How could something as vast, intricate, vivid, and beautiful as the natural world have come about except by the will and "hand" of a supernaturally powerful and intelligent Designer? The Answer - It could not have - lies at the root of one of the best known "proofs" of the existence of God. Certainly, the so-called 'Argument from Design' forms the basis of the modern Intelligent Design (previous Creationist) movement, which, although it accepts evolution, stands opposed to Darwin's theory of "blind" evolution - which is to say, to the idea that evolution occurs without overarching purpose, moral direction, or intervention from God. 
 Michael Benedikt's book God, Creativity, Evolution: The Argument from Design(ers) seeks to dissolve the disagreement by showing that "design" and "evolution" are one and the same process running at different scales and speeds and seen from different viewpoints. Design is evolution speeded up; evolution is design slowed down. Designing is what evolving looks like when seen from outside; evolving is what designing looks like when seen from the inside. This perspective is rooted in science (in particular the work of Nobelist Gerald Edelman) and in the experience of actual designers -- people like architects, industrial designers, artists, and composers. Although actual designers have been conspicuously silent when it comes to the debate between Intelligent Design and Evolution, perhaps for fear of raising theological-religious hackles and perhaps for lack of feeling qualified, their participation in the discussion is crucial.
 The second half of the book is devoted to observations of the beliefs of such great artist-architects as Michelangelo Buonarotti, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Louis Kahn, with respect to divinity, nature, and design. (There are also references to Alvar Aalto, Mies van der Rohe, and others.) All are shown to have had deep convictions easily traced to religious, deist, and/or process-theological roots, wherein the evolutionary workings of the world, broadly conceived, and the workings of the human mind in the act of design are seen and understood to be continuous, if not identical, and divine. 
 Can the spat between Intelligent Design and Evolution finally be dissipated? On some better understanding of the word, is it time for "divinity" once again to enter the discourse of architecture and of design generally? This book says yes to both questions.

God, Creativity, and Evolution: The Argument from Design(ers)

Michael Benedikt

Arts & Photography

The Center for American Architecture and Design

Architects are rarely invited into the theological debate the way scientists often and artists sometimes are, this despite the obvious analogies between design and Design. Even when they are designing places of worship, the shape of their own faith is given no special place, nor the theological implications of what they are doing regardless of faith. (Indeed, mention "architecture" and "religion" or "God" in the same sentence, and the mind automatically flips to churchs and synagogues, and then to fifty cliche forms.) The idea behind this volume was to blaze a new trail in thinking rationally about religion, theology, and everyday life. It opens, new avenues of debate and discussion about the meaning of religious faith in the 21st century. For not only architects, of course, but also film-makers, writers, composers, painters, scientists, institution-builders, and inventors create-design-with similar if not the same ethical constraints and incentives. The desire of everyman to be creatively involved in life is, we submit, an essentially religious desire. Understanding why and how this is so through architecture might make this clearer to all, and more realizable.

CENTER, Volume 15: Divinity, Creativity, Complexity

Thomas Fisher

William S. Saunders

Stanley Tigerman

Michael Ruse

Charles Jencks

John F. Haught

Richard Becherer

Tom Spector

William C. Richards

Sheryl Tucker de Vasquez

Jin Baek

Alvaro Malo

Center for American Architecture and Design

CENTER 21: The Secret Life of Buildings employs the nascent philosophies of speculative realism and object-oriented ontology to illuminate architecture as a peculiar set of objects, phenomena, relations, materials, and operations. Object-oriented ontology (OOO) is a philosophy that considers all objects (virtual or physical, large or small, singular or plural, closed or open) to be on equal ontological footing. Although it doesn't exclude humans, it treats them as just another set of objects. This volume explores OOO's significance to architecture, and possibly vice versa.

CENTER 21: The Secret Life of Buildings

Ian Bogost

Albena Yaneva

Patrik Schumacher

Graham Harman

Kory Bieg

Craig Dykers

Levi Bryant

Keith Ragsdale

Proceedings from an April 25-26, 1998 symposium. Black and white images. Moderator: William F. Stern. Participants included James Ackerman, Michael Benedikt, Frank Gehry, Jacques Herzog, Roni Horn, Robert Irwin, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. 190p.

Art and architecture: A symposium hosted by the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas, on April 25 and 26, 1998

James S. Ackerman

Robert Irwin

Claes Oldenburg

Coosje Van Bruggen

Frank Gehry

Jaques Herzog

Roni Horn

William F. Stern

Chinati Foundation

God Is the Good We Do invites believers and agnostics to return to their spiritual heritages with a changed understanding of how religions are and are not carrying out God's will. At the same time, it invites atheists to see that God is not the oldest and strongest but the youngest and weakest force in the universe, a force whose existence depends on them as much as anyone else. God Is the Good We Do appeals to both mind and heart, offering a fresh way to think about God in this scientific and media-saturated age.

God Is the Good We Do: Theology of Theopraxy

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Bottino Books

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Books by Michael Benedikt