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Much of the blame lies with Richard Dawkins, head of the Darwinian fundamentalists in this country, who has (it seems) indissolubly linked Darwin to the more extreme forms of atheism, and projected on to our senses a dismal world in which life has no purpose or meaning and a human being has no more significance than a piece of rock, being subject to the same blind processes of pitiless, unfeeling, unthinking nature. The sheer moral, emotional and intellectual emptiness of the universe as seen by the Darwinian bigots is enough to make mere humans (as opposed to scientific high priests), and especially young ones, despair, and wonder what is the point of going on with existence in a world which is hard enough to endure even without the Darwinian nightmare.

WRT our lives, the universe is a blank canvas, waiting for us to "paint" our lives and world onto it. Johnson, like many creationists, seems to be driven by a feeling of terror that the universe's "canvas" doesn't come printed with a paint-by-numbers outline to tell us what to paint & how.

(Well, the universe does come with a comprehensible, unchanging set of basic laws of physics, & chemistry, etc. that we can use as a framework upon which to build our lives & societies. Maybe that's like the canvas not jumping around spontaneously or changing shape or color or flinging off our brushstrokes at random. Eh, all analogies have their limits. :-)

I'm not sure, but I don't think that Johnson is a creationist either. One of the books Johnson mentions, Richard Bird's Chaos and Life: Complexity and Order in Evolution and Thought. appears to make evolution not a strictly biological function, but an aspect of the chaotic nature of the universe. IOW, I think Johnson is on a track that is neither Darwinian nor creationist.

re 19: Well, the universe does come with a comprehensible, unchanging set of basic laws of physics, & chemistry, etc. that we can use as a framework upon which to build our lives & societies. Maybe that's like the canvas not jumping around spontaneously or changing shape or color or flinging off our brushstrokes at random.

WHAT? Are you denying astral projections, horoscopes, psychics, magnetic bracelets, bible-codes, leprachauns and pixies, throwing salt over your shoulder when you break a mirror?

The evidence of the supernatural is apparent to anyone--just listen to the psychics, the priests, the pastors, the shamans. If you are unable to believe, just read one of the 8 or so "Holy Books" and this will be revealed to you.

I think you might be a skeptic. I will pray for your eternal soul. I doubt this will do any good. Don't worry, lack of faith in abstinence often interferes with my prayer.

The universe does come with a comprehensible, unchanging set of basic laws of physics…

Does it come with a similar set of basic values right/wrong, good/evil. Do these have any intrinsic value or are the always and completely subjective and conditional?