22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A well written introduction to the subject, October 7, 2009
This review is from: Understanding Intelligent Design: Everything You Need to Know in Plain Language (ConversantLife.com®) (Paperback)
I highly recommend this book as a quick-read introduction to the intelligent design side of the origin of life debate. I was originally a bit skeptical of this book and only read it at the urging of a friend; so with low expectations I began reading, found it surprisingly illuminating, and finished it in two sittings. Despite several typos, I found it well-written, lucid, and engaging, and most importantly, to my relief it didn't seem to over-reach. I welcomed its brevity. As a shorter book its value is more to frame the argument than to definitively settle the debate.
In reviewing many of the other reviews, I was disappointed, not surprisingly, to find the response to this book so highly polarized: if one believes God created it all then one loves this book, but if one thinks that evolution explains the origin and development of life then one hates this book.
Therefore, in the interest of full disclosure: I'm an MIT-educated engineer that enjoyed attending lectures by the fabulous and late Stephen Jay Gould (the father of punctuated evolution) while in college. I am very well read in science (I am a huge fan of Alan Guth, Brian Greene, and Alan Lightman) and typically prefer to avoid science-related books written by openly avowed Christians.
I am also a Christian that believes in God our creator, but one that often disagrees with and occasionally is embarrassed by fellow Christians' understanding and analysis of science. Regarding my view on the origin of life, I would best be described as an old world creationist: I believe in the Big Bang, that the universe is 13-14 billion years old, the earth 4-5 billion years old, and that dinosaurs lived 230-65 million years ago (and I think that Jack Horner's theories on the evolutionary link between dinosaurs, specifically small therapods, and birds has a lot going for it).
I rated this book 5 stars less for settling the debate and more for well-framing the ID side of the argument. Intelligent design, at least as the authors present it, is less something to shake my head at and more a welcome facet to the discussion. Regardless of your personal views, I highly recommend this book as a constructive step toward a healthy debate.
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23 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent review, December 5, 2008
This review is from: Understanding Intelligent Design: Everything You Need to Know in Plain Language (ConversantLife.com®) (Paperback)
This easy to follow 233 page book is one of the best summaries of the evidence and arguments for Intelligent Design (ID) in print. The authors answer most of the common objection against Intelligent Design in a very convincing manner that should convince anyone except diehard Darwin fundamentalists. As the controversy continues to heat up I expect more debates and books, but this book should become a classic. In an excellent section the authors review what can be done to help others understand what ID is and why it is important to science. The section on irreducible complexity was excellent as was the section on a fine tuned universe. All in all a superior well documented and well argued logically presented book.
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24 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love it, September 26, 2008
This review is from: Understanding Intelligent Design: Everything You Need to Know in Plain Language (ConversantLife.com®) (Paperback)
It's easy to be a critic. You don't even have to buy the book. Just browse the TOC and spit out your rhetoric. You can go on for 10,000 words and make people think you actually held the book in your hand.
I bought it, I read it. I liked it. It was the easiest book I have found on Intelligent Design. I generally have a hard time reading Dembski. But this book was an easy read. And it addressed every aspect of ID that I have come across.
I was a little put-off by the first few pages that made the book sound like a creationist work because it talked about how naturalism/atheism is a dominating ideology (theology) in the media and in the education system that causes young people to lean towards atheism -- which is no doubt true. But after those first few pages it was all ID.
I liked the discussion of why critics continually call ID "creationism" even though they must know the difference, or else they have never actually read anything about ID. That reason being the presumption of materialism/naturalism -- if a conclusion suggests a possible non-materialist cause then it must be thrown out according to their "methodology." So when someone says "design" then these folks scream "creationism" (although it seems to me that if you insist on materialism, then you could use that "design" evidence to justify your belief that life on earth was created by space aliens, as we saw Francis Crick do many years ago, and also saw Dawkins admit in "Expelled"). Creationism, of course, is actually an evangelical biblical literalist belief system that says the bible is first and if science doesn't fit it, then science is wrong. This book is not that.
In my opinion this is the best ID book that I have seen for regular folk. Its a great book. Love it. Highly recommend it.
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