A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature

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.

About the Authors:

Dr. Benjamin Wiker holds a Ph.D. in Theological Ethics from Vanderbilt University, and has taught at Marquette University, St. Mary’s University, Thomas Aquinas College (CA), and Franciscan University. He is the author of several books including, Answering the New Atheism: Dismantling Dawkins’ Case Against God (co-authored with Scott Hahn), Moral Darwinism: How We Became Hedonists, A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature (co-authored with Jonathan Witt), The Mystery of the Periodic Table, and Architects of the Culture of Death (co-authored with Donald DeMarco). He is now a full-time, free-lance writer. Dr. Wiker writes regularly for a variety of journals, including Catholic World Report, New Oxford Review, and Crisis Magazine, and is a regular columnist for the National Catholic Register. Dr. Wiker lives with his wife and children in rural Ohio.

Jonathan Witt, hold a Ph.D. in Literary Studies from the University of Kansas. As a writer and research fellow with the Acton Institute, he wrote scripts which have aired on PBS. Witt is a senior fellow with Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture and served as a tenured professor of literature and creative writing at Lubbock Christian University. His academic writing has appeared in Philosophia Christi, Touchstone and Literature and Theology; his opinion pieces in such places as The Seattle Times, The Kansas City Star, Science & Theology News and The American Spectator; and his narrative writing in the literary journals Windhover and New Texas. Dr. Witt co-author A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature (2006) and Traipsing into Evolution: Intelligent Design and the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Decision (2006). He lives with his wife and children in Western Washington.