Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Michael Crighton reads Chesterton


A friend was doing some summer reading, and came across this surprise, and sent it to us:
I was doing some "junk"reading while on vacation, and I read the book-Next by Michael "Jurassic Park" Crichton. Anyway it's a book about genetics and in the back he lists all his sources. I was surprised to see two books by Chesterton listed. He also comments on how Chesterton was correct about the direction of science and how he was shouted down and ignored.
Looks like an interesting book, a sort of DaVinci Code for genetic scientists?

4 comments:

  1. What two books were mentioned? And were there any by Jaki? Any consideration of Chesterton and evolution should start with the chapter called "Critic of Evolutionism" in Jaki's Chesterton a Seer of Science.

    And let's remember what GKC wrote in Orthodoxy: "If evolution simply means that a positive thing called an ape turned very slowly into a positive thing called a man, then it is stingless for the most orthodox; for a personal God might just as well do things slowly as quickly, especially if, like the Christian God, he were outside time."
    [CW1:237-8]

    --Dr. Thursday

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  2. Crichton mentions GKC in the appendix to his novel State of Fear too.

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  3. I'm about halfway through Next, and I have to say it's pretty scary, especially because some of the non-genetic stuff that happens is all too possible, so it makes you wonder whether the genetic stuff is as well. It also raises all sorts of moral questions about transgenic animals...It's a pretty interesting book, I hope it's really science fiction instead of science future.

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  4. Liz: Since you have the book, could you answer the question above regarding which Chesterton works are cited, and if any Jaki books are mentioned at the end of NEXT? Thanks!

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