Intelligent Design
Physics, Earth & Space
Ross Douthat on the Universe’s Remarkable Intelligibility

“The world is intelligible,” says Ross Douthat, recognizing something remarkable that many of us take for granted. An opinion columnist at the New York Times, Douthat has a new book coming out on religion and why “everyone should be more religious,” and he joined Jonah Goldberg on a podcast to discuss the book along with our current political landscape. Douthat’s book, due out February 11, is titled Believe.
Douthat, a Catholic, referenced fine-tuning and the profound evidence of intentional design in nature as among the supports for his own faith. He told Goldberg that it’s noteworthy that we have minds that are able to accurately comprehend the universe around us, let alone its chemical makeup.
The Truth of Things
Our questioning natures, bent on discovering the truth of things, demonstrate that we live in something of an ordered existence. As Jay Richards and Guillermo Gonzalez argue in The Privileged Planet, we can come to know the world because the world was designed to be studied and understood.
Several prominent intellectuals, including Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Matthew Crawford, Jordan Peterson, Paul Kingsnorth, and others have either converted to Christianity or stressed religion’s role in creating a thriving and healthy society. And as journalist Rod Dreher seeks to demonstrate in his recent book, Living in Wonder, interest in the supernatural and the spiritual is seeing a revival in the West.
Enter Douthat with another call to recognize the important place of religion, and moreover, why it’s not irrational or crazy to have faith. He apparently consults a lot of science in his book, including physics, which will be interesting to read. Is the tide in the sciences somewhat turning? Many say yes. Philosopher of science Stephen C. Meyer wrote an influential book Return of the God Hypothesis arguing that it’s entirely plausible to infer God’s existence on scientific grounds.
The Dawn of Darwinism
Ever since the Enlightenment and the dawn of Darwinism, God and divine explanations for the mystery of existence have tended to be sidelined by the “consensus.” Suppose, though, that science itself suffers if we preemptively rule out certain conclusions. Scientists and theorists should be open to following the evidence, wherever it leads.
Douthat’s new book looks to be a provocative read by one of America’s most prominent public intellectuals, centering on a topic that seems to weigh on the minds of many.
Cross-posted at Mind Matters News.