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Moral Darwinism: How We Became Hedonists, by Benjamin Wiker
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Abortion. Euthanasia. Infanticide. Sexual promiscuity. Ideas and actions once unthinkable have become commonplace. We seem to live in a different moral universe than we occupied just a few decades ago. Consent and noncoercion seem to be the last vestiges of a morality long left behind. Christian moral tenets are now easily dismissed and have been replaced with what is curiously presented as a superior, more magnanimous, respectful and even humble morality. How did we end up so far away from where we began? Can the decline be stopped? Ben Wiker, in this provocative and insightful book, traces the amazing story that explains our present cultural situation. Wiker finds the roots of our moral slide reaching all the way back to the ethical theory and atheistic cosmology of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Christian teaching had been in contention with this worldview long before it reached its pinnacle with the rise and acceptance of Darwinism. But it was Darwinism, Wiker contends, that provided this ancient teaching with the seemingly modern and scientific basis that captured twentieth-century minds. Wiker demonstrates that this ancient atomistic and materialistic philosophy supplies the guiding force behind Darwinism and powerfully propels the hedonistic bent of our society while promoting itself under the guise of pure science. This book is a challenge not only to those who believe Darwinism to be purely scientific fact but to Christian who have at times inconsistently lived out their Christian moral convictions and so have failed to recognize and address the ancient corrosive underpinnings of our present moral and intellectual crisis.
- Sales Rank: #857856 in Books
- Published on: 2002-08-12
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x 1.00" w x 6.00" l, 1.11 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 329 pages
Review
"Several authors have attempted to get at the roots of the current culture war. James Davison Hunter has traced its sociological roots. Robert Bork has traced its political roots. Phillip Johnson has traced its Darwinian roots. But none of them has traced the historical roots of the culture war back to its metaphysical foundation. Ben Wiker does that brilliantly in the present book. . . . If you really want to understand why our culture is in its current state, you must read this book." (William A. Dembski, author of Intelligent Design (from the foreword))
"It was once taken as a matter of course that ideas once argued and reargued in Greek philosophy kept recurring in different ways in subsequent philosophical systems and eras. Classical materialism was not as unrelated to modern materialism as one might suspect. Marx studied Epicurus. Benjamin Wiker here traces this history of scientific and moral materialism. What is unique about his book is that he sees this materialism in scientists who often did not see what their own terms implied. As Chesterton said, 'We must either not argue with a man at all, or argue with him on his terms.' This is what Wiker does with the not totally surprising result that science more and more tends itself to suggest that its own materialism is not as well founded as at first sight seemed to be the case. Even Christians are surprised by this turn of events or better facts. Intrinsic designs and a cosmos appearing suddenly from evidently nothing keep the materialist philosophers wondering. Wiker's subtitle, How We All Became Hedonists, hints at something Aristotle already knew—that hedonism explains neither itself nor the evolution of the world and what it means to understand it." (James V. Schall, S. J., Georgetown University, (Washington, D.C.))
"The core components of a worldview hang together in intricate and important ways. More particularly, the ethical vision of a worldview is usually grounded in the worldview’s depiction of reality, especially of human persons and of how we got here. This is one reason why, given the current moral crisis, it is ill advised to attempt to combine a materialist anthropology and a Darwinist creation myth with a Christian worldview. Benjamin Wiker’s timely book does a masterful job of providing a readable historical sketch of the interrelationships among these ideas and thereby provides a warning to those Christians who seek a facile compromise with a materialist view of human persons and a Darwinist understanding of origins." (J. P. Moreland, professor of philosophy, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, and author (with Scot Rae) of Body and Soul (IVP))
"Ben Wiker's book is profound, practical and provocative. It reveals some of the most important and disturbing--yet neglected--truths about the ancient philosophical roots of what is usually presented as 'modern science.' Wiker shows how much of Darwinism is not only anti-religious but unscientific. This is a very important book." (Scott Hahn, Franciscan University of Steubenville (Steubenville, Ohio))
"Darwinian evolution pretends to be modern empirical science, but it is merely the latest manifestation of an ancient materialistic philosophy. In this fascinating book, Benjamin Wiker exposes the true nature of Darwinism and its profoundly poisonous consequences for morality. If you thought that the present controversy over evolution and intelligent design was a localized dispute about science education, think again. At stake is nothing less than the future of our civilization." (Jonathan Wells, author of Icons of Evolution)
"In this excellent book, Ben Wiker shows decisively that America's moral decline is a product of the Darwinian worldview which, in turn, is a revival of ancient materialist philosophy. The book traces key aspects of today's "culture war" back to the dawn of Western thought, giving a clear-sighted guide to how history shapes the present battle." (Nancy Pearcey, coauthor of How Now Shall We Live? and The Soul of Science)
"Benjamin Wiker masterfully traces the ancient roots of the conflict between belief in the intelligent design of the universe and atheistic materialism. This wonderfully written book is a must-read for understanding our modern culture wars." (Michael J. Behe, professor of biochemisty, LeHigh University)
"I have written several books about the foundations of evolution, but I learned much from this superb volume, particularly about the enduring importance of Epicurus and his philosophy." (Phillip E. Johnson, author of Darwin on Trial and Reason in the Balance)
About the Author
Benjamin Wiker (Ph.D., Vanderbilt), is a full-time writer and senior fellow of Discovery Institute in Seattle, Washington. His work has appeared in such publications as First Things, National Catholic Register, Crisis, Catholic World Report and the New Oxford Review. Books he has written include Moral Darwinism and Architects of the Culture of Death.
