Theory of Intelligent Design

The movie The Privileged Planet is based on the book by the same name, by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards, published in 2004. Gonzalez, an astrophysicist who worked at Iowa State University at the time, and Jay Richards, philosopher from Biola University, refute the popularly held Principle of Mediocrity, which is that earth is a mediocre planet, with nothing exceptional about it.

There are at least twenty different properties considered essential for complex life, such as water, gravity, atmosphere, etc. Several of these properties about earth, and how exceptional they are, are described in the film. For instance, If the earth was 5% closer or further from the sun water would not exist in liquid form. Water absorbs heat from the sun, regulating the temperature of the planet’s surface. The earth’s crust is just thick enough to allow for tectonic plate movement, required to regulate the earth’s inner temperature. The earth’s interior liquid iron creates a magnetic field that protects it from solar winds. The moon’s large size stabilizes the planet’s axis, and makes for mild climate changes. The atmosphere is a combination of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide that sustains complex life. There is only a very small portion of the electro-magnetic spectrum that is useful for such process as photosynthesis, the rest being useless or deadly.

The earth’s position in the solar system, as well as in the galaxy, is convenient. Closer to the Milky Way’s center poses more dangers from supernovas, additional radiation, and a black hole at the center of the galaxy. Closer to the edge the elements of the earth, such as iron, magnesium, and silicon, are rare.

Gonzalez and Richards also look at the exceptional place given to humans to study these wonders. Because humans have the capacity, desire, and ability to observe space, without obstacles like the dust of a location closer to the galaxy’s core, and with the ability to note the differences between those stars within the galaxy and those without, humans inhabit a perfect place. The two authors illustrate our exceptional observational location by total lunar eclipses and note the size of the moon in comparison to the distance of the sun so as to have total eclipses, which led to discoveries such as the sun’s chromosphere, and from that helium. Also stars observed only when the sun was in eclipse proved Einstein’s theory of relativity as it was shown that the sun bent light.

The movie proposes Intelligent Design by observing the complexities required for life and the rarity of this taking place in our known universe. Gonzalez makes the statement, “There’s something about the universe that can’t be simply explained by just the impersonal forces of nature and atoms colliding with atoms.”

If you would like to see the hour-long film, it is on Google video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5488284265590289530#

A Contemporary Essay on Man

Mere Humanity, by Donald Williams, is a study of whether man, a being especially endowed by God to be more than an animal, is a myth. The question is prompted by contemporary concepts, such as materialism, naturalism, and Freudianism, which try to debunk the myth that man is anything but an animal. Williams answers by observing selected works of the three authors: G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

The three authors have in common their Christianity and their use of story. For Chesterton and Tolkien the fact that man creates stories proves he is different from the animals, above the beasts; they are endowed with reason, as stated in Chesterton’s Everlasting Man and Tolkien’s essay, “On Faery Stories.” Lewis’s belief in the elevation of man is evident in both his Space trilogy and the series Chronicles of Narnia, in which man is related to the animals by their Maker, but made to rise above animal nature, though some will give into it by choice. (Note, in the Chronicles man is meant to rule the land and the creatures, but not meant to exploit them. Given with dominion is responsibility.) Lewis incorporates the medieval/Renaissance view that man is higher than the beasts and just below the angels, such as expressed in Pico Mirandola’s On the Dignity of Man. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit, and The Simarillion illustrate a special place for man also. He is mortal, moral, and ever hopeful.

Williams applies these views to contemporary philosophies, especially those influencing the academic world. An appendix addresses postmodernism, which is defined as a disbelief in any objective truth, largely as a result of disillusionment with modernism earlier in the twentieth century, which promised absolute objective truth. Both reject Christianity because both consider it to be subjective. Williams also addresses reductionist philosophies, which reduce man to a product, such as of economy (Marxism), or conditioning (Behaviorism). The authors who elevate man reject the reduction, as they allow, like God, that he has a free will.

I found the book very useful and entertaining. While it is scholarly, offering a very good reference list for further study, it does not read as many academic papers do – for a very select group It is especially relevant for Christian scholars and students, but also offers an overview of three authors Christians should know. As Donald Williams is both a scholar and a pastor, he applies the literature to the world Christians live in.

