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."
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."
Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology
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Overview
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."
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780830823147 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | InterVarsity Press |
| Publication date: | 07/12/2002 |
| Pages: | 312 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d) |
About the Author
Behe earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently professor of biological sciences at Lehigh University. Behe's research focuses on the structure and function of chromatin and has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. In his book Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution (Free Press), Behe argues that the irreducible complexity of cellular biochemical systems shows that they were designed by an intelligent agent. Darwin's Black Box has been reviewed in Science, Nature, New Scientist, National Review, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. It was selected as Christianity Today's 1996 Book of the Year. Behe is a member of the Biophysical Society and the American Society for Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. He is also a fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture.
Read an Excerpt
Chapter One
Recognizing the Divine
Finger
1.1 Homer Simpson's Prayer
In an episode of the animated television series The Simpsons, Marge triesto tell her husband Homer that she is pregnant with their third child."Can't talk now—praying," he interrupts.
Dear Lord, the gods have been good to me and I am thankful. For the first time in my life everything is absolutely perfect the way it is. So here's the deal: you freeze everything as it is and I won't ask for anything more. If that is okay, please give me absolutely no sign. [pause] Okay, deal. In gratitude, I present to you this offering of cookies and milk. If you want me to eat them for you, please give me no sign. [pause] Thy will be done.
What's wrong with Homer's prayer? Assuming God is the sovereignruler of the universe, what is to prevent God from answering Homer'sprayer by providing no sign? Granted, usually when we want God toconfirm something, we look for something extraordinary, some sign thatleaves no doubt about God's will. But presumably God could have madeit thunder when Homer asked God to freeze everything and God couldhave made the earth to quake when Homer asked to eat those cookiesand milk. Presumably it is just as easy for God to confirm Homer's prayerwith no sign as to disconfirm it with a sign. What then is wrong withHomer's prayer?
Certainly Homer's prayer is self-serving. He clearly wants his life tostay the same, and he also wants to consume those cookies and milk.Since signs are by definition rare, by asking for no sign Homer isvirtuallyguaranteeing that the cookies and milk will be his to consume. As for hislife staying unchanged, that's a different matter. Homer's wife Marge isafter all pregnant with their third child, a fact that in short order willdestroy the "absolute perfection" of Homer's life. Nonetheless if we omitHomer's self-interest, it's not immediately evident what's wrong with hisprayer. In the case of the cookies and milk, Homer wants God to confirma course of action by the absence of a sign. Logically this is equivalent toGod confirming the opposite course of action with a sign. "If you wantme to eat these cookies and milk, give me no sign" is logically equivalentto "If you give me a sign, then you don't want me to eat these cookies andmilk."
There is, however, an asymmetry between tying a course of action to asign and tying it to no sign. To see this, consider what would have happenedif Homer's prayer had gone something like this:
I present to you this offering of cookies and milk. If you want me to eat them for you, please give me no sign. [loud thunder] Since it's raining outside, I expected the thunder. Thank you for giving me no sign. [powerful earthquake] Since we live on a geological fault, mild tremors aren't out of the ordinary. Thanks for giving me no sign. [radio comes on unexpectedly and the announcer describes the carcinogenic effects of cookies and milk] This part of the country is known for weird atmospheric disturbances, so thanks for giving me no sign. [loud voice exclaims, "Homer, you big dummy, this is God—don't eat those cookies and milk!"] Whoa. Back in my teenage years I used to drop acid. I've had flashbacks and weird mystical experiences ever since. So, God, thank you for giving me no sign. Amen.
The prayer being ended and no sign being given, Homer consumes thecookies and milk.
What's wrong with this prayer? Certainly it seems that Homer is rationalizingaway a whole series of signs. By asking for the absence of a signto confirm eating the cookies and milk, Homer is equivalently asking fora sign to disconfirm eating the cookies and milk. Such signs seem to havebeen given to him in abundance, and yet Homer rationalizes each ofthem. Here then is the problem in seeking confirmation through theabsence of a sign. By praying for the absence of a sign, Homer fails tospecify a sign. Thus any putative sign that comes along is easily rationalized—"that'snot the sort of sign I was looking for."
