I’m finishing Huston Smith’s “Fundamental Truths,” (see a recent post), and see now that it is essentialy an apology for intelligent design or something similar. I will comment in full after I finish, but we must remember that however flawed a concept may be, it can still provide useful insight or stimulate useful thinking. In that regard, one statement he makes struck home to the biologist in me. It occurs in the penultimate chapter, in which he argues that science for all its revelations about evolution cannot yet say from whence intelligence (as seen in humans, anyway) arises. He spends significant time setting the stage by examining the reinvention of physics in the modern era of electronic sensing, advanced mathematics, astrophysics, and sub-atomic particle science. He points out that virtually everything we thought we understood about the laws of physics and the structure of the universe has been turned on its head. Then, in the final pages of the chapter, he states that it is only a matter of time before we come to the same conclusions about biology: The more we improve the science, the less we will come to understand and the deeper the mystery (of life, of intelligence) will become.

On the one hand, I disagree that a parallel can be drawn between physics and biology. In the years since he wrote the book, advances in physiology, biology and genetics have been stunning. And, unlike in physics, we have immediate and concrete evidence of these advances, which are easily demonstrated…witness the capabilities of modern medicine and treatment of disease. On the other hand, we are really no closer to understanding brain function, the “motherboard” of our biological computers. And his point is that, as in physics, as our abilities to peer deeper and deeper into biological phenomena improve, we will likely reach a point at which much of what we think we know will prove untrue…and possibly unknowable.

I suspect he is correct. But personally, I find the idea comforting: I prefer the mystery…it keeps me humble. That, and I fear profoundly the hubris of science and the stupid ideas to which it can lead.

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