Berlinski: Men Are Not About to Become Like Gods

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

Science, Philosophy, Astronomy, Society & Culture, Life Sciences

4 • 993 Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2023

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are humans progressing morally as well as materially? What does it mean to be human in the cosmos? On this ID The Future, we bring you the second half of a stimulating conversation between Dr. David Berlinski and host Eric Metaxas on the subject of Berlinski's recent book Human Nature. In Human Nature, Berlinski argues that the utopian view that humans are progressing toward evolutionary and technological perfection is wishful thinking. Men are not about to become like gods. "I'm a strong believer in original sin," quips Berlinski in his discussion with Metaxas. In other words, he believes not only that humans are fundamentally distinct from the rest of the biological world, but also that humans are prone to ignorance and depravity as well as wisdom and nobility. During the second half of their discussion, Berlinski and Metaxas compare and contrast the ideas of thinkers like psychologist Steven Pinker, author Christopher Hitchens, and physicist Steven Weinberg. The pair also spar gracefully over the implications of human uniqueness. Berlinski, though candid and self-critical, is unwilling to be pigeonholed. Metaxas, drawing his own conclusions about the role of mind in the universe, challenges Berlinski into moments of clarity with his usual charm. The result is an honest, probing, and wide-ranging conversation about the nature of science and the human condition. This is Part 2 of a two-part interview.

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0:00.0	I d the future a podcast about evolution and intelligent design
0:12.3	greetings I'm Tom Gilson. Our episode today is the second half of a conversation
0:17.7	between Eric Mataxes and David Berlinski, originally held before a live audience in New York at one of Mataxus's Socrates in the
0:26.7	city events.
0:28.4	The topic they'd launched with was David Burlinsky's book titled On Human Nature. They're both best-selling
0:35.4	authors, both sought after as speakers, and both definitely inclined to believe in
0:41.5	intelligent design, though as you'll hear today they have
0:44.8	interesting differences on what that means. The first voice you'll hear speaking is that of
0:50.9	Eric Mataxus.
0:57.0	I want to turn a little bit in the beginning of your your book Human Nature you talk masterfully and to someone like me somewhat cryptically I know that that's not your intention to try to explain what led to World War I. I don't want
1:20.0	to get into that too much but you but you're making a number of points and one point that you make,
1:27.0	well actually let me read this because this is some of the flap copy from your book just to kind of frame this piece.
1:38.0	Conventional wisdom holds that the murder rate has plummeted since the middle ages.
1:44.0	Human kind is growing more peaceful and enlightened.
1:47.0	Man is surely to be much improved, better genes, better neural circuits, better biochemistry,
1:52.0	and we're approaching a technological singularity. better genes, better neural circuits, better biochemistry.
1:52.7	And we're approaching a technological singularity
1:55.9	that well may usher in utopia.
2:00.3	You obviously, you mock this brilliantly in the book and I want to talk about that.
2:05.0	Your book eviscerates these and other doctrines of contemporary nihilism masquerading as science.
2:14.0	There are two things that you seem to focus on when we're talking about
2:21.4	human nature.
	...

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