worldview, and places them in a historical context. A scholarly discussion of this book could well inform debates over the role of Darwinism in the modern world. It does however present a historical view that is very unorthodox in some ways.
It is a refreshing change to see this important side of Darwinism argued by its opponents rather than the tedious and unenlightening arguments somewhat more separately from the status of natural selection in science or arguments for the contamination of science texts, or the ill-conceived notion of "theistic science." It is the moral implications of a Darwinist view of the universe that seem to be at the core of anti-Darwinism, even though the rhetoric often revolves around the false claim that evolution is "a big lie."
The confusion of the moral implications of a Darwinist view from the factual aspects of evolution are the biggest and most serious complaint from critics like Robert Pennock ("Tower of Babel"), and this book takes a welcome step toward that separation, although it doesn't quite achieve it.
This book at least focuses the core issues where they belong, in the realm of moral philosophy and how we should live as a result of our understanding of nature. It is also refreshing and ironic to see anti-Darwinism approached in a serious historical context, since Darwin's central point was to place the natural world into historical context.
The story here is well told, and correctly establishes the materialist philosophy going back to the ancient Greeks as part of the foundation of modernism later developed further by others. It is clearly an attractive story to opponents of the modernist worldview because it seems by this account to leave modernism rooted in an inferior basis of morality, something that the author finds Christianity to have done far better.
It also makes thoughtful points about the role of hedonistic philosophy in Western culture that are of interest to people who are not strictly anti-Darwinists. It isn't hard to appreciate the role of hedonism today and sometimes feel as if we are, as Neil Postman put it, "Amusing Ourselves To Death."
It is weakened in my perspective by failing to completely separate the factual evolutionary aspects of the modern worldview from their moral implications, and in avoiding the question of whether the roots of *democracy* and other aspects of modernism might also be rooted in those same times. The links between materialism, Darwinism and modern economic theory and their putative role in the Industrial revolution is an important issue that the authors largely avoid. If not from these aspects of modernism, where do they come from ?
Democracy is surely not an innovation by Augustine or Luther, it seems to me. Democratic ideals rooted in ancient Athens seem to play as much of a role in the modern world as Epicureanism, and there is a very serious question in my mind whether this aspect of modernity is being cast out along with Epicureanism and materialism by the author. The baby of modern freedom with the bathwater of modern materialist-Darwinist morality.
Some profound questions raised but not entirely answered to my satisfaction in this book and relevant to culture clash include:
1. Is Christianity, or some other doctrinal religion, therefore the only reasonable basis for morality in a modern Western world ?
2. Is moral humanism neccessarily always rooted in Epicureanism (or more importantly, Darwinism, for that matter), and is it the only alternative Christianity ?
3. Are there also negative aspects of the worldview of Christianity, or positives to the modernist materialist worldview that are worth preserving ?
4. Is a true non-Darwinian morality possible and consistent with the valuable aspects of modernity ?
I recommend this for critical thinkers who want to know more about what motivates anti-evolutionists, and also on slightly different aspects of the same issues:
"When The Gods All Trembled: Darwinis, Scopes, and American Intellectuals," by Paul Conklin, for a penetrating discussion of the logical implications of Darwinism for Christian moral thinking,
"Genes, Genesis, and God," by John Holmes Ralston for interesting discussions of the implications and alternatives to morality rooted in sociobiology, and
"The Unconscious Civilization," John Ralston Saul, who has an interesting take on the roots of modernism that is very different from Wiker, emphasizing entirely different aspects.
"Tower of Babel," by Robert Pennock, a critique of the underlying philosophical and factual claims of intelligent design.
"Amusing Ourselves to Death," by Neil Postman, a social criticism that shares with Wilker an attack on modern hedonism, although from a completely different perspective.
Rating: 5
Summary: Outstanding!
Comment: Wiker's analysis of the roots and development of the underlying philosophy of scientific naturalism (Darwinism) is clear and compelling. This is a very approachable book that I recommend highly--a "must read".
Rating: 5
Summary: An Important Book!
Comment: This is one of the most important books I have ever read. Wiker writes extremely well and provides much needed research into the history of the battle between Christianity and Epicureanism. He argues persuasively that our culture wars are really cosmological wars. This book clarifies what is at stake and makes the contrast quite clear between the two antithetical and antagonistic worldviews of Materialism and Christianity. This book is highly recommended for anyone who wants to understand the underlying ideas behind our current moral debates.
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Title: The Right Questions: Truth, Meaning & Public Debate by Phillip E. Johnson, Nancy Pearcey ISBN: 0830822941 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview by J. P. Moreland, William Lane Craig ISBN: 0830826947 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: What We Can't Not Know: A Guide by J. Budziszewski ISBN: 189062649X Publisher: Spence Pub Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design by William A. Dembski, Charles W. Colson ISBN: 0830823751 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: February, 2004 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Doubts About Darwin: A History of Intelligent Design by Thomas Woodward, Phillip E. Johnson ISBN: 0801064430 Publisher: Baker Book House Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
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