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AR 26:19 - An "engaging" introduction to Chinese philosophy
In this issue:
ASIAN WORLDVIEW - the centrality of "oneness among human beings" in East Asian philosophical traditions
ORIGINS - extreme improbability made ... comprehensible, if not easy
TRINITY - "welcome to the world of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament"
Apologia Report 26:19 (1,524)
May 11, 2021
ASIAN WORLDVIEW
Oneness: East Asian Conceptions of Virtue, Happiness, and How We Are All Connected, by Philip J. Ivanhoe [1] -- Oxford University Press explains: "At the center of a constellation of key ideas in East Asian philosophical traditions, there lies a conception of oneness among human beings. ...
"One of Ivanhoe's aims in this work is to challenge the dominant paradigm of hyper-individualism....
"Rather than starting from the standpoint of Western philosophy and then reaching out to Asian philosophy from a distance, Ivanhoe advances a thesis drawn from East Asian sources and explicitly challenges the theoretical asymmetry that is characteristic of most comparative study...."
The review by K. Lauriston Smith in Philosophia Christi (22:2 - 2020, pp364-67) notes that "Ivanhoe, most lately the director of the Sungkyun Confucian-East Asian Philosophy Research Institute <www.bit.ly/3o2QRYe> at Sungkyunkwan University, sets out to defend what he calls 'The Oneness Hypothesis.' He argues that it is 'a view about the nature of the world' and that its core assertion 'is the claim that we - and in particular our personal welfare or happiness - are inextricably intertwined with other people, creatures, and things.' ...
"Ivanhoe develops the idea of oneness" throughout the text, in which "one of the most signifiant strengths of Ivanhoe's work is the breadth of his comparative research...
"For Christian thinkers, the distinction he draws between the ideas of 'first nature' in [the schools of] Mengzi and Wang Yangming and 'second nature' in Aristotle and Xunzi will illuminate a tension that can be felt in overly Aristotelian Christian approaches to virtue ethics. ...
"For anyone unfamiliar with Chinese philosophy, it will be an engaging and enlightening introduction, though some elements should be taken with caution."
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ORIGINS
Stephen C. Meyer's historical focus in his latest book, Return of the God Hypothesis, will not be lost on scholars who value the role of history in science. Meyer certainly does. His due diligence in this regard is strongly evident throughout the book, the first three chapters of which establish how early scientists were driven by "the God hypothesis." From there he reviews how they helped to set science on its present course, and how the God hypothesis fell out of favor in the secular age.
Meyer <www.bit.ly/3divOvD> narrows his focus to track modern science history in contexts from large to small, from astrophysics to genetics. He then applies them to what's driving the current revival of the God hypothesis. He considers the implications of recent DNA-related advances as they relate to the Cambrian and other early biological periods of curiously explosive growth in the geologic record.
Astrophysics, the Big Bang, and the fine-tuning of the universe constitute a particularly valuable section. Meyer excels at illustrating how initial scientific curiosities later become finely-focused. Contingent properties, taken together, "are so puzzling that physicists have given them a name - *the fine-tuning problem*" (an emphasis also known as "the anthropic design argument"). A primary factor is how carbon is so "mysteriously present" in the universe, and absolutely critical for life as we know it.
Until now, few have managed to communicate as well as Meyer does here regarding the scale of improbability involved with the origins of life and its necessary chemistry. In your encounters with minuscule probability figures, have you come across compound "hyper-exponential" numbers yet? (They employ a base number with stair-stepped exponential superscript levels.) You'll enjoy how Meyer uses these measurements to nail down the extremely remote scenarios which support understanding how fine-tuned our universe is.
Memorable remarks by scientists who are astounded by related discoveries abound.
* - Fred Hoyle: "A common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with the physics, as well as chemistry and biology, and that ... the facts seem so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question" (139).
* - Paul Davies: "The really amazing thing is not that life on Earth is balanced on a knife-edge, but that the entire universe is balanced on a knife-edge."
* - Steven Hawking: "[T]he numbers seem to have been finely adjusted to make possible the development of life" (141).
* - Clifford Longley: The anthropic design argument "is of such an order of certainty that in any other sphere of science, it would be regarded as settled" (145).
Meyer digs into the specifics with the sort of detail that one assumes must come with the territory. For example: Readers learn how essential matter and energy were intricately balanced in the Big Bang. Ever since, the contingent features of entropy and the expansion rate of the universe have remained more astoundingly harmonious than anyone could have ever imagined. Amidst all of this, down to the smallest of details: the time required for just one modest-size protein to necessarily change shape by chance (allowing it to operate in a genetic construct) would be longer than that of the earth's entire existence (209).
"For nontechnical readers and scientists alike, the world of quantum cosmology presents a dizzying array of abstract concepts, analogies ... and mathematics" (363). Meyer takes this up as a challenge to help us understand. We've all seen large exponential numbers (e.g., 10 to the 200th power). Well, try just one more on for size. The likelihood of life-friendly universes having necessarily harmonious "cosmological inflation," is one in ten-to-the 66-millionth (339).
Did we manage to get all these technical details right from our reading? Does it matter if we failed to pass it along in one area or another? How much will it matter in your efforts to defend intelligent design? We are reminded of the classic Psalms/Romans mirrored pairing (19:1 / 1:19): "The heavens declare the glory of God." The entirety of the heavens does this. There is always an abundance of evidence speaking out, teasing our ability to take it all in. We consistently boast of our discoveries, only for God to pull back the curtain just a bit more each time to blow our minds with ever new - and astounding - levels of creativity.
And so it is with this book. When compelling examples are this plentiful and persuasive, one need not strain for a comprehensive mastery of the science to realize that here we have a valuable new tool. There is plenty here to reinforce the *original* message: INTELLIGENT DESIGN IS FOR REAL. Such an environment of discovery clarifies that the spiritual barrier is not so much one of ignorance as one of endemic willful disregard.
Even if you hesitate before the considerable challenge of absorbing the details, know that Meyer is consistently effective in making his point on many levels. Thank the Designer. [2]
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TRINITY
Too little is written about the Holy Spirit from outside a Pentecostal/Charismatic perspective - and even less that which has an Old Testament focus. Jack Levison's A Boundless God: The Spirit According to the Old Testament [3] is a Christianity Today 2021 Book Awards winner (Jan/Feb '21) earning a Biblical Studies "Award of Merit." Just one endorsement among others: "Who knew that a word study could read like an adventure story - welcome to the world of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. As Jack Levison guides us through the various uses of the word in the Hebrew Scriptures, he offers insight into the refreshment, the surprise, the danger, and the boundlessness of the Spirit of God. Reading this book instantly enhanced my own appreciation for how the New Testament speaks of the Holy Spirit not in a vacuum but in continuity with the Old Testament witness. This is an exciting, illuminating read from beginning to end." - Peter Gosnell, in Christianity Today <www.bit.ly/2RFx8BQ>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Oneness: East Asian Conceptions of Virtue, Happiness, and How We Are All Connected, by Philip J. Ivanhoe (Oxford Univ Prs, 2017, hardcover, 208 pages) <www.bit.ly/3nbfYHX>
2 - Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe, by Stephen C. Meyer (HarperCollins, 2021, hardcover, 576 pages) <www.bit.ly/3vAkKSS>
3 - A Boundless God: The Spirit According to the Old Testament, by Jack Levison (Baker, 2020, paperback, 208 pages) <www.bit.ly/3sDTIaN>
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