The Nature of Nature

I'm super grateful for my friend, Catherine, and her Easter gift to me:  The Nature of Nature:  Examining the Role of Naturalism in Science.   The book is edited by her son, Bruce Gordon (see "Coffee with Dr. Bruce Gordon"), and his collegue, William Dembski.

The mammoth book (917 pages excluding endnotes) is a collection of essays by both Christian and non-Christian thinkers on the issue of naturalism, the belief that nothing exists outside of physical matter or nature.   Some notable non-Christian thinkers include Michael Shermer, Francis Crick, Roger Penrose, David Berlinski & Michael Ruse.  Noteable Christians include Bruce Gordon, William Dembski, William Lane Craig, JP Moreland, Alvin Plantinga, & Stephen C. Meyer.  

The debate?  Bruce Gordon explains in his introductory essay:

"A central issue in this interplay between presuppositions and conclusions, one made all the more pressing by recent scientific advances, is whether the universe is self-existent, self-sufficient, and self-organizing, or whether instead it is grounded in a reality that transcends space, time, matter, and energy.  More pointedly, does our universe find its ultimate explanatory principle in matter or mind?"

Some of the articles are way out of my league (e.g., articles on Quantum Physics which, just perusing them is enough to make ones head swim--unless of course, you speak that language), but most are right up my ally in terms of my interests in philosophy, cosmology, & ethics.

What am I looking forward to reading the most?

• "The Rise of Naturalism & Its Problematice Role in Science and Culture" (Bruce Gordon)
• "Sauce for the Goose:  Intelligent Design, Scientific Methodology, and the Demarcation Problem" (Stephen Meyer)
• "Evolution versus Naturalism" (Alvin Plantinga)
• "Must Naturalists Be Realists?" (Michael Williams)
• "On the Origins of Life" (David Berlinski)
• "DNA:  The Signature in the Cell" (Stephen Meyer)
• "Life's Conservation Law:  Why Darwinian Evolution Cannot Create Biological Info" (William Dembski & Robert Marks)
• "The Limits of Non-Intelligent Explanations in Molecular Biology" (Michael Behe)
• "The Chain of Accidents and the Rule of Law:  The Role of Contingency and Necessity in Evolution" (Michael Shermer)
• "Naturalism and the Origin of the Universe" (William Lane Craig)
• "Habitable Zones and Fine-Tuning" (Guillermo Gonzalez) 
• "On the Origins of the Mind" (David Berlinski)
• "Evolution and Ethics" (Michael Ruse)
• "Naturalism, Science, and Religion" (Michael Tooley)

As you might guess, this will keep me busy for a long while.  Now, if I only had a reading group to discuss these articles....

Amazon makes me smile!

Just arrived...

What was in it?

• The Making of an Atheist:  How Immorality Leads to Unbelief
• The Lost World of Genesis One:  Ancient Cosmology & the Origins Debate
• Washed & Waiting:  Reflections on Christian Faithfulness & Homosexuality
• Is God Just a Human Invention? And 17 Other Questions Raised by the New Atheists
• Saving Leonardo:  A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning

Amazon makes me smile!

On Reading Less

Wise words from John Piper...

I [do not] want to give the impression that I think there is virtue in reading many books. In fact one of my greatest complaints in seminary was that professors trained students in bad habits of superficial reading because they assigned too many books. I agree with Spurgeon: “A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books which he has merely skimmed, lapping at them.” God save us from the allurement of “keeping up with Pastor Jones” by superficial skimming. Forget about “keeping up.” It only feeds pride and breeds spiritual barrenness. Instead devote yourself to boring in and going deep. There is so much soul-refreshing, heart-deepening, mind-enlarging truth to be had from great books!

 I love books, and I read a lot of them.   But I also try to have several that I'm going deep into.  The ones I go deep into are usually the ones I've read quickly through, and desire to master.  For example, I've read and have re-read taking notes along the way Wright's The Mission of God, Piper's When I Don't Desire God, and am currently going deep with William Lane Craig's On Guard as well as re-reading and listening to Piper's The Pleasures of God.

Not all books are created equally.   This is a good reminder from Piper.   

[HT:  Z]

Trying patiently to go at His pace....

Good words from Piper...just what I needed today:

"Impatience is a form of unbelief.  It's what we begin to feel when we start to doubt the wisdom of God's timing or the goodness of God's guidance.  It springs up in our hearts when our plan is interrupted or shattered.  It may be prompted by a long wait in a checkout line or a sudden blow that knocks out half our dreams.  The opposite of impatience is not a glib denial of loss.  It's a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness to wait for God in the unplanned place of obedience--to wait in his place, and go at his pace."

Future Grace, 171.

Is God Silent?

I've been reading Paul Miller's excellent book, A Praying Life:  Connecting with God in a Distracting World, which is stuffed with great insights & quotes.  Here's just one of them....

"Sometimes when we say 'God is silent,' what's really going on is that he hasn't told the story the way we wanted it told.  He will be silent when we want him to fill in the blanks of the story we are creating.  But with his own stories, the ones we live in, he is seldom silent."  

I'm almost finished with this book (& give it top scores), but this book is not finished with me. A friend of mine said that this is not simply the best book on prayer out there, but one of the best books on the Christian life. I have to concur.

Designed to run...

In January, I read Born to Run which for a lot of folks like me has drawn attention to the way we've been taught--or not taught--to run.  Here's a video talking about barefoot running.  Heads up:  the video talks about the amazing ability to outrun quadrupeds that we somehow had the ability to evolve.  Words still out on what we did until we developed this ability, but I digress... 



