Mere Creation: Science, Faith and Intelligent Design
Overview
In this book Behe is joined by eighteen other expert academics trained in mathematics, mechanical engineering, philosophy, physical anthropology, physics, astrophysics, biology, ecology and evolutionary biology to investigate the prospects for this emerging school of thought. Challenging the reigning ideology of materialistic naturalism on both scientific and philosophical grounds, these scholars press the case for a radical rethinking of established evolutionary assumptions.
- A landmark challenge to naturalistic evolution
- Written by a team of experts from the fields of biology, physics, astrophysics, engineering, mathematics, philosophy, ecology, and anthropology
- Examines cutting-edge research and compelling evidence for design
- Scientifically sound
- Philosophically astute
- Describes recent challenges to the theory of evolution
- Sets out a coherent proposal for intelligent design
- Includes chapters by Michael Behe and Philip Johnson, both respected writers on this topic
Top Highlights
“At the same time intelligent design resists speculating about the nature, moral character or purposes of this intelligence (here is a task for the theologian—to connect the intelligence inferred by the design theorist with the God of Scripture). This is one of the great strengths of intelligent design, that it distinguishes design from purpose. We can know that something is designed without knowing the ultimate or even proximate purpose for which it was designed.” (Page 18)
“Whenever these methods detect intelligent causation, the underlying entity they uncover is information. Intelligent design properly formulated is a theory of information. Within such a theory, information becomes a reliable indicator of intelligent causation as well as a proper object for scientific investigation. Intelligent design thereby becomes a theory for detecting and measuring information, explaining its origin and tracing its flow. Intelligent design is therefore not the study of intelligent causes per se but of informational pathways induced by intelligent causes. As a result intelligent design presupposes neither a creator nor miracles. Intelligent design is theologically minimalist. It detects intelligence without speculating about the nature of the intelligence.” (Page 17)
“Darwinism is on its own terms a failed scientific research program—that it does not constitute a well-supported scientific theory, that its explanatory power is severely limited, and that it fails abysmally when it tries to account for the grand sweep of natural history.” (Page 22)
This book shows the robustness of the emerging design paradigm and demonstrates that it is a workable research program across a broad range of disciplines. A great introduction to this exciting new movement.
—Charles W. Colson, chairman, Prison Fellowship Ministries
This collection not only brings one up to date on a vital issue, but it is so stimulating that it should lead to more groundbreaking investigations.
—Diogenes Allen, Stuart Professor of Philosophy, Princeton Theological Seminary
Mere Creation goes far beyond the limitations of classical natural theology. . . and it effectively cuts off at the knees the misguided notion of creative evolution. . . . This book, which requires rigorous thinking on every page, is essential reading for the contemporary Christian discussion with science. Skip this volume at your own risk.
—Patrick Reardon, senior editor, Touchstone
This book resonates with the excitement of reopening urgent questions that have long been suppressed by the dead hand of philosophical dogmas disguised as scientific truth. It should be welcomed as an invitation to a more honest exploration of the world of which we are part.
—Richard John Neuhaus, former editor in chief, First Things
This extremely important and insightful book should be studied by every thoughtful person who is interested in an honest inquiry into the origin and existence of life.
—Dean L. Overman, author of A Case Against Accident and Self-Organization
- Title: Mere Creation: Science, Faith, and Intelligent Design
- Author: William Dembski
- Publisher: InterVarsity Press
- Publication Date: 1998
- Pages: 475
William Dembski is Research Professor of Philosophy at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He has previously taught at Northwestern University, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Dallas. He has done postdoctoral work in mathematics at MIT, in physics at the University of Chicago, and in computer science at Princeton University, and he has been a National Science Foundation doctoral and postdoctoral fellow. Dembski has written numerous scholarly articles and is the author of the critically acclaimed The Design Inference, Intelligent Design, and No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence.
