Understanding Intelligent Design

A. Dembski William, Sean McDowell

Description

This compact guide lays out the basics of Intelligent Design, popularly known as ID. William Dembski, the dean of the intelligent-design movement, and Sean McDowell especially target readers whose understanding may have been confused by educational bias and one-sided arguments and attacks.Commonsense and no-nonsense, with pointed examples, the authors explainthe central theories of ID, showing why the presence of information and meaningful complexity require the involvement of intelligencewhy ID adheres to the scientific method and is a valid field of scientific inquirywhy scientific evidence increasingly conflicts with evolutionary theorieshow both evolutionary theory and ID have religious/philosophical underpinnings, and why this causes so much controversyhow both systems of thought have radical implications for our cultureand what readers can do about itClarifying crucial issues, this key resource gives nonspecialists a solid grasp of one of todays foundational religious-scientific-cultural concepts.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• History of science

Informations

• Publié par: Harvest House Publishers
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780736982979
• Langue: English

Extrait

E NDORSEMENTS
Understanding Intelligent Design provides a magnificent introductory explanation of the most significant intellectual controversy of our time. I highly recommend it.
P HILLIP E. J OHNSON
author of Darwin on Trial

This book is long overdue! Finally, an understandable, engaging, and well-written introduction to intelligent design. Understanding Intelligent Design is the best book of its type.
J.P. M ORELAND
Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Biola University author of Kingdom Triangle

Bill and Sean have written a superb book that I wish I had when I was in high school-it would have spared me decades of believing in Darwinism! This book presents a crystal-clear overview of the most important and exciting development in science in our lifetime-the growing recognition that life and the cosmos reveal clear scientific evidence for design by a Mind.
M ICHAEL E GNOR
Professor and Vice-Chairman, Department of Neurosurgery State University of New York at Stony Brook featured in Ben Stein s movie Expelled

In my book Godless, I showed that Darwinism is the hoax of the century and, consequently, the core of the religion of liberalism. Like John the Baptist, Darwin foretold one of the key tenets of the left s worldview: that humans are accidental descendants of earthworms, not the unique creations of an all-powerful God. Liberals respond to critics of their religion like Cotton Mather to Salem s witches. With this book, two more witches present themselves for burning: Sean McDowell, whose gift is communicating with young people, and Bill Dembski, often called the Isaac Newton of intelligent design. I think Dembski is more like the Dick Butkus of intelligent design. His record for tackling Darwiniacs is unmatched. This book gives young people all the ammo they need to take on Darwinism and understand the only viable scientific alternative to Darwinism: intelligent design. Every high school student in America needs a copy of Understanding Intelligent Design.
A NN C OULTER
author of Godless: The Church of Liberalism

Written especially for young people, this is a lucid presentation of the philosophical and scientific factors that contribute to the debate about origins. It is a must-read for Christian teenagers!
C AROLINE C ROCKER
Executive Director, IDEA Center ( www.ideacenter.org ) featured in Ben Stein s movie Expelled

Intelligent design is often rejected, but rarely understood, especially by those who incessantly tell the rest of us to keep an open mind. This is an age when sophisticated academics do not flinch at requiring public school students to watch sex education demonstrations that involve bananas and condoms. Yet these same intellectuals insist that our children be shielded from any literature that may cast doubts on materialism. This is why ID advocates would face less resistance in our more cerebral venues if someone somewhere would just label it as pornography. But, alas, that has not happened. So, you ll just have to discover by your lonesome self what gets Richard Dawkins panties in a bunch. Start by reading this book and learning something. If you wind up disagreeing with portions of it or even the whole thing, that s okay, for many of us (me included) have issues with and questions about ID as well. But some of us are far more suspicious of the thought-police that want to protect you from this new boogeyman.
F RANCIS J. B ECKWITH
Professor of Philosophy and Church-State Studies, Baylor University

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler. So runs a quote often attributed to Einstein. Using clear and easily read prose, Dembski and McDowell do exactly this in painting a powerful and wonderfully coherent case for intelligent design.
R OBERT J. M ARKS II
Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Baylor University featured in Ben Stein s movie Expelled