I've been running some on the treadmill (mind you, I live in Calgary and don't want to try this in the snow) and can tell a big difference.  Shin splints don't come so easily anymore and I'd recommend you give it a try.  [Disclaimer:  I'm not a doctor nor do I play one on tv.]

[ht: z]

Stranger Know Thyself

In his book, Lost in the Cosmos, the late Walker Percy asks,

"Why is it that of all the billions and billions of strange objects in the Cosmos--novas, quasars, pulsars, black holes--you are beyond doubt the strangest?"

Book Review: Liberal Fascism

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning by Jonah Goldberg

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a great read of intellectual history. Defining fascism as essentially "a religion of the state", Jonah Goldberg traces core liberal ("progressive") commitments as well as those of liberals-masquerading-as-conservatives. In the process, he traces the thread that runs through the politics of Hitler & Mussolini, Woodrow Wilson, FDR & the New Deal, Kennedy, Johnson, as well as George W. Bush ("when somebody hurts, the gov't has got to move" & his 'compassionate conservatism'), Pat Buchanan, Hillary, and everybody's favorite, Obama.

Most people react emotionally to such a claim b/c fascism is usually associated with Hitler & Mussolini & their atrocities, but what is forgotten is the praise given to these leaders by the West before their atrocities. "Before the war, fascism was widely viewed as a progressive social movement...". Faciscm is a totalitarian political religion, and the mood at the beginning of the 20th Century was for social engineering, complete in some instances with eugenics, racial profiling, 'family planning,' moving beyond Christianity, etc. For example, the title of the book comes from HG Wells, who told the Young Liberals at Oxford in a 1932 speech that progressives must become 'liberal fascists' and 'enlightened Nazis.' It's hard to imagine anyone saying that after the war.

My view, all governments tend toward totalitarianism unless something prevents it from going there. In the absence trust in God, folks will trust in the nanny state for cradle to grave love & care & security. In other words, totalitarianism, or a holistic approach where nothing falls outside the realm of regulation--from what you eat to what you say to what you believe. In America, it takes the form of a 'smiley-face' fascism. As Goldberg contends,

"If there is ever a fascist takeover in America, it will come not in the form of storm troopers kicking down doors but with lawyers and social workers saying, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help.""

And again,

"...in America, where hostility to big gov't is central to the national character, the case for statism must be made in terms of 'pragmatism' and decency. In other words, our fascism must be nice and for your own good."

Goldberg closes with a quote from CS Lewis:

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

Overall, a good read & well documented. I learned much that I never even remotely learned in the university. In fact, when you read this book, everything going on in today's politics at the federal level becomes crystal clear.

View all my reviews >>

Pondering these quotes....

"The Church exists by mission as fire exists by burning."
- Emil Brunner

"There is no participation in Christ without participation in His mission to the world. That by which the Church receives its existence [i.e., the life of Christ] is that by which it is also given its world mission."

~ qtd. in God's Missionary People, ch. 1

"In choosing a people, God intended to reach out to the whole world.... 'In choosing Israel as segment of all humanity, God never took his eye off the other nations; Israel was the pars pro toto, a minority called to serve the majority. God's election of Abraham and Israel concerns the whole world."

"The Church is not an exclusive club of privilege, neither is it a place to rest from our labors. We have been brought in so that we may gather others into this Kingdom of grace."

~ qtd. in God's Missionary People, ch. 3

Who is John Galt?

Okay. So at the urging of my wife and my friend, Shawn, I've been reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged at night before bed. I'm some 250 pages into this novel of over 1000 pages. So far so good. It's an interesting read. I'm enjoying it (even though I'm not buying into her objectivist philosophy). Good story, etc.

Except for one thing: when Rand feels the need to throw in a, um...let's call it, "romantic encounter," the whole thing becomes a train wreck (of the kind that Taggert Transcontinental would want desperately to avoid). Seriously, the whole things derails into some schmaltzy, cheap, third rate, Faubian-type crap. The book would be a lot better without it. Wife's advice: just skip it (which one has to do to avoid the unpleasant taste of the previous meal coming back up).

Okay, I got that off my chest. It needed to be said. [And I do feel the better for it.]

Driscoll's New Book

Filed Under: "You've Gotta Check This Out"
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Mark Driscoll has a book coming out called, "Death by Love." Looks interesting. Cool concept for the book comes through in this video. Check it out.

Download Augustine's "Confessions" for free--this month only

Filed under: "You've Gotta Check This Out!"
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The patron saint of the Reformation, St. Augustine, is well-loved by Christians around the world. I have enjoyed studying several of his works, including On Free Choice of the Will; The Trinity, The City of God, & his Confessions.

During the month of August, you can download an audio version of the The Confessions of Saint Augustine for free from ChristianAudio.com. Normally a $26.98 cost, if you click here and enter AUG2008, you can get it for free.

Perhaps the most well-known line from the book (ch. 1), "You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You."

[HT]

Paul Tripp's New Book "Whiter Than Snow"

Filed under: "You've Gotta Check This Out"
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As I'm lying here in bed on the 5th day of a sickness that my wife says is the flu, I'm getting lots of reading done and lots of internet surfing between naps.

I came across a promo of Paul Tripp's new book, "Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy." It is a study of David's psalm of repentance, Psalm 51, spread out into 52 devotions.

I'm excited about this b/c (1) I love this Psalm; (2) I need this psalm to give voice to the cries of my soul; & (3) I followed some of these meditations on Tripp's blog so I can't wait to read them in book form.

Here is a video promo:




[HT]