richard dawkins and aesthetics
I just found out Richard Dawkins lives in our neighborhood. He lives off of Banbury Road on the north end of Oxford, and so do I. My Junior Dean, Jonathan, ran into him on the street as we were coming back from our field trip to Bath last week.
Today, Jonathan passed on to me a humorous anecdote/rumor he heard about Mr. Dawkins. Apparently an elderly, extremely devout, and perhaps slightly naive woman arrived on Dawkins' porch collecting money for Christian Aid a few weeks ago. Upon finding out that this woman was from a Christian organization, Richard became very red-faced, exclaimed something about religious fanaticism, and slammed the door in her face.
Ok, maybe ad hominen arguments aren't the best way to face Dawkie. But I digress.
For those who have never encountered the works of this cheery chap, Dawkins is a brilliant, witty, and renowned evolutionary biologist who became popular in the late 1970s with his neo-Darwinian, gene-centered theory of evolution. He theorizes that all human life can be explained by the process of replicating genes, wherein genes 'out-propagate one another' in the process of natural selection. Dawkins extends this idea to explain all cultural phenomena throughout the ages such as religion, creativity, and the spread of ideas, proposing that there must be some evolutionary advantage to these phenenomena that scientists have yet to discover. He calls the specific genes that give rise to these phenomena 'memes.'
Beyond his prolific academic work, Dawkins is also known for his evangelistic quest to spread atheism and debunk religion as what he has coined a 'virus of the mind,' and he goes about this quest with a fervor akin to television fundamentalist preachers. In his 2000 work Unweaving the Rainbow, Dawkins expresses his belief that the meaning of life is to live, pass on genes, and then die. He finds great beauty and wonder in this process, and speaks of it quite poetically in an interview with Colin Hughes:
"We are fantastically privileged to exist at all, but then we also have the privilege of understanding this beautiful world in which we find ourselves. that should make us all the more eager to soak up as much as we possibly can of understanding our world and our place in it before we die...Mysteries do not lose their poetry when solved. Quite the contrary: the solution often turns out more beautiful than the puzzle... "
It's rather ironic that 'Ole Richie D and I have quite a similar way of thinking about the world. Though I am no scientist and could neither refute nor support Dawkins' theories of gene-centered evolution as explaining the origins of life, I too, find this world incredibly beautiful, full of wonder and grandeur, and fascinating to learn about. I would not be surprised if Dawkins and I have similar motives for going birdwatching on a crisp fall day. Maybe I can show up on his doorstep one of these mornings with binoculars and Sibley's Guide to Birds.
For me, though, one of the most compelling arguments for the existence of God are these terms that Dawkins himself uses: 'privilege to exist,' 'beautiful world,' 'mystery...' The ability of humans to even perceive such abstractions in the world and use language, art and music to express those abstractions, seems to point to a deeper reality that can hardly be explained away as being 'evolutionarily advantageous.' It just seems so superfluous, tacked-on, that humans would spend so much of their time creating, when we could be out spreading genes like rabbits with whomever we choose.
I cannot help but think this when I listen to The Arcade Fire or visit the Bath Abbey or watch Dead Man Walking. I believe that in the grand scheme of things, the purpose of art is to expand our imaginations enough that we can not only believe in a Creator who we cannot see, but go a step further and believe that He is indeed loving and the supreme source of all beauty, truth and goodness which we arrive at when we create things ourselves. I think my upcoming tutorial on philosophical aesthetics will help me to arrive at a more robust theology about the meaning of art. Maybe I can leave my thesis on Dr. D's front porch.
Today, Jonathan passed on to me a humorous anecdote/rumor he heard about Mr. Dawkins. Apparently an elderly, extremely devout, and perhaps slightly naive woman arrived on Dawkins' porch collecting money for Christian Aid a few weeks ago. Upon finding out that this woman was from a Christian organization, Richard became very red-faced, exclaimed something about religious fanaticism, and slammed the door in her face.
Ok, maybe ad hominen arguments aren't the best way to face Dawkie. But I digress.
For those who have never encountered the works of this cheery chap, Dawkins is a brilliant, witty, and renowned evolutionary biologist who became popular in the late 1970s with his neo-Darwinian, gene-centered theory of evolution. He theorizes that all human life can be explained by the process of replicating genes, wherein genes 'out-propagate one another' in the process of natural selection. Dawkins extends this idea to explain all cultural phenomena throughout the ages such as religion, creativity, and the spread of ideas, proposing that there must be some evolutionary advantage to these phenenomena that scientists have yet to discover. He calls the specific genes that give rise to these phenomena 'memes.'
Beyond his prolific academic work, Dawkins is also known for his evangelistic quest to spread atheism and debunk religion as what he has coined a 'virus of the mind,' and he goes about this quest with a fervor akin to television fundamentalist preachers. In his 2000 work Unweaving the Rainbow, Dawkins expresses his belief that the meaning of life is to live, pass on genes, and then die. He finds great beauty and wonder in this process, and speaks of it quite poetically in an interview with Colin Hughes:
"We are fantastically privileged to exist at all, but then we also have the privilege of understanding this beautiful world in which we find ourselves. that should make us all the more eager to soak up as much as we possibly can of understanding our world and our place in it before we die...Mysteries do not lose their poetry when solved. Quite the contrary: the solution often turns out more beautiful than the puzzle... "
It's rather ironic that 'Ole Richie D and I have quite a similar way of thinking about the world. Though I am no scientist and could neither refute nor support Dawkins' theories of gene-centered evolution as explaining the origins of life, I too, find this world incredibly beautiful, full of wonder and grandeur, and fascinating to learn about. I would not be surprised if Dawkins and I have similar motives for going birdwatching on a crisp fall day. Maybe I can show up on his doorstep one of these mornings with binoculars and Sibley's Guide to Birds.
For me, though, one of the most compelling arguments for the existence of God are these terms that Dawkins himself uses: 'privilege to exist,' 'beautiful world,' 'mystery...' The ability of humans to even perceive such abstractions in the world and use language, art and music to express those abstractions, seems to point to a deeper reality that can hardly be explained away as being 'evolutionarily advantageous.' It just seems so superfluous, tacked-on, that humans would spend so much of their time creating, when we could be out spreading genes like rabbits with whomever we choose.
I cannot help but think this when I listen to The Arcade Fire or visit the Bath Abbey or watch Dead Man Walking. I believe that in the grand scheme of things, the purpose of art is to expand our imaginations enough that we can not only believe in a Creator who we cannot see, but go a step further and believe that He is indeed loving and the supreme source of all beauty, truth and goodness which we arrive at when we create things ourselves. I think my upcoming tutorial on philosophical aesthetics will help me to arrive at a more robust theology about the meaning of art. Maybe I can leave my thesis on Dr. D's front porch.
posted by Katelyn | 6:40 PM
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