Donald Williams' website: http://doulomen.tripod.com/

Multiple Meanings in Charles Williams' The Place of the Lion

In The Place of the Lion Williams writes an elaborate Revelations kind of prophecy, blending realism with the supernatural and symbolic. The place of the lion is earth; the lion is both a Form for the supernatural beings medievalists called Intelligences, and the symbol for man, as the lion in the story is a hybrid of both. This is the opposite of what Williams’ friend, C.S. Lewis, made of the lion in The Chronicles of Narnia, where it symbolized God. In Williams’ book this is the eagle. The eagle is also the Form the protagonist, Anthony, identifies with, if not interchanges with. Other animals represent multiple meanings too, such as the snake is a literal threat to Anthony, as well as a Form, such as Aristotle called it, for the supernatural force to come into our world, and the symbol for Satan or evil.

The mixture of meanings reflects the theme of the other world opening up into, and destroying, this world. Williams portrays the chaos and confusion this could cause, and the various kinds of reactions by characters. The most substantial characters – Anthony, Damaris, his beloved, and his friend Quentin – all have some knowledge of the supernatural world as depicted in literature and the Bible, but they don’t necessarily believe it until it impinges on their world. For instance, Damaris studies and writes her thesis on medieval literature, specifically Abelard. She is aware of the religious beliefs of the period, but she does not share them. They are only of academic interest. It is only after an encounter in which Abelard comes alive, and becomes death, that she realizes the truth – that Abelard was real, not just an historical figure or concept.

Williams integrates his interest in philosophy and literature without becoming overbearing or too obscure (a criticism made by friends of other works of his). Christianity is the true account to which the story conforms, but it also incorporates Plato’s Ideas, Aristotle’s Forms, and the argument between universals and specifics that Abelard became noted for, at least in his own autobiography.

More importantly, Williams addresses the world of academics he worked in all his life. The portrayal of Damaris reminded me of C. S. Lewis, though this was written before Williams and Lewis became friends. Their friendship started with correspondence when Lewis wrote Williams after reading The Place of the Lion. Lewis, like Damaris, knew the Bible and the Christianity medieval philosophers taught. Lewis taught on medieval literature himself. But he did not believe it until his conversion at age 33, in 1931, the year The Place of the Lion was published. In Williams’ book the intellectuals have potential for salvation by their knowledge, but it must become belief, otherwise they may come to their destruction by refusing to acknowledge the truth was ever more than an idea.

I Want to Live

I am faced with a difficult decision. After speaking with my physician yesterday about my option in regards to the ankle, and the possibility of disability of disability, I should either go to UW Madison to discuss a revision of the ankle fusion, go to Froedert to discuss ankle replacement, or continue as I am. Dr. Rosic suggested discussing the surgery before applying for disability, which he said is difficult to get now. To apply I would need to see a doctor that Social Security mandates. I would agree to that. There are risks to surgery, such as it may not solve the pain (in another fusion); it could affect the kidney, such as the first did, which is why Dr. Limoni suggests doing it in Madison; it could not heal properly, especially with the medications I take; it could lead to an infection and amputation.

Last night, in a passion, I wrote on how I want to live, while I can. It is painful to walk, but then it is painful when stationary. If it is painful, whatever I do, then I should domore than I have for the past three years. This stage has made clear to me I may not have much more time that I can endure the pain to walk, so I should live while I can. There are times to set aside all the physical and financial concerns and live. As I listen to music memories are recolleced, and the last I lived was three years ago. I consider the future, and which option will allow me to maintain, not improve, my condition, and I’ve got to gather more material before all I have are memories.

I will suffer for my actions. I will bring flowers into the office this morning. There are better, more practical purposes for the money. It will be painful to walk the grocery store to get the flowers, and to stand to put them in vases. But I will not complain because it is my choice.

Christians believe suffering serves a purpose. I don’t know. I’m going to suffer, whatever I do. The pain that results from my living serves a purpose.

The World Without Allegory

“...truth hidden in beauteous fiction.” Dante, Convivio.

In the twentieth century, and I expect the twenty-first to be a continuance, allegory was generally derided. In a century of disillusionment, of deconstruction, straightforward speech was appreciated. That is one reason I despise politics, and the worminess of those who would escape justice by ambiguity, such as by redefining words, like “the”, “a”, or “is”. In politics all words are under suspicion of allegorical or double meaning. This desire for truthful words meant disdain for figurative speech. In allegory not only the speech but the concepts are figurative.