I once asked a juvenile felon why he chose a life of crime. His response was chilling: Joel, if this is all there is, why not? Understanding Intelligent Design takes a great first step toward correcting such attitudes. Our schools indoctrinate young people into thinking that they are nothing more than products of time plus chance plus natural selection. ID, by contrast, shows that purpose must be added to this equation. This automatically gives young people a meaning to their existence, something to live for and something to seek after. For anyone who is struggling to understand our place in the cosmos or knows a young person who is, give them Understanding Intelligent Design.
J OEL B OROFSKY
Worldview Blogger ( www.thechristianwatershed.com )
HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE , OREGON
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible , 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. ( www.Lockman.org )
Verses marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189 USA. All rights reserved.
Verses marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Cover by Abris, Veneta, Oregon
Cover photo Kasia Biel / iStockphoto
Back cover author photo Laszlo Bencze
This work published in association with the Conversant Media Group, P.O. Box 3006, Redmond, WA, 98007.
ConversantLife.com is a trademark of Conversant Media Group. Harvest House Publishers, Inc., is a licensee of the trademark ConversantLife.com .
UNDERSTANDING INTELLIGENT DESIGN
Copyright 2008 by William A. Dembski and Sean McDowell
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dembski, William A., 1960-
Understanding intelligent design / William A. Dembski and Sean McDowell.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-7369-2442-9 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-7369-8297-9 (eBook)
1. Intelligent design (Teleology) 2. Creationism. 3. Evolution (Biology)-Religious aspects-Christianity. I. McDowell, Sean. II. Title.
BS651.D455 2008
213-dc22
2008014216
All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author s and publisher s rights is strictly prohibited.
D EDICATION
To Ben Stein, for his courage to stand for freedom of inquiry and expression in the documentary Expelled
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank Mark Matlock for encouraging us to work together on this project as well as Joel Borofsky for first broaching this project with Mark. We appreciate the insightful and thorough editing of Carlos Delgado and Denyse O Leary. Stan Jantz, thanks for believing in this project and for the vision and passion you bring to ConversantLife.com . Terry Glaspey, thanks for getting the ball rolling with Harvest House and for your constant support.
I (Bill) want to thank my wife, Jana, for the love and humor she brings to our family. I also want to thank Grant Kaul for first putting the bug in my ear about writing a user-friendly book on intelligent design that tells readers, in plain language, what it is, why it s important, and what they can do about it.
I (Sean) would like to thank my mom, Dottie, and my wife, Stephanie, for their encouragement and support throughout the research and writing process.
C ONTENTS
Endorsements
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Josh McDowell
1. Welcome to the Debate
2. Intelligent Design to the Rescue!
3. The Surprising Truth
4. What Story Do the Rocks Tell?
5. Science or Religion?
6. The Design Inference
7. An Unsolved Mystery: The Origin of Life
8. Putting Darwin s Theory to the Test
9. At Home in the Universe
10. Joining the Design Revolution
Appendix A: Recommended Resources
Appendix B: Quick Response Guide
Appendix C: Ten Questions to Ask Your Science Teacher About Design
Appendix D: Dealing with Difficult Critics of ID
Appendix E: Evolutionary Logic: A Parody of Darwinian Educational Philosophy
Notes
F OREWORD BY J OSH M C D OWELL
The origin and order of the universe. It s hard to imagine a greater question or one more hotly debated through the ages. The biblical writers boldly proclaim that the world is not an accident but is the creation of a personal God. In Psalm 19:1-2 ( NLT ), David says, The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. Writing nearly 1000 years before Christ, David declared that nature reveals knowledge about God. And in Romans 1, Paul says that creation reveals invisible attributes of God, such as His power and divine nature. Believers should not be surprised that scientists have recently begun to find remarkable evidence of design in the natural world.
The intelligent design (ID) movement has made waves not only in the scientific community but also in the culture at large. Influential newspapers such as the New York Times and USA Today have discussed developments in ID and how it relates to education. The major motion picture Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed was released featuring Ben Stein. Magazines such as US News World Re