Excellent Beauty

The Naturalness of Religion and the Unnaturalness of the World

by Eric Dietrich

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Pub Date Jun 09 2015 | Archive Date Jul 21 2015

Description

Flipping convention on its head, Eric Dietrich argues that science uncovers awe-inspiring, enduring mysteries, while religion, regarded as the source for such mysteries, is a biological phenomenon. Just like spoken language, Dietrich shows that religion is an evolutionary adaptation. Science is the source of perplexing yet beautiful mysteries, however natural the search for answers may be to human existence.

Excellent Beauty undoes our misconception of scientific inquiry as an executioner of beauty, making the case that science has won the battle with religion so thoroughly it can now explain why religion persists. The book also draws deep lessons for human flourishing from the very existence of scientific mysteries. It is these latter wonderful, completely public truths that constitute some strangeness in the proportion and reveal a universe worthy of awe and wonder.

Eric Dietrich is professor of philosophy at Binghamton University and the founding editor and current editor in chief of the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence. He is the author of numerous papers and several books focusing on cognitive science, consciousness, artificial intelligence, metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind.

Flipping convention on its head, Eric Dietrich argues that science uncovers awe-inspiring, enduring mysteries, while religion, regarded as the source for such mysteries, is a biological phenomenon...

Advance Praise

"Excellent Beauty boldly breaks the code of silence that keeps coolly rational academics from attempting to link evolution and theology. Dietrich reflects on some of the deepest mysteries of religious thought, but he does so from the viewpoint of a philosopher with deep training in logic and firmly grounded reasoning."
—John Sullins, Sonoma State University

"Excellent Beauty boldly breaks the code of silence that keeps coolly rational academics from attempting to link evolution and theology. Dietrich reflects on some of the deepest mysteries of...