The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery
by Guillermo Gonzalez, Jay Richards
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Book Summary Information
Author: Guillermo Gonzalez, Jay RichardsEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-03
ISBN: 0895260654
Number of pages: 464
Publisher: Regnery Publishing, Inc.
Book Reviews of The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery
Book Review: Copernican Principle or Coprnican Dogma?
Summary: 5 Stars
We are often advised to "think outside the square". Well, once in a while a book is published that does just that. The Privileged Planet by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards is such a book!
It has long been the contention of this reviewer that the "official" version of the Copernican Principle (CP) is in serious trouble, but that it has become so "dogmatised" that most scientists are blinded to its failures. I have written on this myself, and so was greatly encouraged to hear someone with a louder voice than mine shouting that the emperor has no clothes!
Over the years, as the authors point out, CP - based predictions at one time or another have included the more or less earth-like nature of the other Solar System planets, intelligent inhabitants on these planets, (then, when the latter became untenable) abundant non-intelligent life on Mars, planetary systems closely resembling our own around most stars and an infinite, eternal, steady state universe. Not one of these predictions has survived the advance of knowledge. Yet, so entrenched has the CP dogma become that this failure is seldom even noticed. One is reminded of the story about Galileo's critics' refusal to look through his telescope at the moons of Jupiter, preferring instead to believe that the instrument was bewitched.
Contrary to the popular and dogmatic interpretation of the CP, the authors convincingly argue that the earth, sun, solar system and galaxy are all anomalous in a number of ways. In one sense, this statement is trivial. Every individual will be "anomalous" in some sense, just because it IS an individual. There will be no two absolutely identical peas in the same pod. The authors readily admit this, but the real force of their argument is the growing realisation that the anomalies to which they refer all conspire (though sometimes in subtle ways) to render our position in the universe unusually - and possibly uniquely - suitable for the habitation of complex forms of life. This is becoming a growing conviction amongst many who look dispassionately at the evidence, but here the authors take a further step and demonstrate that the same factors which ensure this anomalous property of habitability, also ensure the equally anomalous property of providing a planetary platform from where the nature of the universe can be discerned by creatures with the intelligence to do so and with the curiosity to so desire. There is no logical or physical necessity why these two properties should occur together. But if they did not, our intellectual life would be much poorer and our curiosity would never find adequate fulfilment.
I believe that the authors' argument could also be extended to include aesthetics and (in a broad sense) spirituality. It seems to me that many of the most awe-inspiring phenomena either are, or are consequences of, the very factors which rendered our planet habitable. Great mountain ranges, for example, inspire feelings of awe in just about everybody. They awaken within us appreciation of the beautiful and the sublime. Yet ours is the only known planet which has true mountain ranges; the consequence of continuing plate tectonics - a process which is also vital in maintaining earth's habitability.
Some other examples are volcanoes, the large moon, perfect solar eclipses, meteors, comets, meteor storms, earthquakes, storms and lighting. The march of discovery has shown that a world without any of these would be a world without life, yet the connection with habitability is often subtle and is in no way associated with the awe that these events have aroused throughout history. We may also point out that this awe has often been sublimated into the sphere of the religious, as these events have often been seen as (or as intimately associated with) supernatural beings. Ultimately, some of these phenomena have even played a role in arousing a sense of divine transcendence.
Other phenomena which arouse similar (though perhaps not so extreme) sensations seem to be associated more specifically with the property of our world as a platform of discovery. Two good examples are rainbows and the Milky Way band, as readers of the book will be quick to see.
Perhaps a future monograph by the authors will develop this line of thought further.
The authors conclude that the convergence of features which enable both terrestrial habitability and scientific discovery are too improbable to be merely results of random accidents. We are here, in short, because some greater Intelligence planned it. Not only that, but this Intelligence has also placed us where we can gain the greatest knowledge of the universe. Perhaps this is why we are willing to expend so much time, effort and finance on scientific endeavour, much of which has no obvious survival value for the species. This makes sense though, if we have been "made" for it - if we have been specially endowed with the emotion of curiosity and placed in a region of the universe where this can best be sated.
But may this appearance of design be only illusory?
The authors conclude against this alternative, arguing their case largely through the use of William Demski's concept of "specified complexity" and the intuitively apparent but difficult-to-define concept of "value".
This could, I think, have been beneficially expanded by incorporating the design argument of philosopher, the late Richard Taylor. Very briefly, Taylor argued that if something appears to be purposeful and does actually fulfil that purpose, it is irrational to deny the presence of design in that object.
