Jason Rosenhouse of EvolutionBlog found Berlinski oddly impressive at a recent encounter.IN THE MAIL: David Berlinski's The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions. No idea if he's related to Claire Berlinski, though you would expect that an author-Berlinski living in Paris might well be.
UPDATE: Various readers email that David Berlinski is Claire and Mischa Berlinski's father.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Raymond Eckhart emails: "In addition to being Claire and Mischa’s Dad, he’s a fellow at the Discovery Institute and ID proponent. I’d love to hear a debate on ID between him and John Derbyshire. Methinks the Derb would
clean up." I don't believe in intelligent design. The case for not-very-bright design, however, remains open.
All in all, a pleasant evening. Berlinski made a good impression on me. Alas, some of that good feeling started to fade when I read the Preface and first chapter of his book on the train ride out of the city, but I'll save that for a different post.Berlinski is unusual among leading anti-evolution advocates in having a sense of humor. Still, a lot of what he's written is just glib nonsense, such as this from an old Commentary article:
What do we see when we look elsewhere? Stars blazing glumly in the night sky, the moons of Jupiter hanging like so many testicles, clouds of cosmic dust, an immensity of space, a spare but irritating sound track consisting of the infernal chatter of background radiation.Poetic.
