Why Scientific Materialism is No Match for Truth, Beauty, and Goodness
Is the world a good place? Is truth relative? Can beauty be defined? On this episode of ID The Future out of the vault, host David Klinghoffer speaks with Dr. Ann Gauger, Director of Science Communication and a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, about her article “The Transcendental Treasury of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness” at ScienceandCulture.com.
These abstract concepts don’t derive from the material world, yet we feel impoverished without them; they’re foundations of a life worth living. Truth, says Klinghoffer, has fallen on hard times these days. Gauger calls truth a correspondence with reality and says we must have it to thrive. “Truth is essential for our lives,” says Gauger. “We can’t function in a society that isn’t based on truths. It’s destructive to families, it’s destructive to the culture, it’s destructive to political action.” Materialistic evolutionary explanations for truth, beauty, and goodness are out there, but they fall flat upon closer inspection. Some of them even reduce these qualities to mere illusion. Gauger holds that truth, beauty, and goodness are hallmarks of a designed world. Meditating on them can promote a spirit of gratitude, an important part of a healthy, happy life.
DIG DEEPER
- For more on how truth, beauty, and goodness are built into the design of life and the universe, read Dr. Gauger’s recently edited volume God’s Grandeur: The Catholic Case for Intelligent Design.
- Read more articles from Dr. Gauger at Science & Culture Today.
Image Info: On the Saco River, Maine, by American painter Albert Bierstadt. Public Domain. Not generated by AI.