Intelligent Design 101: Leading Experts Explain the Key Issues [Paperback]

H. Wayne House (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 2008

Intelligent Design 101 brings together leading scholars and researchers from the fields of science and intelligent design studies, such as Michael Behe and Phillip Johnson. Their detailed and insightful essays form an introduction to intelligent design, from the basics of the theory, to its history and growing place in science and education.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

H. Wayne House (ThD, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis; JD, Regent University School of Law) is Distinguished Research Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Faith Seminary in Tacoma, Washington, and Professor of Law, Trinity Law School in Santa Ana, California. Dr. House serves on the board of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. He is author or editor of more than seventy journal and magazine publications, and a contributor to several books, dictionaries, and encyclopedias. He is also the author of more than twenty books, including The Christian and American Law and Israel: The Land and the People. He has been married to Leta Frances McConnell for forty years, has two grown children, and five grandchildren. He enjoys playing with his grandchildren, reading, and traveling to ancient lands.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Kregel Publications (March 11, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0825427819
• ISBN-13: 978-0825427817
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #389,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Eye For An 'I': Fighting The Twisted Fables Of The Anti-ID Lobby, January 31, 2010

By 

Robert A. Deyes (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Intelligent Design 101: Leading Experts Explain the Key Issues (Paperback)

The debate over whether or not our universe was designed with a purpose is one that centers not around philosophical questions but over "competing scientific explanations of the data". That is the central argument expounded by Phillip Johnson in Intelligent Design 101, a book that aims to bring into sharp focus the central tenets of the intelligent design (ID) movement. Contrary to a popular misconception, the modern day controversy over design in biology is not one that arose from some push to force Judeo-Christian beliefs into the science classroom. It is instead one that extends back thousands of years to the time of Plato and Xenophon in ancient Greece.

Today the educational literature defines all aspects of biology in purely naturalistic terms. What is more, evolution has become the "monolithic fact" that we must all embrace. Even though there is incontrovertible evidence that defies such a factual status, evolutionists have bent over backwards to make naturalism fill in the glaring inconsistencies in the data. As a vociferous opponent of the macro-evolutionary aspects of Darwinism, Johnson has attempted a "divide and conquer" approach to break such a stronghold. By separating philosophical naturalists such as Richard Dawkins from scientists with a sound objective outlook, Johnson's much-publicized Wedge Strategy has sought to prize neo-Darwinism away from its "pedestal of philosophical naturalism". Attacks on Johnson's initiative have focused on the religious backgrounds of its supporters rather than on the sound scientific arguments that they put forward. Still, as Johnson remarks those who today maintain that ID is all about religion ignore the counter claim that the theory of evolution is not exactly all about science.

Addressing this point in a later chapter of the book, philosopher J.P Moreland re-emphasizes a long-standing denial- ID makes no theological commitments to Christianity, Hinduism, Islam or any other religion and does not set us on a "slippery slope" of religious interference of science. Instead ID has scientific legitimacy evidenced by the observation that those who argue against it do so by attempting to falsify its scientific claims.

What are the scientific foundations upon which ID stands? Geologist and lawyer Casey Luskin, biochemist Michael Behe and philosopher Jay Richards remind us of the widely-disseminated ID arguments in their respective chapters of Intelligent Design 101. Complex information-rich objects such as those that lead to the inference of intelligent activity in archaeology and forensic science also exist in the molecular world. Behe builds on Luskin's platform by treating us to an exposition of how irreducible complexity in nano-molecular machines continues to present "a conundrum for Darwinism". Richards then gives us a comprehensive rebuttal of the materialistic interpretation of the Copernican principle challenging science popularizer and television celebrity Carl Sagan's assumption that "the universe is all there is" and listing the features that are necessary for a habitable planet such as our earth to exist. Rather than being winners of a "grand cosmic lottery", our earth's habitability coupled with its prime 'real estate' position for making scientific discoveries argue in favor of design and purpose.