William Dembski (Ph.D., mathematics, University of Chicago; Ph.D., philosophy, University of Illinois at Chicago) is senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. He has previously taught at Northwestern University, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Dallas. He has done postdoctoral work in mathematics at MIT, in physics at the University of Chicago, and in computer science at Princeton University, and he has been a National Science Foundation doctoral and postdoctoral fellow. Dembski has written numerous scholarly articles and is the author of the critically acclaimed The Design Inference (Cambridge), Intelligent Design (InterVarsity Press) and No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence (Rowman and Littlefield).
Most helpful customer reviews
75 of 89 people found the following review helpful.
From Epicurus to Darwin
By Phillip Johnson
Although I have written six books about Darwinism, I learned much from Ben Wiker's book. Wiker tells the engrossing story of the centuries-long contest between Epicureanism and Christianity, with the Epicureans finally winning their long battle to impose their philosophy on science and the cultural definition of "knowledge." Exploiting the authority of science, Epicureans were able to seize the high moral and intellectual ground for agosticism and materialism,thereby demoting Christianity from its prior intellectual prominence into the marginalized status it now occupies in the intellectual and university world. The Epicurean objective always has been and remains to achieve a moral objective by effectively banning the supernatural from reality, and with it any fear of judgment after death. Attaining this objective prepared the way for all the events we associate with the 1960s. Ben Wiker's intellectual history tells us far more than any scientific book could of the purpose and effect of the long campaign to establish matrialism as the governing philosophy of the world. I highly recommend it.
by Phillip Johnson (author of "Darwin on Trial)< Berkeley, CA USA
45 of 57 people found the following review helpful.
Western Civilization in a Nutshell
By Brad Shorr
Anyone seeking to understand the moral plight of the Western world should drop everything and read this book. The author presents a sweeping history of materialist moral philosophy from ancient Greece to current day. For Wiker, Western morality is split crisply and catastrophically into two utterly irreconcilable camps: the Epicurean, in which man is the measure of all things, and the Judeo-Christian, in which God is the measure of all things. Epicurus believed the goal of man is to reduce his personal pain and discomfort. Starting with this conclusion, he backed into a cosmology to support it, one which excludes the possibilities of (a) an afterlife and (b) divine interference with human affairs, both of which constrain our actions and leave us in a continual state of apprehension. It follows in the Epicurean view that nature is random and therefore without purpose. If nature is random, then there are no values or behaviors we humans are required to embrace. This conception of morality and its supporting cosmology, dormant from roughly Constantine to the Renaissance, revived when scientific discovery seemed to support Epicurean cosmic theories. It gained momentum as science advanced and eventually overwhelmed Judeo-Christian cosmology and morality, at least in terms of our social practices and laws. Wiker does an absolutely magnificent job of critiquing a host of enormously influential materialist figures including Newton, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, and Darwin himself, elegantly and convincingly tracing their ideas back to their Epicurean sources, and revealing the true essence and implications of their ideas. Unfortunately, in a world where one person's idea of right and wrong is as good as another's, where the only true definition of right and wrong is how it makes us feel, abuses, miseries, and horrors are bound to ensue. As Wiker reviews the thought of such modern day monsters as Ernst Haeckel, Margaret Sanger, and Alfred Kinsey, we begin to get an idea of how awful the materialist's reality can be. And yet, Wiker points out that although scientific advances in our day undermine the random view of nature and strongly support a designer universe, the materialist habit of thought is so deeply ingrained that we cling to relativistic moral positions required by random nature anyway. There are so many fascinating ideas in this book it is almost impossible to summarize. But, I think it can help anyone put his/her ideas in perspective and offer some refreshingly sensible insight about our culture, which seems so irreconcilably split over issues like abortion, euthanasia, recreational drugs, etc., etc.
40 of 57 people found the following review helpful.
All seriousness aside...
By Jennifer A. Atkinson
I would like to share my personal knowledge of the author. I have had the pleasure of studying under Dr. Wiker's guidance in three classes at my college. He is intelligent and humourous. He can take a complex subject, break it down, and help you come to understand it and appreciate it, similar to that great writer, C.S. Lewis. I have read a number of other articles that he has written on various subjects, and I have yet to be disappointed by his ability to convey an important and valid idea with simplicity and and a sense of the practical applications of the theoretical. If you have any interest in philosophy, or evolution, or theology: this is a book that is sure to offer a new perspective on all three. You will enjoy it, and come away with new knowledge and new thoughts that you might need to mull over, and consider, before you come back for a second read.
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