Likewise, praying for a sign to confirm something is useless unless thesign is specified. Only if a sign is specified can we avoid rationalizing itonce it occurs. So long as no sign is specified, the instruction give me nosign to confirm eating these cookies and milk is not only logically but alsofunctionally equivalent to give me a sign to disconfirm eating these cookiesand milk. So long as no sign is specified, it won't be clear whether an eventactually does constitute a sign or is merely a coincidence. Indeed a sign isnot properly a sign unless it is specified.
To see this, consider the sign that would have convinced the atheistphilosopher Norwood Russell Hanson to become a theist:
I'm not a stubborn guy. I would be a theist under some conditions. I'm open-minded.... Okay. Okay. The conditions are these: Suppose, next Tuesday morning, just after breakfast, all of us in this one world are knocked to our knees by a percussive and ear-shattering thunderclap. Snow swirls, leaves drop from trees, the earth heaves and buckles, buildings topple and towers tumble. The sky is ablaze with an eerie silvery light, and just then, as all of the people of this world look up, the heavens open, and the clouds pull apart, revealing an unbelievably radiant and immense Zeus-like figure towering over us like a hundred Everests. He frowns darkly as lightning plays over the features of his Michelangeloid face, and then he points down, at me, and explains for every man, woman and child to hear: "I've had quite enough of your too-clever logic chopping and word-watching in matters of theology. Be assured Norwood Russell Hanson, that I do most certainly exist!"
Hanson has here specified a sign and connected it to personal faith inGod. If that sign were to happen, Hanson would be obligated to become atheist. Contrast this with Homer Simpson. Homer connects eating cookiesand milk to an unspecified sign. Because Homer specifies no sign, anythingthat happens can be rationalized to permit eating the cookies andmilk.
Although Hanson was clearly having a bit of fun, his challenge illustratesseveral important truths about signs in guiding human decision-making.First, a sign must be clearly specified—otherwise it can berationalized away. Second, the sign must be extraordinary. That's not tosay it need constitute a miracle. But it must depart from the ordinarycourse of events. Third, the sign must be clearly tied to some decision.Thus if the sign happens, it must be clear what is to be done or believed.In Hanson's case he would be obliged to believe in God if the sign herequested came to pass. Finally, signs are contingent. In other words, theycan happen but don't have to happen. Free agents produce signs and arejust as capable of granting them as withholding them. It follows that theabsence of a sign provides no guide to decision-making. Thus if the signHanson requested does not come to pass, its absence justifies neitherbelief nor unbelief in God. In chapter five we shall see how these truthsabout signs, provide the basis for how to detect intelligent causes andtherefore design. The search for signs is the search for an intelligent agent.
1.2 Signs in Decision-Making
Let us now examine these truths about signs more closely. We will call theagent who looks for a sign the sign-seeker. Moreover, we will call the agentfrom whom the sign is sought the sign-giver. The sign-seeker looks for asign from the sign-giver in order to reach a decision. To leave no doubtabout which sign corresponds to which decision, the sign-seeker specifiesa sign. In specifying a sign the sign-seeker makes clear which events conformto the sign and which don't. For instance, if the sign specified by thesign-seeker is obtaining a million dollars, then winning a million dollarsat a lottery or inheriting a million dollars would both be instances of thesign. On the other hand, going bankrupt would contradict the sign. Notethat signs can have time limits. Thus if the sign does not happen withinthe specified time limit, the sign becomes null and void.
Having specified a sign, the sign-seeker needs to connect that sign to adecision. The sign and the decision will therefore be connected in the followingsort of conditional, what I call a test-conditional:
If the sign happens, then I will decide such-and-such.
Deciding such-and-such may mean committing an act, uttering a statement,embracing a belief or forming a desire. Alternatively it may meanrefraining from an act, keeping silence, chucking a belief or quashing adesire. Just as the sign needs to be specified, so does the decision. In specifyingthe decision the sign-seeker must be clear which courses of actionor beliefs conform to the decision and which do not. For instance, if thedecision specifies donating a million dollars to education, then giving themillion to either one's high school or one's college would both count.Blowing the million gambling in Las Vegas, on the other hand, would not.
Both the sign and the decision need to be precisely specified. If eitheror both are fuzzy; then decision-making based on signs becomes fuzzy aswell. Only by precisely specifying both the sign and the decision can thesign-seeker's decision-making remain unbiased and disciplined. To seethis, consider the following test-conditionals:
FF: If she resists my advances, then I won't bother her.
FC: If she resists my advances, then I'll immediately break off all contact with her.
CF: If tonight she refuses to let me touch her, then I won't bother her.