This proves fatal to the popular argument by Richard Dawkins and others that, given sufficient time, an appearance indistinguishable from design will inevitably emerge. For example, he argues that a sufficiently large number of apes playing with computer keyboards will eventually come up with an encyclopaedia. Dawkins' argument fails however, to appreciate that an encyclopaedia is more than a complicated ensemble of words. Its real significance lies not in its complexity, but in its role as a store and transmitter of specific information in an intelligible manner. Thus, if I wished to learn about Charles Darwin, for example, I can open the encyclopaedia at the "Ds", go down to "Darwin, Charles" and read the article, confident that what I read is at least tolerably valid.
But I can only have this faith in the encyclopaedia article if I know that it was written by someone who had adequately researched the life of the naturalist. I could have no such confidence if there was any possibility that the article was the random product of apes playing with keyboards! Indeed, it would then be irrational to suppose that the article contained any truth whatsoever.
If I harboured any such suspicions, I could go to other (and trusted!) authorities on Darwin or even undertake my own research and if the information I gleaned through these methods corresponded to a reasonable degree with that in the encyclopaedia article, then I could conclude (indeed, I would be logically forced to conclude) that the encyclopaedia article was indeed the product of a designing intelligence and not the work of blind chance!
There is no direct causal link between Darwin's life and an article on the same. The only link possible is through the operation of an intelligent mind - the mind of the encyclopaedia article's author.
Similarly, if we and our position in the universe are simply the product of chance, there seems to be no reason why the supposed facts that we read from the study of science should be any more accurate than the printout from an ape's game with the keyboard. In other words, there would seem to be no reason why the universe should be intelligible to the human mind. Still less, would we expect that our (or any) position in the universe should be conducive to scientific discovery. But, just as we could prove that the encyclopaedia article was the product of intelligent design by "checking" its content against other research, so we can confirm the emerging understanding of the universe by comparing the findings of one line of scientific research with that of another. Significantly, we do really find that the various lines converge. Our understanding of the sub-atomic level and of cosmology (the two extreme ends of the scale) both tell the same story as to the nature of physical reality, and the "in-between" realms such as chemistry and biology all yield results that fit together like a grand jigsaw puzzle of knowledge.
Scientific curiosity seems to be a human drive almost as basic as hunger and sex, but unlike these, it is largely devoid of survival value. Certainly, knowing what plants are edible and which are poisonous has survival value, but knowing the composition of a red dwarf star has not. Curiosity at this level is (to borrow Aldous Huxley"s phrase) "a biological luxury", yet, we seem to have been set up in just the region of space where we can enjoy this "luxury" to the maximum.
I should mention that Huxley actually used this phrase to refer to our heightened sense of colour. That too is not necessary for survival, but it is beneficial to our sense of beauty and to the consequent development of art. As mentioned earlier, our place in the scheme of things also appears to have been designed for the exercise of this "luxury" as well. (Of course, both are "luxuries" only for purely biological entities. From a strictly Darwinian viewpoint they are hard to explain, but they make perfect sense if we are also "spiritual" beings in the sense of possessing intellectual, aesthetic and religious faculties, whose existence depends upon the will of an intelligent Designer).
I hope that this book will help trigger the paradigm shift that is so long overdue. If I must be critical of anything, it is merely that the copious notes were given as endnotes and not as footnotes. This made it too easy to lose the place!
But that is hardly a serious criticism. In short, I do more than recommend this book. I appeal for it to be required reading for anyone with even the slightest interest in science or philosophy.
More The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery reviews:
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Summary of The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery
Is Earth merely an insignificant speck in a vast and meaningless universe? On the contrary: The Privileged Planet shows that this cherished assumption of materialism is dead wrong. In this provocative book, Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay W. Richards present a staggering array of evidence that exposes the hollowness of this modern dogma. They demonstrate that our planet is exquisitely fit not only to support life, but also to give us the best view of the universe, as if Earth were designed both for life and for scientific discovery. Readers are taken on a scientific odyssey from a history of tectonic plates, to the wonders of water and solar eclipses, to our location in the Milky Way, to the laws that govern the universe, and to the beginning of cosmic time. The Privileged Planet contains astounding findings that should lead any individual to reevaluate and even to reconsider our very purpose on what so many have dismissed as nothing more than an accident of cosmic evolution.Science & Religion Books
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