Product Description

"The illusion of purpose is so powerful," writes Richard Dawkins, "that biologists themselves use the assumption of good design as a working tool." As an ardent proponent of Darwinian evolution, Dawkins imagines that all design in biology is merely an illusion. By contrast, this book shows that biologists use the assumption of design with success precisely because design in biology is not an illusion but real. In this book, William Dembski and Jonathan Wells present a compelling scientific case for the intelligent design of biological systems. Their laser-like analysis, clear explanations, and brilliant analogies will captivate every reader, whether trained scientist or curious layperson. Intelligent design (ID), as the study of patterns in nature best explained by intelligence, is already accepted in many special sciences. Archeology, forensics, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) all belong to ID in this broad sense. These sciences, however, are uncontroversial because any intelligence there could be an "evolved" intelligence. In biology, by contrast, intelligent design is highly controversial because any intelligence there would be an "unevolved" intelligence - it would not be the product of purely material evolutionary processes. Thus, to convinced materialists like Richard Dawkins, who dogmatically accept Darwinian orthodoxy, this book comes as a shot across the bow. Scientists who support the intelligent design of biological systems are routinely held up to ridicule, stripped of their status, denied tenure, and driven from their posts. Why? They do not agree that the universe, life, and the human mind are the accidental outworking of purely material forces. And why don't they agree? Because the evidence of science shows otherwise. This book presents that evidence clearly and cogently. Written for the general reader, it will quickly enter the national conversation. In The Design of Life, Dembski and Wells make the most powerful and comprehensive case to date for the intelligent design of life. This is the book that the promoters of unintelligent evolution do NOT want you to read.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #101925 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-19
• Binding: Hardcover
• 401 pages

Review
The Design of Life gives all interested parties in the debate over biological origins the hard scientific evidence they need to assess the true state of Darwin s theory and of the theory of intelligent design. But it does much more: it carefully fosters the attitude of open inquiry that science needs not only to thrive but also to avoid becoming the plaything of special interests. The authors, William Dembski and Jonathan Wells, are to be commended for writing a sparklingly clear book that empowers readers to navigate the captivating and controversial waters of biological origins. --William Harris, biologist, University of South Dakota

The Design of Life, which is both a sequel to Of Pandas and People (Second Edition, 1993), and a stand alone book in its own right, brilliantly lays out all the main lines of evidence and argument in the current dispute between the Darwinists and the growing body of Intelligent Design theorists. It not only updates the arguments presented in Pandas but explains the exciting developments in the new science of intelligent design that have occurred since the early 1990s. Dembski and Wells, who themselves are among the leading practitioners of the new science, write in a refreshingly carefully reasoned, lucid and direct style, pulling no punches when it comes to answering the criticisms of their leading Darwinist opponents including Richard Dawkins and Kenneth Miller, among many others. They make a formidable case that the indications of design seen everywhere in nature at all levels of organization (and acknowledged by the Darwinists) bespeak real and not just apparent design. Nowhere is this more evident than in the powerful new chapters on irreducible complexity (Chapter 6) building on the ground breaking work of Michael Behe in Darwin's Black Box, 1996, and specified complexity (Chapter 7) based on Dembski's many contributions to information theory as it relates to design (e.g., The Design Inference, 1998, and No Free Lunch, 2002). Each of the book's eight chapters is thoroughly documented with many explanatory footnotes and references to the pertinent technical literature. These detailed notes as well as the supplemental General Notes contained on the accompanying CD provide interested laypersons, university students, and working scientists with a reliable guide to the highest levels of scientific discussion in the often contentious dispute between Darwinists and intelligent design proponents. Appended to each chapter is a list of 10 discussion questions keyed to the order of presentation of the topics in the chapter and to the General Notes. If I were still involved in university teaching I would enthusiastically adopt The Design of Life as a required text in courses in evolution and the origin of life and in graduate seminars on information theory and molecular biology, and use it as a supplement in introductory biology classes. Dembski and Wells argue calmly and convincingly that intelligent design theory is empirically testable (in spite of Darwinists' shrill protests to the contrary) by indicating precisely what it would take to refute the theory, namely a clear demonstration that systems exhibiting irreducible complexity with specified complexity can in fact arise spontaneously by purely material processes. Their discussion takes intelligent design theory far beyond what we were able to accomplish when we wrote Pandas. I salute Dembski and Wells for a most worthy addition to the already powerful case that intelligent design deserves a seat at the academic table in university biology courses and with all scientists working to unlock the mystery of life's origin. --Dean Kenyon, Emeritus Professor of Biology, San Franciso State University

