Is the world a good place? Is truth relative? Can beauty be defined? On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, host David Klinghoffer speaks with Dr. Ann Gauger, Director of Science Communication and a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, about her article “The Transcendental Treasury of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness” at Science & Culture Today. These abstract concepts don’t derive from the material world, yet we feel impoverished without them; they’re foundations of a life worth living.

Materialistic evolutionary explanations for truth, beauty, and goodness are out there, but they fall flat upon closer inspection. Some of them even reduce these qualities to mere illusion. Gauger holds that truth, beauty, and goodness are hallmarks of a designed world. Meditating on them can promote a spirit of gratitude, an important part of a healthy, happy life.