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.

a reason to start a blog

So I am finally writing my first post.

Though the inclination comes and goes in spurts, I have always committed myself to never starting a blog. I knew that for me it would become highly self-indulgent exercise. I knew that throughout the day I would find myself concocting witty anecdotes and quips to share with the predicted 1,000+/day audience members, who would rush home from work/school to see if I had posted anything, and then chuckle in relief when they found that I had. "Oh Katelyn," they would sigh collectively. "Your gentle and quirky humor never fails to astound us." And I knew that I would also rush home everyday to see if anyone from my fan base had posted a comment to remind me of this fact.

As you can see, this blog has already fulfilled what I expected would happen. But I now, finally, have a justifiable, concrete reason for starting this thing, aside from self-indulgence: I am in Oxford, England. I have been living here for two weeks now and will be studying at Oxford University until the middle of December. I am here with a Calvin-endorsed study abroad program called Best Semester studying theology in general, and more specifically, the works of neo-orthodox theologian Karl Barth, and philosophical aesthetics. In the word of the loveable George-Michael Bluth of Arrested Development, "Yipes." The work load will be astounding.

Several folks have asked why I have chosen to continue my studies, considering that I have already graduated from Calvin and don't need the credits, not to mention the continued academic strife. In many ways, all I can say in response is, "your guess is as good as mine." There's a part of me that wonders if this detour is not my subconscious scaredy-cat acting up at the thought of bucking up, buckling down, getting a job, deciding on a grad school, and basically avoiding my quarter life crisis before it comes. And I will heartily acknowledge that staying an extra semester for "intellectual enrichment and valuable life experience" has alot to do with being from one of the richest societies in the world in which the myth of traveling to Europe to "find yourself" is pervasive. Maybe I'm just towing the postmodern and grossly spoiled American college student line after all.

But then my instincts return and I remember that I have journeyed to Jolly Old for a distinct purpose. A while back, in the winter of 2005, I had the great privilege of interviewing and speaking with Fleming Rutledge, a renowned preacher and author who was at Calvin to give a lecture for the January Series. One of the first women ordained in the Episcopal Church, Rutledge stands at a unique ideological crossroads between the New York intellectual elite and orthodox Christianity, and is one of the most dynamic and soul-shaking preachers I have encountered. After hearing her preach and speaking with Rutledge myself, the loudest thought I had for several weeks after was, "I want to do that, too." I had realized since being at Calvin that it was deep in my bones, to think, write and talk about God - that it was my heart's "deepest gladness," as Frederick Buechner would say. And now I finally had somewhat of a Fleming-shaped blueprint for how I could make sense of that passion and spend the rest of my life pointing to the Kingdom with my spoken and written words.

Which brings me back to Oxford. I'm here to read alot, write alot, talk alot and essentially get my butt kicked academically, as a kind of precursor to going to graduate school and learning how to write and talk about God. Yes, it sounds a little vague, and no, the plan's not set in stone, but yes, it is still so worth it - to be in this quiet and hauntingly beautiful city, to have 8,000,000 books at my fingertips, and to be able to stand (though precariously) on the shoulders of some of the most brilliant Christian thinkers of our time who have been in this same place - I don't see how I could end up regretting it in the end.

Won't you join my fan base?



p.s. - Also, about 8 percent of the reason I am here is to go on my own English Ale Tasting Tour, which I am documenting on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. I am up to five new ones.

oxford in technicolor - pictures of the last two weeks

These newest pictures are from my solo trip to London on Saturday, September 16th. The sunflowers are outside of the Tate Art Museum, and were by far more beautiful than any of the paintings I saw that day.

standing along the Thames River, in London. St. Paul's Cathedral in the background.
sunset along the Thames
statue dedicated to John Wesley. goooo, UMCers!

St. Paul's Cathedral in London

Big Ben & Averagely-Sized Megates entering into Buckingham Palace (the Queen's home)

our group outside Buckingham Palace

Josh, Me, Julie, Ryan, and Kim at "The Lamb & Flag"

detail, Christ Church

Christ Church, the largest and most famous cathedral in Oxford

one exhibitionistic pigeon!

some of the things I just couldn't leave at home...

Kim Williams and I at the pub, "The Purple Turtle"

at the annual St. Giles Fair in downtown Oxford

St. Giles
waiting for fish and chips at the pub, "Radcliffe Arms"

can you find the pigeons?

my new "humble" abode at 8 Crick Road!

(some of) the girls I live with, in the common room


Sunday afternoon tea in the backyard

Bakhtin, the house cat

Crick Road, where I live