When future intellectual historians list the books that toppled Darwin's theory, THE DESIGN OF LIFE will be at the top. --Michael Behe, biochemist, Lehigh University

About the Author
William A. Dembski, Senior Fellow Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, Academic Editor FTE William Dembski authored the first book on intelligent design to be published by a major university press, The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance Through Small Probabilities (Cambridge University Press, 1998). In it he lays out a rigorous, scientific method for detecting design. Dembski's work has been featured on the front page of the New York Times and in many other publications. He has debated top Darwinists at the American Museum of Natural History, and he has appeared on numerous radio and television broadcasts, including Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" and ABC's "Nightline." He lectures around the globe on the topic of intelligent design (e.g., the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark, Cambridge and Oxford Universities, U.C. Berkeley, UCLA, Princeton, Yale, MIT). He is the author or editor of more than ten books, including Darwin's Nemesis (IVP), a Festschrift volume in honor of Phillip E. Johnson. Christianity Today calls Dembski "Johnson's successor as the informal leader of the intelligent design community." Jonathan Wells, Senior Fellow Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, Author of The Design of Life Jonathan Wells holds two doctorates, one in molecular and cell biology from the University of California at Berkeley, the other in religious studies from Yale University. He has worked as a postdoctoral research biologist at the University of California at Berkeley, supervised a medical laboratory in Fairfield, California, and taught biology at California State University in Hayward. He has published articles in Development, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, BioSystems, Rivista di Biologia, The Scientist, and The American Biology Teacher. As the author of Icons of Evolution: Why Much of What We Teach about Evolution Is Wrong (Regnery, 2000), Wells has emerged as one of the key figures for reforming the teaching of evolution by correcting textbook errors and by insisting that the evidence that both confirms and disconfirms Darwinism be taught. He is a widely acclaimed lecturer and debater on the topic of intelligent design. He has inspired many younger scholars to develop intelligent design as a fruitful scientific research program.

Customer Reviews

Don't Let any Bigoted Pundit Control Your Thinking about I.D.
These two authors are some of the most qualified and most interesting on Intelligent Design. With quantum mechanics incorporating rapid developments in the field of consciousness studies, you need to be reading current developments on information/intelligent control over biological progession upward in complexity. This means you should be reading books on Intelligent Design. If you are a person who 'wants to know' what is going on in scientific debates nowadays, you should understand and consider both sides of the ID/evolution debate. (I don't consider creationism scientific, but ID definitely is. Read the writers' qualifications, not the pundits opinions. Was Dean Kenyon's Biochemical Predestination worthless? No way!) The critics of this book read ID books to 'protect you.' You've heard that line before, haven't you -- in books like George Orwell's 1984?) These pundits want you to steer clear of ID books, but they use pompous attacks, evidently distrusting anyone's critical reading abilities but their own. Perhaps I use such arguments, too, but at least I trust your intelligence. From my experience in Asia, the American people of all age levels are ready to hear both sides of the argument. Even our high schoolers have some of the best critical thinking/analysis abilities in the world. Asia is no match for America and the West in my opinion in lay intellectual ability, and I have taught Japanese movie stars and doctors English. One of my advisors in my studies for my M.A. in Anthropology once nudged me in the direction of theistic evolution as an alternative to Darwinism. I think he was a theistic evolutionist, but no one can admit it in Academia. (Is this 1984 again?) So I for one take all this hubris as overblown hype. I don't believe all the anti-ID propaganda. Do you? Got'cha! (Please check the meaning of that out.) This is a very good and interesting book. Seriously consider reading it!

FLAWED, FALLACIOUS, HIGH-FALUTTIN' FLATULANCE
Other reviewer's dissect this books deeply flawed thesis.

I simply want to point out that Michael Behe - who enthusiastically endorses this book - is a sham - a flam-flam man who shoots his mouth off about intelligent design, but refuses to recite his beliefs and alleged "facts" when under judicial oath.

Behe is Elmer Gantry redux - an evangelical con-man, out to make a quick buck by shooting off his mouth.

Purchase the PBS documentary Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on trial - buy it on amazon, on DVD.

THE DESIGN OF LIFE by William Dembski & Jonathan Wells(Review)
This book is a classic. It is interesting and complete review of the interface between Intelligent Design and Evolution. It discusses in detail the following areas: Human Origins, Genetics and Macroevolution, the Fossil Record, the Origin of Species, Similar Features, Irreducible Complexity, Specified Complexity, the Origin of Life, and Meanings of "Evolution." I enjoyed reading it, and value the book as an historical account of scientific areas of study in the last hundred years, as well as a descriptive account of specific areas of research. Great endnotes and glossary! Students and teachers will find this a treasure.