David Berlinski (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, September 12, 2011, 15:03 (4613 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Please listen to this interview with Berlinski discuss the thoughts in his book, "The Devil's Delusion" in which he takes apart Darwin, pretentious scientists and atheists. I've read the book. It is full of challenging thoughts and ideas. You will be challenged! He is basically a mathematician philosopher:
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> http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/09/uncommon-knowledge-with-david-berlinski.p... 
> This is indeed a stimulating interview, and I love his Number 7 analogy. I do wish the interviewer had pressed him a little further on evolution. I got the impression from the interview that he was a Creationist, but I've googled him, and apparently he is ... heaven be praised! ... an agnostic. 
 
> Since you have read the book, perhaps you could tell us whether he also takes the Creationists apart?-No, the point of the book was to take apart the atheists, which he does very effectively. Remember Dawkins' statement (and I paraphrase) that Darwin's theory allows an atheist to take that postion and feel comfortable.-
Berlinski on page 185: "Darwinian biologists are very often persuaded that there is a conspiracy afoot to make them look foolish".
 "In this they are correct."-And for a flavor of his writing ability and thought pattern:-"The thesis that we are all nothing more than vehicles for a number of 'selfish genes' has....entered deeply into the simian gabble of academic life, where together with materialism and moral relativism it now seems as self-evident as the law of affirmative action. To anyone who has enjoyed the spectacle of various smarmy insects shuffling along the tenure track at Harvard or Stanford, the idea that we are all simply 'survival machines' seems oddly in conflict with the correlative doctrine of survival of the fitest. This would not be the first time that an ideological system in conflict with the facts has found it prudent to defer to itself." (pg. 8)-I love the mental picture of 'simian gabble'.