CC: If tonight she refuses to let me touch her, then I'll immediately break off all contact with her.
The sign-seeker here is a Lothario, and the sign-giver is the woman hehopes to seduce. The "F" and "C" labeling these conditionals stand for"fuzzy" and "clear" respectively. In the conditional labeled FF both thesign and the decision are fuzzy. Indeed a self-absorbed male convinced ofhis prowess is unlikely to interpret any act as resisting his advances (shortof, perhaps, a knee to the groin). And how could such a self-absorbedmale interpret any attention he devotes to a woman as bothering her? Theconditional labeled FF is so fuzzy that it permits the Lothario to doexactly as he pleases. Contrast this with the conditional labeled CC. Inthis conditional both the sign and the decision are clear. The woman'ssteadfast refusal to let him touch her tonight will be clear. So, too, will hisdecision to immediately break off all contact with her.
Interestingly the conditionals labeled FC and CF, though containing aclear element, are just as fuzzy as the conditional labeled FF. Indeed thefuzziness in the sign of FC and in the decision of CF destroys any residualclarity. Consider the conditional labeled FC. Since the Lothario interpretsvirtually all genuine resistance as "playing hard to get," the decision toimmediately break off all contact with her can be deferred indefinitely.Fuzziness in the antecedent of FC subverts the clarity in the consequent.Similarly fuzziness in the consequent of CF subverts the clarity in theantecedent. The sign in this conditional is clear enough. But the Lothariowill construe his decision not to bother her so broadly that any attempt atseduction will be considered fair game. FF, FC and CF are equally useless.Only CC provides an effective guide to decision-making.
To recap, the sign-seeker specifies a sign and a decision and then connectsthe two in a test-conditional: If sign, then decision. If the sign actuallydoes happen, the sign-seeker is then committed to carrying out the decision.Consequently everything hinges on the sign. Let us therefore turn tothe agent capable of giving the sign, namely, the sign-giver. If the sign-givergives the requested sign, everything proceeds straightforwardly.This is simply a matter of logic. The sign-seeker accepts the conditional ifsign, then decision. If the sign-giver gives the sign, the sign-seeker is thenobligated to follow through with the decision.
By giving the sign, the sign-giver presumably endorses the sign-seeker'sdecision. But what if the sign-giver refuses to give the sign? Does thatmean the sign-giver endorses the opposite decision? Consider, for instance,the medieval practice of trial by ordeal. The sign-seeker here is the courtand the sign-giver is God. The court takes someone accused of a crime andinflicts on that person a wound. If the wound heals within an allotted time,then the accused is judged innocent (note the test-conditional: if the woundheals, then deem the accused innocent). Normally the wound would take along time to heal. But since God (= sign-giver) is capable of healing thewound much more quickly, swift healing is taken as a sign by the court(= sign-seeker) that the accused is innocent.
But what if God refuses to perform the requested sign? Does that meanthe accused is guilty? Hardly. God is a free agent and under no obligation toact when a human court says to act. Indeed God may so despise trials byordeal that he refuses utterly to provide the signs they request. Trials byordeal attempt to force God's hand. A sign-giver, however, is always free notto give a sign. Moreover, that refusal to give a sign must properly be interpretedas silence and not as endorsing some course of action. If the sign-givergives the requested sign, the sign-seeker will not only reach a decision butwill also be justified thinking the sign-giver endorsed that decision. On theother hand, if the sign-giver does not give the requested sign, the sign-seekeris not therewith justified in forming a decision. Indeed any decisionmade in the absence of that sign lacks the endorsement of the sign-giver.
This asymmetry between a sign and its absence is evident throughoutScripture. Gideon, for instance, asked a sign from God to confirm whetherhe should go to war with Midian. The condition Gideon put to God was ofthe form If you make the fleece in my barn on alternate nights wet and dry, thenI'll wage war against Midian. Because God performed the sign, Gideon wentto war with Midian. (Note that my intent with the Gideon story and theexamples that follow is not to argue for the historicity of such Scripturalnarratives but simply to show how they illustrate the use of signs andtherewith the detection of design.)
