Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science Theology - Softcover

Dembski, William A

Softcover

ISBN 10: 083082314X ISBN 13: 9780830823147

Publisher: IVP Academic, 2002

Synopsis

• Voted a 2000 Book of the Year by Christianity Today

The Intelligent Design movement is three things:

• a scientific research program for investigating intelligent causes
• an intellectual movement that challenges naturalistic evolutionary theories
• a way of understanding divine action

Although the fast-growing movement has gained considerable grassroots support, many scientists and theologians remain skeptical about its merits. Scientists worry that it's bad science (merely creationism in disguise) and theologians worry that it's bad theology (misunderstanding divine action). In this book William Dembski addresses these concerns and brilliantly argues that intelligent design provides a crucial link between science and theology. Various chapters creatively and powerfully address intelligent discernment of divine action in nature, why the significane of miracles should be reconsidered, and the demise and unanswered questions of British natural theology. Effectively challenging the hegemony of naturalism and reinstating design within science, Dembski shows how intelligent design can be unpacked as a theory of information. Intelligent Design is a pivotal, synthesizing work from a thinker whom Phillip Johnson calls "one of the most important of the design theorists who are sparking a scientific revolution by legitimating the concept of intelligent design in science."

About this title

Review

"Einstein once remarked that the most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." This statement, quoted by William Dembski, is a way of summarising intelligent design theory, which argues that it is possible to find evidence for design in the Universe. The author of The Design Inference (a scholarly exploration of this topic, published by Cambridge University Press), in this book aims to show the lay reader "how detecting design within the Universe, and especially against the backdrop of biology and biochemistry, unseats naturalism"--and, above all, Darwin's expulsion of design in his theory of evolution.

Intelligent Design is organised into three parts: the first part gives an introduction to design, and shows how modernity--science in the last two centuries--has undermined our intuition of this truth. The second and central part of the book examines "the philosophical and scientific basis for intelligent design." The final part shows how "science and theology relate coherently and how intelligent design establishes the crucial link between the two." This suggests that Dembski is not simply rejecting Darwin and Naturalism on fundamentalist or biblical grounds. While grounded in faith, he wishes to show how "God's design is accessible to scientific inquiry." As such, the book should be of interest to all questioning believers. --Doug Thorpe

Review

"An important book that deserves a wide audience."--First Things, May 2000

"Dembski has done a fine job of putting the ID and specified-complexity pieces of the puzzle in layman's terms."--National Catholic Register, Mar. 26-Apr. 1, 2000

Intelligent Design is organized into three parts: the first part gives an introduction to design and shows how modernity--science in the last two centuries--has undermined our intuition of this truth. The second and central part of the book examines "the philosophical and scientific basis for intelligent design." The final part shows how "science and theology relate coherently and how intelligent design establishes the crucial link between the two." This suggests that Dembski is not simply rejecting Darwin and naturalism on fundamentalist or biblical grounds. While grounded in faith, he wishes to show how "God's design is accessible to scientific inquiry." As such, the book should be of interest to all thinking believers."--Amazon.com

Edition details

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 083082314X
• ISBN 13: 9780830823147
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 314