Overview

A 2005 Gold Medallion finalist. Is it science? Is it religion? What exactly is the Design Revolution? Today scientists, mathematicians and philosophers in the intelligent design movement are challenging a certain view of science--one that limits its investigations and procedures to purely law-like and mechanical explanations. They charge that there is no scientific reason to exclude the consideration of intelligence, agency and purpose from truly scientific research. In fact, they say, the practice of science often does already include these factors! As the intelligent design movement has gained momentum, questions have naturally arisen to challenge its provocative claims. In this book William A. Dembski rises to the occasion clearly and concisely answering the most vexing questions posed to the intelligent design program. Writing with nonexperts in mind, Dembski responds to more than sixty questions asked by experts and nonexperts alike who have attended his many public lectures, as well as objections raised in written reviews. The Design Revolution has begun. Its success depends on how well it answers the questions of its detractors. Read this book and you'll have a good idea of the prospects and challenges facing this revolution in scientific thinking.

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Mainstream modern science, with its analytical methods and its objective teachings, is the dominant force in modern culture. If science simply discovered and taught the truth about reality, who could object? But mainstream science does not simply discover the truth ; instead it relies in part on a set of unscientific, false philosophical presuppositions as the basis for many of its conclusions. Thus, crucial aspects of what modern science teaches us are simply shabby philosophy dressed up in a white lab coat. In this important new book William Dembski continues his ground-breaking effort to show just how unscientific many modern scientists tend to be. If we are truly open to all the evidence, we can discover by the use of our unaided reason that the natural world is not the purposeless outcome of law--itself of unknown origin--and chance. This revolutionary approach has broad implications for science and broader implications for modern culture. Among many other things, Dembski's book is further evidence of the critical need for students in our public school systems to learn what is really going on in the disputes at the cutting edge of science rather than having their understanding of the natural world veiled and distorted by the prejudices of the past. --Senator Rick Santorum, United States Senate

<em> The Design Revolution</em> is about questions of fundamental importance: Can one formulate objective criteria for recognizing design? What do such criteria tell us about design in the biological realm? Sad to say, even to raise such questions is dangerous; but fortunately Dembski is not deterred. In this courageous book he takes aim at the intellectual complacency that too often smothers serious and unprejudiced discussion of these questions. --Stephen Barr, Professor of Physics, University of Delaware, author of Modern Physics and Ancient Faith

William Dembski is asking, and forcing the rest of us to confront, a profoundly important question: Is nature a closed system of efficient and material causes? Some people, purporting to defend the honor and integrity of science, immediately say, Of course it is! To them, Dembski issues a challenge: Does scientific inquiry itself vindicate the proposition that nature is a closed system of efficient and material causes? Or is this proposition accepted by many scientists and others as a matter of faith? Some who acknowledge that scientific naturalism is a set of philosophical assumptions, rather than a fact that can be demonstrated by scientific methods, defend it on the ground that the success of scientific inquiry based upon it provides ample ground for its rational affirmation. From them, Dembski demands proof that scientific inquiry and the knowledge it generates actually do presuppose the exclusion of causes beyond the efficient and material. This proof has, it must be said, not been forthcoming. In his boldest move, Dembski argues that careful attention to the various manifestations of order discovered in the natural world suggests that efficient and material causes are in fact insufficient to explain the data into which the sciences inquire. We can reasonably infer from the order on display in nature that intelligence has figured in the design of natural phenomena and the natural world as a whole. It will not do for those to whom Dembski has issued his challenge to rely on their standing or authority within the scientific and academic establishments to wave him away. The truth is that the honor and integrity of science really are at stake in this matter. They would be profoundly tarnished by a dogmatic refusal to face up to Dembski's questions. --Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Princeton University

Author Information

William Dembski (Ph.D., mathematics, University of Chicago; Ph.D., philosophy, University of Illinois at Chicago) is senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. 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 (Cambridge), Intelligent Design (InterVarsity Press) and No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence (Rowman and Littlefield).

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