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Intelligent Design by William A. Dembski. Copyright © 1999 by William A. Dembski. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Michael BehePreface
Part 1: Historical Beginnings
1. Recognizing the Divine Finger
1.1 Homer Simpson's Prayer
1-2 Signs in Decision-Making
1.3 Ordinary Versus Extraordinary Signs
1.4 Moses and Pharoah
1.5 The Philistines and the Ark
1-6 The Sign of the Resurrection
1.7 In Defense of Premodernity
2. The Critique of Miracles
2.1 Miracles as Evidence for Faith
2.2 Spinoza's Rejection of Miracles
2-3 Schleiermacher's Assimilation of Spinoza
2.4 Unpacking Schleiermacher's Naturalistic Critique
2.5 Critiquing the Naturalistic Critique
2.6 The Significane of the Naturalistic Critique
3. The Demise of British Natural Theology
3.1 Pauli's Sneer
3.2 From Contrivance to Natural Law
3.3 From Natural Law to Agnosticism
3.4 Darwin and His Theory
3.5 Design and Miracles
3-6 The Presupposition of Positivism
Part 2: A Theory of Design
4. Naturalism Its Cure
4.1 Nature and Creation
4.2 The Root of Idolatry
4.3 Naturalism Within Western Culture
4.4 The Cure: Intelligent Design
4.5 Not Theistic Evolution
4.6 The Importance of Definitions
4.7 A New Generation of Scholars
5. Reinstating Design Within Science
5.1 Design's Departure from Science
5.2 Why Reinstate Design?
5.3 The Complexity-Specification Criterion
5.4 Specification
5.5 False Negatives and False Positives
5.6 Why the Criterion Works
5.7 Irreducible Complexity
5.8 So What?
6. Intelligent Design as a Theory of Information
6.1 Complex Specified Information
6.2 Generating Information via Law
6.3 Generating Information via Chance
6.4 Generating Information via Law and Chance
6.5 The Law of Conservation of Information
6.6 Applying the Theory to Evolutionary Biology
6.7 Reconceptualizing Evolutionary Biology
Part 3: Bridging Science Theology
7. Science Theology in Mutual Support
7.1 Two Windows on Reality
7.2 Epistemic Support
7.3 Rational Compulsion
7.4 Explanatory Power
7.5 The Big Bang and Divine Creation
7.6 Christ as the Completion of Science
8. The Act of Creation
8.1 Creation as a Divine Gift
8.2 Naturalism's Challenge to Creation
8.3 Computational Reductionism
8.4 Our Empirical Selves Versus Our Actual Selves
8.5 The Resurgence of Design
8.6 The Creation of the World
8.7 The Intelligibility of the World
8.8 Creativity, Divine and Human
Appendix: Objections to Design
A.1 The God of the Gaps
A.2 Intentionality Versus Design
A.3 Scientific Creationism
A.4 But Is It Science?
A.5 Dysteleology
A.6 Just an Anthropic Coincidence
A.7 Applying the Math to Biology
A.8 David Hume's Objections
A.9 Mundane Versus Trancendant Designers
Notes
Index
What People are Saying About This
"Dembski is perhaps the very brightest of a new generation of scholars who are willing to challenge the most sacred twentieth-century intellectual idol—the unproven notion that all of life can be explained in terms of natural selection and mutations."
"If philosophic naturalism is the disease, and I am confident it is, Dembski's Intelligent Design is surely the cure. Extending the argument of his Design Inference, Dembski here traces, in lucid accessible language, the fate of the inference to intelligent cause in Western thought since Bacon. His intellectual history is meticulous, and the positive case he advances for reintroducing design has implications that are radical and far reaching. In his exposition, Dembski exemplifies the finest traditions of the American public intellectual—he assumes that ordinary people, given evidence and argument, are perfectly capable of making reasoned decisions on big questions that matter."
"Debmski is in the forefront of today's engagement of theology with science—and of science with theology. Many thought the engagement had been called off a long time ago, but as Intelligent Design makes luminously clear, that is not possible. It is not possible because all reality is the creation of the one God and therefore finally one. This book is an invitation to intellectual and spiritual adventure that should not be declined."
"Intelligent Design is a critical resource for anyone who wants to understand the reemergence of the design argument. Dembski has taken the key concepts from his seminal but highly technical work The Design Inference and made them accessible to the average reader. Furthermore, he has placed these arguments in their historical setting, allowing the reader to understand the early development of the design argument, the reasons for its demise for almost 150 years and the critical new insights, which Dembski has helped to fashion, that are responsible for the return of the design argument as an intellectually compelling alternative to naturalism."