There was a time, prior to the twentieth century, when all arts – poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture, music – were concerned with beauty. The twentieth century gave that up, for the most part. Dante’s quote reflects the usefulness of allegory – to convey truth in beauty, a statement that was prevalent five centuries later as Keats echoed the statement. But the twentieth century has no use for beauty. Any artist who still expressed the old motto was not taken seriously. Avante-gardism and novelty were the important methods, and thus became the subject of art, or rather, the art became subject to them. Beauty had grown old, irrelevant, delusional.

She still has her servants, the lineage, perhaps, of Dante, Chaucer, and Keats. They may no longer have the role in society they once had – they are the old house staff of the old lady, still not convinced that such servitude is archaic, or that we should give her the finger and proclaim our freedom by smearing her picture with dung.

Mention of C.S. Lewis Discarded Image and Pilgrim's Regress

Quick review of The Discarded Image:

A very good introduction to medieval and Renaissance literature, constructing the Model of the Universe that was popularly held at that time. Lewis builds the Model by citing a substantial number of works that address cosmology, astronomy, medicine, rhetoric, etc. Subjects referred to by medieval authors are compiled, such as the characteristics of people described by the planet they were born under or the balance of their humours; the inhabitants of earth, aether, and the sky; daemons, angels and faeries; the separation of body and soul. A very good reference, and the beginning of a very long reading list, most of which may be found online.


Quick review of Pilgrim’s Regress:

A book that is as useful for understanding Lewis's personal experience as his autobiography, Surprised by Joy. He takes up some of the same themes, this time defining his desire for God as Romanticism, which he later calls Joy. The story is of the journey of the character John, as he searches for something to fulfill that desire for something he can't yet define. He meets a variety of characters who reflect philosophies that Lewis considered before becoming a Christian. For example, there are characters who represent Freudians, Epicureans, Classicists. Through the adventure John realizes that things such as sex, knowledge, aesthetic beauty, do not fulfill that desire.

The story is told as an allegory, modeled after John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, because, as Lewis writes in the Afterword: "But in fact all good allegory exists not to hide but reveal; to make the inner world more palpable by giving it an (imagined) concrete embodiment.... For when allegory is at its best, it approaches myth, which must be grasped with the imagination, not with the intellect." (208) Nonetheless, it is engages the intellect too.

Sexsim in C.S. Lewis's Pilgrim's Regress?

In Pilgrim’s Regress, a modernization of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, C. S. Lewis portrays a few female characters, though not all, as ‘brown girls.’ These girls, portrayed as another species, like the dwarves and giants in the book, pose a problem for the character John, who is on his spiritual journey to reach the island he envisioned in a moment of joy. The first brown girl appeals to him in a way he has not experienced before. They have sex, and for every time they have sex, another brown girl is born. The book is allegorical, like Bunyan’s work. The brown girls come to represent his guilt. The first girl now tries to make him settle down and take care of the family, to ignore his vision of the island. Still he sets out to find it. There are a few more times he is tempted by brown girls, even some he does not recognize as such, always to settle with what they have, because the island isn’t real, and this sensuous experience is. More than once he hears the girl say, “I’m what you’re looking for.”

Lewis’s purpose must be kept in mind. He, or rather his characters, realize that lust, love of the body, imitates love of the spirit. In his book, The Four Loves, Lewis categorizes these two different kinds of love as “Eros” and “Agape,” the first for the opposite sex, the second for God. In Pilgrim’s Regress, the protagonist realizes Eros, (what I prefer to call romantic love), is not the fulfillment of his desire for the heavenly. He finds sex enjoyable, even ecstatic initially, but it is not what he desired.... (Continued in ZEDS e-newsletter.)

