In the Beginning: And Other Essays on Intelligent Design [Paperback]

Granville Sewell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 2010

In this wide-ranging collection of essays on origins, mathematician Granville Sewell looks at the big bang, the fine-tuning of the laws of physics, and the evolution of life.  He concludes that while there is much in the history of life that seems to suggest natural causes, there is nothing to support Charles Darwin’s idea that natural selection of random mutations can explain major evolutionary advances (“easily the dumbest idea ever taken seriously by science,” he calls it).  Sewell explains why evolution is a fundamentally different and much more difficult problem than others solved by science, and why increasing numbers of scientists are now recognizing what has long been obvious to the layman, that there is no explanation possible without design. This book summarizes many of the traditional arguments for intelligent design, but presents some powerful new arguments as well.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“As the debate over intelligent design grows increasingly heated, with critics engaging in vicious polemics, it is refreshing to find a discussion of the topic that is calm, thoughtful, and far-ranging, with no sense of having to advance an agenda or decimate the opposition. In this regard, Granville Sewell’s In the Beginning succeeds brilliantly.” — William A. Dembski, author of The Design Inference and The End of Christianity

About the Author

Granville Sewell is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Texas El Paso.  He completed his PhD in Mathematics at Purdue University in 1972 and has worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Purdue University, the University of Texas Center for High Performance Computing (Austin), and Texas A&M University.  He also spent one semester teaching at Universidad Nacional de Tucuman in Argentina on a Fullbright Scholarship.  Dr. Sewell has written three books on numerical analysis, and is the author of a widely-used finite element computer program.

Product Details

• Paperback: 147 pages
• Publisher: Discovery Institute Press; 1st Edition edition (February 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 097901414X
• ISBN-13: 978-0979014147
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,089,315 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Goldmine of ideas, February 26, 2010

By 

Darwin Researcher (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Beginning: And Other Essays on Intelligent Design (Paperback)

Although the author is a mathematician (his PhD is from Purdue University in math) and is a full Professor of Math, he has worked as a scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and at other major scientific research centers. This wide science background is reflected in this book, which covers many topics related to Intelligent Design, including not just the second law of thermodynamics, but also the expanding universe, the fine tuning laws of physics, irreducible complexity, and he even gets into some theological questions at the end of the book. I know that some persons interested in Intelligent Design are intimidated at the length of some recent popular books on the subject, but this book was an easy 147 page read even for a non math major such as me. One interesting topic covered was "is there design in mathematics?" a subject rarely covered in books about ID and raises new questions related to the whole area of design. A common charge is that ID supporters have not published material in the peer reviewed literature in support of ID, a false charge. Many chapters in this book are reprints from peer reviewed literature and all are excellent. One point that I found of interest was Sewell noted that he has found much more support for the view that Darwin's explanation for the development of life is incomplete in the hard sciences than compared to the life sciences (p. 48). He then explains why this is found. All in all an excellent book!

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unexpected insights, unique point of view, February 23, 2010

By 

Atom "Atom" (Riverside, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Beginning: And Other Essays on Intelligent Design (Paperback)

Dr. Sewell's book is a collection of essays penned by the author over many years and refined into the current edition. Unlike some reviewers, I have actually read the book, albeit in pre-published form (when the author had the collection available as a PDF download.)

Dr. Sewell generally writes in an understandable tone, making complex mathematical and scientific concepts clear to the general public. He provides interesting insights and new points of view in the ID debate. Especially valuable is Dr. Sewell's contribution dealing with order and boundary conditions (such as in his "Can ANYTHING happen in an open system?" essay). The material and arguments presented by Sewell are unique to him and provide the next logical discussion point in the debate over the second law of thermodynamics and biotic formation.

His views on faith issues are not typical, biblical-literalist/conservative and some might find his departures from strict traditional views troubling. However, he is a competent and humble thinker, and consequently his views do not come across as dogmatic or offensive. If you enjoy thinking about faith issues from a slightly different vantage point, Dr. Sewell's writings on those issues are food for thought, though some might suffer from indigestion.

All in all, Dr. Sewell's book will introduce you to a few more arguments in the ID debate and possibly allow you to view some faith related issues in a different light. I enjoyed the book and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to a friend or colleague. From someone who has read many, many ID related books I can without hesitation say that Dr. Sewell's new book provides a set of distinct, new arguments while also expanding on some more well-known ones.

As always, if you have a visceral hatred for ID, then you probably should stay away from this book. If, however, you're not afraid to interact with actual ID arguments as presented by ID proponents themselves, then this book will be a valuable addition to your library.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent Design a Rational Philosophy, September 3, 2010

By 

Paul Kimes "PGK" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the Beginning: And Other Essays on Intelligent Design (Paperback)

After the disastrous implications to Darwinism that were presented at the `Wistar Symposium, April 25 and 26, 1966", Darwinist's have decided to ignore a statistical analysis of the theory. This has led the Darwinists to ignore any honest statistical analysis of the theory. Question or offer an alternative analysis of life's origin and what get you get from those who support the Darwinism are juvenile personal attacks. This implies that Darwinists will not evaluate their theory critically. If you have any questions or honest doubts about Darwinism this book presents an honest evaluation of what the theory lacks, common sense.