A Meaningful World

by Wiker, Benjamin

• ISBN13: 9780830827992
• ISBN10: 0830827994
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-07-31
• Publisher: Ivp Academic

Summary

Meaningful or meaningless?Purposeful or pointless?When we look at nature, whether at our living earth or into deepest space, what do we find?In stark contrast to contemporary claims that the world is meaningless, Benjamin Wiker and Jonathan Witt reveal a cosmos charged with both meaning and purpose. Their journey begins with Shakespeare and ranges through Euclid's geometry, the fine-tuning of the laws of physics, the periodic table of the elements, the artistry of ordinary substances like carbon and water, the intricacy of biological organisms, and the irreducible drama of scientific exploration itself.Along the way, Wiker and Witt fashion a robust argument from evidence in nature, one that rests neither on religious presuppositions nor on a simplistic view of nature as the best of all possible worlds. In their exploration of the cosmos, Wiker and Witt find all the challenges and surprises, all of the mystery and elegance one expects from a work of genius.

Author Biography

Benjamin Wiker (Ph.D., Vanderbilt) is lecturer in theology and science at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio Jonathan Witt (Ph.D., University of Kansas) is senior fellow and writer in residence at Discovery Institute in Seattle, Washington

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	9	(2)
Prologue	11	(230)
1 Meaning-fullness and Meaninglessness	15	(15)
2 Hamlet and the Search for Meaning	30	(28)
3 Shakespeare and the Elements of Genius	58	(25)
4 The Geometry of Genius	83	(28)
5 The Periodic Table: A Masterpiece of Many Authors	111	(37)
6 A Cosmic Home Designed for Discovery	148	(22)
7 The Genius of the Elements	170	(24)
8 The Reemergence of the Living Cell	194	(26)
9 The Restoration of the Living Organism	220	(21)
10 The End of the Matter: A Meaningful World	241	(12)
Index	253