By Design: Science and the Search for God (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: intelligent design movement, cosmic center, design theorists, Big Bang, Discovery Institute, Darwin Centennial (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a follow-up to his recent Where Darwin Meets the Bible, Washington Times reporter Witham surveys the ongoing dialogue between scientists and theologians about the relationship between science and religion. Drawing on interviews with key partners in the conversation, Witham provides a helpful guide to the major issues in this dialogue. While the controversy between creationists and evolutionary biologists has occupied a great deal of the public's attention, Witham points out that scientists and theologians have been dealing with other matters just as weighty and as provocative. He covers topics ranging from the anthropic principle (which argues that the universe's design implies that human life is its intended goal) and genetic engineering to astronomy and intelligent design. In the discussion of intelligent design, for example, Witham talks to one of its major proponents, Michael Behe. Behe is a religious scientist who accepts the workings of evolution as they apply to animals and plants, but who believes that the complexities of human molecular design (the way that blood clots, for instance) can be explained only by the work of an intelligent designer. Through his conversations with a wide-ranging group of scientists and theologians, including John Polkinghorne, Kenneth Miller, Allen Sandage, George Ellis and Paul Davies, Witham adeptly charts the course of the science and religion dialogue as the participants continue to search for common ground.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The late twentieth century has witnessed the emergence of a surprising coalition of biochemists, physicists, neurobiologists, and information theorists determined to bring science and religion together. Ironically, while orthodox scientific materialists continue to struggle to explain such phenomena as how a fine-tuning of stellar mass and cosmic expansion made possible the appearance of intelligent life, or how a primate brain first acquired human consciousness, the advocates of this new synthesis of reason and faith have found these same conundrums surprisingly tractable. Adumbrated by theorists such as chemist Charles Thaxton, and astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, this new science accommodates much more data simply by acknowledging intelligent design in the architecture of the universe. Witham invites nonspecialists to scrutinize the central tenets of this new-style science and to reflect upon the social effects of a growing dialogue about this science sponsored by such institutions as the Vatican and the Templeton Foundation. A very helpful guide for readers trying to make sense of the science-religion debates breaking out anew on college campuses and in state legislatures. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 236 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books; 1 edition (April 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893554643
• ISBN-13: 978-1893554641
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #893,137 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evenhanded and very interesting., August 18, 2004

By	Wesley L. Janssen (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: By Design: Science and the Search for God (Paperback)

Early in his career, award winning science writer Larry Witham examined the (sometimes ponderous and often dogmatic) ideas of the positivistic-leaning old school of "normal science" -- to borrow Kuhn's characterization. Although an entrenched orthodoxy, science underwritten by a rigid philosophical materialism has been encountering increased difficulty in verifying its more important predictions and its assumed creed, the so-called Mediocrity Principle (the doctrine that our universe, Earth, life, and humankind are not special). Witham seems to have now carved himself an important niche, writing about the issues at the interface of science and religion. He continues to interview the 'old school' of course, and presents those (often virulently anti-theistic) arguments honestly and evenhandedly, but more scientists are now recognizing the difficulties of materialism's mediocrity doctrine than the standing paradigm would have the nonscientific community believe. In a modest 200 pages, Witham gives us a considerable range of interviews and arguments from most of the major voices in this dialog today. The result is a very engaging discourse on the history of the ID hypothesis, beginning with MP Schutzenberger's mathematical dismissal of the neo-Darwinian "synthesis" in the very midst of Darwinism's would-be victory celebration in Chicago in 1959. I had a hard time putting the book down. Everyone knows where Steven Weinberg stands, and where William Dempski stands (and one could fill out a list in both categories), but what do we hear from such interested 'bystanders' as Alan Sandage, George Ellis, Paul Davies, Simon Conway Morris, and others? You might be surprised. The reader who assumes Weinberg's view -- that the dialog is inherently 'wrong' and should not be permitted a hearing -- may not care for this volume. And that's too bad, Witham is no dogmatist (most theist's wouldn't subtitle their book "the Search for God"), he's a dispassionate journalist intent on giving both general views a fair hearing. He does exactly that, restricting a philosophical battle that goes back at least to the ancient Greeks (Epicurus versus Plato, we might say), to the scientific developments of the past four decades, although reaching back to Hubble's 1929 discovery for foundation. If you are interested only in one pole's case against the other, this may not be the volume you're looking for. There will be certain materialists who will derisively call Witham a fundamentalist merely because he allows ID scientists their view. If you are one who can approach these issues with an honest curiosity, you will greatly enjoy this book.

29 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars God and Science: Together at Last, May 21, 2003

By A Customer

This book is an intriguing look into one of the most significant debates of our time: God and Science. Except that Witham shows it to be not so much an argument as a conversation. He shows how the stranglehold of Darwinism (the last of the three great 19th century intellectual pillars standing after the fall of Freudianism and Marxism) on our intellectual world has begun to weaken as men and women of science have found evidence of "design" not explained by the Darwinian paradigm. This book provides a look at one of the cutting edges of contemporary science which happens to be about the possibility of a Creator. Highly recommended.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Survey of Intelligent Design Movement, September 15, 2005

By	Charles Disque (Indianapolis) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a good and fair survey and history of the Intelligent Design movement. Included is coverage of the Discovery Institute out of Seattle, which is promoting a critical examination of Darwinism/evolution as is taught in our schools.
The author is even-handed and presents information and views of opponents as well as proponents. The book is readable, well-written. I especially recommend it to anyone who thinks the intelligent design movement is just a bunch of kooky, right wing, young earth types.