Evolutionary stalwart Julian Huxley famously opened the centennial of the publication of The Origin Of Species with the proclamation that naturalistic evolution explained the totality of life's existence. Nevertheless the more recent struggles between creationists on whether the universe is thousands or billions of years old have done little to quell the rising tide of scientists who feel uncomfortable with the Darwinian endpoint. In Johnson's assessment ID has become the umbrella movement that unites "people of many viewpoints who were once divided on side issues". Today there exists a tremendous dissatisfaction with the Darwinian synthesis amongst reputable scientists who are unconvinced by the supposedly unarguable evidence that Darwinists hold on to. Within such a setting, Johnson equates his volume Darwin On Trial to "a match that lit the tinder beneath a stockpile of logs".

In his chapter entitled Philosophical Implications Of Neo-Darwinism and Intelligent Design, philosopher Eddie Colanter brings to the reader's attention the religious undertones of the so-called strong form of Neo-Darwinism which holds that (i) all of life is the product of purely materialistic forces, (ii) any reference to God is superfluous and (iii) any moral values that humans place on their comportment are purely arbitrary and subjective (this latter point has important ramifications for how we view contemporary social issues such as abortion, euthanasia and the definition of personhood).

Intelligent Design 101 then concludes with a broad overview of the historical landscape upon which ID has made its impact. What is made explicit is that ID is not simply a modern extension of the Christian creationism that featured in prominent legal cases such as those surrounding the Tennessee anti-evolution laws of the 1970s. In the words of distinguished theologian H Wayne House, it is a movement that carries with it an "empirical method of argument [and a] lack of allusion to the fundamentalist wing of Christianity and Christian theology".

As we approach Darwin day with its accompanying festivities and plans to parade his namesake through museum halls across the nation, we cannot ignore the vast body of evidence that today is feeding the ID counter-attack. Intelligent Design 101 is an invaluable resource for those seeking to understand the twisted fables of the anti-ID lobby. If those who oppose ID have nothing to fear, they should be prepared to entertain competing points of view and to let truth and reason become "the final arbiters".

42 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent arguments versus irrational emotionalism, July 10, 2008

By 

proud2b - See all my reviews

This review is from: Intelligent Design 101: Leading Experts Explain the Key Issues (Paperback)

I found this book to be a clear and helpful presentation of the evidence for the theory of Intelligent Design, and the nature of science. Unlike the emotional, and often irrational, reviews by some found on this page, that resemble scientism rather than science, Intelligent Design 101 argues that the universe is best explained by reference to some type of designer. The authors do not identify the designer, though I would suspect that most believe in the God of Christianity; nonetheless the argument does not rest on belief in the Christian God, but could be one accepted in different religions, and even in Greek philosophy.

I recommend this book as a thoughtful introduction to the scientific, philosophical and legal aspects of the current debate on intelligent design of the universe versus the belief that something may arise from nothing.

52 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent proposals made / unintelligent responses here, May 27, 2008

By 

M. Hyght "mhyght" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Intelligent Design 101: Leading Experts Explain the Key Issues (Paperback)

The point of this book is to give a short primer on the subject. Hence the "101" in the title. The authors that contributed to it (as any non-activist ID opposer familiar with their work knows) present intelligent, debatable arguments for their positions. Phillip Johnson, J.P. Moreland and Michael Behe are far from narrow minded fundamentalists. The positions and arguments they make here present significant challenges to scientific materialism. Those challenges are not defeated by quick dismissals or name calling.

If a person subscribes to the view that science cannot even suggest design in the universe, that's alright. They disagree with the authors, who by the way are saying that it merely suggests design. But to label the authors as mere creationists trying to get God back in schools (or worse), they do a strong disservice to the concept of scientific debate, and in fact partake in the narrow minded, dogmatic practices they accuse others of.
Of course there are many other highly esteemed scientists (in non-dogmatic circles) who are proponents of ID who did not write for this particular book. But their reasons for supporting ID are just as strong, valid and maybe even stronger than the ones presented here. But again, the point of this book is to give a short primer on the subject.
For the life of me I cannot understand the rabid, froth-mouthed opposition to any pro-ID person or argument out there. And the opposition says that ID proponents are the intolerant ones. It's astounding. Astounding and sad.