By Dale Netherton
A philosophical critique on how humans view intelligent design, and how we must instead accept the randomness of the universe.
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Review:
The Random Universe by Dale Netherton offers a critique on the tendency humans have to gravitate to a single story or origin. While humans often desire a clear message, or in this case a clear answer on the origin of the universe, Netherton argues that humans must reject the ideas of a cosmic creator or heavenly laws and instead believe that the universe could result from randomness.
Throughout the book, Netherton offers a commentary on the idea of evolution, the belief in it, and how that contributes to our universe being the product of randomness. This is one of the many avenues that Netherton uses to champion the idea of a random universe. Other topics such as an expanding universe, the rejection of an all-knowing creator, the early human lack of technology, and more are also used to help aid in the overall message of believing in a random universe. By and large, while these portions of the book offered interesting commentary, the actual execution often felt lacking. Each idea wasn’t developed enough to be truly impactful, and the writing wasn’t engaging enough to make the reader reflect.
Building off of the earlier points, the arguments made in this book often felt to be trying to make something out of nothing. In addition to the comparisons mentioned above, there were also connections of randomness to ideas such as lottery tickets, and it often felt too far-reaching. While there was a connection in most of these comparisons and ideas, it often felt more like an extended metaphor than an actual argument. Thus, it made it hard to truly argue the need to accept the randomness of the universe, which is the main message of the book. Ultimately, while these comparisons do allow the reader to relate to the idea more readily, especially if they have no background in the creation of the universe, it often got too muddled to the point where the actual message about the need to accept randomness got lost.
Overall, while The Random Universe offered some interesting and unique perspectives, there is a fair amount that could be improved upon, such as the writing and the development comparisons throughout. Although the idea of rejecting a designed universe can spark interesting conversations, this book isn’t the best executed when it comes to truly convincing humans to reject a designed universe and accept the randomness that may have built out world. That being said, if you really enjoy a philosophical perspective on the randomness of the universe and are looking for a quick read, this book may be worth a read.
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