The argument he makes that romantic love is the lesser substitute for agape love is important and still relevant. It is not just a medieval concept. It still justifies warning. Lewis notes just how prevalent this idea and practice of idealizing romantic love has become in his book, Allegory of Love. In the commentary on allegorical literature, he notes how influential works like the Romance of the Rose was on medieval thought and thereafter. From the antiquities of Greek and Roman writers until the Middle Ages romantic love was seldom written of, and certainly not central to literature. After the late medieval period, with the works of Dante, Boccaccio, and Chaucer, literature is preoccupied with romantic love. Few authors in that time conceive of agape love, in comparison. It is true to this day. In the age of Hollywood romantic love is consistently shown as the highest man can experience, and sex is the equivalent to Holy Communion, only it’s become so common it’s more like grabbing a quick bite to eat in the car. And it’s recognized as the false substitute for the soul by real life experience.

C. S. Lewis, The Pilgrim’s Regress, (New York: Eerdman’s Publishing Co. 1981).

The Skepticism of The Wizard of Oz

There was, is, and will be controversies over certain books for Christians. There was a big controversy over Harry Potter, as to whether it was okay for kids to read books that glamorized magic. But when you really get down to the message of stories, many of these books aren't bad. In fact, I would argue that one of the children's classics that has been accepted for decades is actually far more anti-Christian, or anti-religion, than books like Harry Potter. Though I have not read a biography of Baum yet, I am guessing at this point he was cynical. Now, I have not read his books, but I am going by the film.

The spiritual journey is an old, old metaphor. One very popular and early book is Pilgrim's Progress, in which the character takes a journey to find Heaven. Along the way he meets characters that are allegorical, for instance Gossip, Disbelief, etc. As I read the book a few months ago I could not help but think of the Wizard of Oz. As I thought about it more I realized Baum, satirizing the spiritual journey, makes God out to be the Wizard--a fake, a charlatan whose only power is by scaring people. The message is that a person should believe in oneself, enjoy worldly pleasures (of home), rather than think on some other paradise like Emerald City.

Historical Drama from the Point of View of the Gods

Historical drama – whether stage, film, or literature – is always tragic. We, the viewers, become like the gods of Olympus; we know the future and we know of Fate. Now we want to witness the nobility of those who must live it.

I saw the film Valkyrie, about the attempted assassination of Hitler. Every viewer knows the outcome. The film wasn’t suspenseful; that’s not why I watched. I watched to see the character of those who played out the scenario. Though they may have been fictionalize, somewhat, we know the events to be true. Historical drama allows us to observe that character that we, as people who must live out our own scenarios, without foresight of future or Fate, aspire to.

We know the inevitable end, it is only our character that survives.

Writing What You Don't Know

On Novalis’ Aphorisms and Fragments
"Whoever describes nothing but his own experiences, his favorite objects, and cannot bring himself patiently to examine and depict even a totally unknown and uninteresting object will never achieve anything preeminent as an artist. The artist must be able and willing to describe everything."
German Romantic Criticism, p. 64.

I do not agree with Novalis’s statement about the subjective artist’s inability to achieve preeminence; I don’t know if Emily Dickinson ever wrote of anything outside of her experience. I highlight the statement, however, because it describes what I consider to be a matter of maturity for writers. Most amateur or young writers will write from personal experience. One of the most common precepts to writers is “Write what you know.” At some point, in the course of maturity, the writer must consider writing beyond his experience. (Unless he happens to live like Hemingway.) My own lesson on this came about, in part, by reading T.S. Eliot’s essays, and his “objective correlative” stuck with me ever since.

It is difficult to achieve, I think. When I consider my own poetry, the poems that are written of personal experience strike me as complete. Personal experience gives me a standard by which to judge if the poem is effective. I want to convey the emotion of that event, the significance of that event I am able to judge if the poem has the right proportions to convey that. Have I used the right language? Have I given too much detail? Have I the right distance from the event? Personal experience also helps me decide when the poem is finished, not unlike resolving problems in life.

When I write of events I have not experienced it is difficult to answer all of these questions. I wrote “Vulcan’s Tattoo Shop” without experience of tattoo shops or cancer. I still wonder if it’s right. The portion that describes the tattoo artist’s perspective I think is right, because tattoos went from personal strong statements to popular sayings applied like the Crackerjack stick-ons. That is observable enough from social trends. But I don’t know if the woman with cancer getting a tattoo of a pink ribbon has enough impact. I think my poetry tends towards resignation or stoic resolve because that is how I live. It would be farther outside myself to write on something like requited love.

This recognition reveals that nothing I write will be “totally unknown.” There is, at the core, the emotions I have experienced.