Stuart Reid

The meaning of life

Andrew Ferguson is one of America’s most accomplished conservative writers, but he is barely known here. That’s a pity because his sceptical pen would appeal to many English readers. The other day, on behalf of the Weekly Standard, he attended a panel discussion on the politics of Darwinism at the American Enterprise Institute. The theme before the panel was: “Darwinism and Conservatism: Friends or Foes?” Ferguson’s report is a model of wit and clarity. The cracking pace is set by the first sentence:

 “They only had two and a half hours to settle some knotty questions–Does reality have an ultimate, metaphysical foundation? Is there content to the universe?–so they had to talk fast.”

Ferguson does not discover the meaning of life at the AEI (thank God), but he gets rather closer to it than Richard Dawkins ever has.

(Hat tip: Peter Robinson, NRO.)

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