"The toppling of the Berlin Wall will seem small in comparison with the impending demolition of scientific naturalism. Most of us have heard but a rumor of this event with our ears; Dembski is one of those making it happen. Will this be a bad thing? No, a good one. The collapse of the idea that nature is blind, purposeless and 'all there is' will not destroy the scientific study of nature but allow it to come into its own. "As a philosopher of the natural moral law, I have particular reason to extol Dembski's work. There would be little point in speaking of a 'law written on the heart' if conscience were merely a meaningless byproduct of selfish genes. Dembski strengthens the case for saying that our deepest moral inclinations not only look designed, they are."
"Dembski is the Isaac Newton of information theory, and since this is the Age of Information, that makes Dembski one of the most important thinkers of our time. His 'law of conservation of information' represents a revolutionary breakthrough. In Intelligent Design Dembski explains the meaning and significance of his discoveries with such clarity that the general public can readily grasp them. He convincingly diagnoses our present confusions about the relationship between science and theology and offers a promising alternative."
"Dembski's Intelligent Design is a centerpiece in the current renewal of intellectual responsibility among thoughtful Christians. Everyone with interest in and responsibility for how science and theology interrelate should study it carefully. This is especially true for leaders in education."
"There are many things I admire about this book: its thoughtfulness, its philosophical and theological acumen, its willingness to face all difficulties. But the most important contribution is the effort to return the notion of design to its proper standing in science—that is, to bring science back under the rubric of rationality. Naturalism under the guise of science makes a lot of assumptions that it will now be forced to defend instead of assert."
"Dembski provides a clear and comprehensive description of what 'intelligent design' means. To establish the subtitle 'The Bridge Between Science Theology' Dembski explains that the 'demise of design' in science was a consequence of philosophical preconceptions, not a deficiency in its validity. Rather, he shows that a scientific theory cannot be sound without acknowledging the Creator behind the phenomena it explains. Dembski's book is an important step in bringing the focus back to a level playing field of truth, not prejudice."
"Dembski is one of the main leaders of the intelligent design movement. He made it his first priority to state his thesis in the most rigorous possible form for a readership of academic philosophers and mathematicians. Having done that successfully, he now provides a popular treatment of the same issues. This is a must-read for those who want to understand how we know that living organisms really are designed by a Creator."
"With graduate degrees in mathematics, philosophy and theology, William Dembski is uniquely qualified to address the question of whether divine design is detectable in the realm of nature. His groundbreaking work in design theory is philosophically significant in its own right, but in this book Dembski goes beyond theory to application, claiming that his method, when applied to the natural world of living things, shows in a rigorous way that biological organisms are products of intelligent design. "Bold and provocative, Dembski's book challenges the coventional wisdom which says that while science may have input into theology, theology has no input into science. Sooner rather than later, the doyens of contemporary science and religion dialogue will no longer be able to ignore the position Dembski represents, for his work is simply too good for his challenge to stand unanswered."
"True science is never dogmatic. It follows the evidence of eyes and ears wherever it may lead. William Dembski argues, convincingly, that the evidence at hand, particularly in biology and biochemistry, leads inexorably to the conclusion that life could not exist without an intelligent designer. If Dembski is right—and I believe he is—then it is unscientific to deny the existence of God. "By making this argument so carefully and so well, Dembski has performed a real service not only for science but also for theology, which has long been intimidated by the aggressive 'scientific' claim that reason is the enemy of faith. It is not, and Dembski shows us why it is not."
"Intelligent design is moving quickly to replace Darwinian evolution as the central guiding principle of biological science. This book is a clear and thought-provoking analysis of the theological, philosophical and scientific aspects of intelligent design by one of its leading proponents. Everyone interested in the coming revolution should read it."
"The past twenty years of laboratory research in the biological sciences have unveiled incredible mysteries of nature. Those scientists that have participated in these endeavors have been awestruck not only by the beauty of nature at the molecular level but also by the complexity of even the simplest of cells. In fact, scientists adhering to strict Darwinism must remind themselves that what they see is only 'apparent' design. In Dembski's first book, The Design Inference, he laid out the logic for discriminating 'real' from 'apparent' design. In this new work Dembski unpacks the meaning of 'intelligent design' from the historical, philosophical and theological perspectives. I would encourage even those of my colleagues who disagree with its implications to read and consider the arguments presented in this volume. It promises to be provocative, controversial, but central to the ultimate question of science and religion."