Download or read book God and Design written by Neil A. Manson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent discoveries in physics, cosmology, and biochemistry have captured the public imagination and made the Design Argument - the theory that God created the world according to a specific plan - the object of renewed scientific and philosophical interest. This accessible but serious introduction to the design problem brings together new perspectives from prominent scientists and philosophers including Paul Davies, Richard Swinburne, Sir Martin Rees, Michael Behe, Elliot Sober and Peter van Inwagen. It probes the relationship between modern science and religious belief, considering their points of conflict and their many points of similarity. Is the real God of creationism the 'master clockmaker' who sets the world's mechanism on a perfectly enduring course, or a miraculous presence who continually intervenes in and alters the world we know? Are science and faith, or evolution and creation, really in conflict at all? Expanding the parameters of a lively and urgent debate, God and Design considers how perennial questions of origin continue to fascinate and disturb us.

Download or read book Natural Theology Or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity Collected from the Appearances of Nature written by William Paley and published by . This book was released on 1822 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Intelligent Design written by William A. Dembski and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2002-07-12 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book William A. Dembski brilliantly argues that intelligent design provides a crucial link between science and theology. This is a pivotal work from a thinker whom Phillip Johnson calls "one of the most important of the `design' theorists."

Download or read book The Intelligent Design Debate and the Temptation of Scientism written by Erkki Vesa Rope Kojonen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-28 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The controversy over Intelligent Design (ID) has now continued for over two decades, with no signs of ending. For its defenders, ID is revolutionary new science, and its opposition is merely ideological. For its critics, ID is both bad science and bad theology. But the polemical nature of the debate makes it difficult to understand the nature of the arguments on all sides. A balanced and deep analysis of a controversial debate, this volume argues that beliefs about the purposiveness or non-purposiveness of nature should not be based merely on science. Rather, the philosophical and theological nature of such questions should be openly acknowledged.

Download or read book God and Design written by Neil A. Manson and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent discoveries have made the theory that God created the world according to a plan the object of renewed interest. This introduction includes new perspectives, from prominent scientists and philosophers.

Download or read book Critique of Intelligent Design written by John Bellamy Foster and published by . This book was released on 2008-11 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A critique of religious dogma historically provides the basis for rational inquiry into the physical and social world. Critique of Intelligent Design is a key to understanding the forces of irrationalism that seek to undermine the natural and social sciences.

Download or read book Intelligent Design written by Robert B. Stewart and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading intellectuals debate and explain the controversy over Intelligent Design in this text that explores the scientific, religious, and philosophical facets of the debate in a balanced, fair, and open-minded format.

Download or read book Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion written by David Hume and published by Binker North. This book was released on 1779 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is a philosophical work by the Scottish philosopher David Hume. Through dialogue, three philosophers named Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes debate the nature of God's existence. Whether or not these names reference specific philosophers, ancient or otherwise, remains a topic of scholarly dispute. While all three agree that a god exists, they differ sharply in opinion on God's nature or attributes and how, or if, humankind can come to knowledge of a deity. In the Dialogues, Hume's characters debate a number of arguments for the existence of God, and arguments whose proponents believe through which we may come to know the nature of God. Such topics debated include the argument from design--for which Hume uses a house--and whether there is more suffering or good in the world (argument from evil). Hume started writing the Dialogues in 1750 but did not complete them until 1776, shortly before his death. They are based partly on Cicero's De Natura Deorum. The Dialogues were published posthumously in 1779, originally with neither the author's nor the publisher's name. Pamphilus is a youth present during the dialogues. In a letter, he reconstructs the conversation of Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes in detail for his friend Hermippus. He serves as the narrator throughout the piece. At the end of the Dialogues he believes that Cleanthes offered the strongest arguments. However, this could be out of loyalty to his teacher, as this does not seem to reflect Hume's own views on the topic. When other pieces on religion by Hume are taken into consideration, it may be noted that they all end with (apparently) ironic statements reaffirming the truth of Christian religious views. While the irony may be less readily evident in the Dialogues, this would suggest a similar reading of this work's ending.[2] Cicero used a similar technique in his Dialogues. Cleanthes is an "experimental theist"--"an exponent of orthodox empiricism"[3]--who bases his beliefs about God's existence and nature upon a version of the teleological argument, which uses evidence of design in the universe to argue for God's existence and resemblance to the human mind. Philo, according to the predominant view among scholars, is the character who presents views most similar to those of Hume.[4] Philo, along with Demea, attacks Cleanthes' views on anthropomorphism and teleology; while not going as far as to deny the existence of God, Philo asserts that human reason is wholly inadequate to make any assumptions about the divine, whether through a priori reasoning or observation of nature. Demea "defends the Cosmological argument and philosophical theism..." He believes that the existence of God should be proven through a priori reasoning and that our beliefs about the nature of God should be based upon revelation and fideism. Demea rejects Cleanthes' "natural religion" for being too anthropomorphic. Demea objects to the abandonment of the a priori arguments by Philo and Cleanthes (both of whom are empiricists) and perceives Philo to be "accepting an extreme form of skepticism.

Download or read book The Design Revolution written by William A. Dembski and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2004-01-13 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by a noted expert on and popular advocate of intelligent design, this book explores more than 60 of the toughest questions asked by experts and non-experts.

Download or read book The Social Evolution of Human Nature written by Harry Smit and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-03 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harry Smit examines the elements of current evolutionary theory and how they bear on the evolution of the human mind.

Download or read book Evidence and Evolution written by Elliott Sober and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-03-27 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How should the concept of evidence be understood? And how does the concept of evidence apply to the controversy about creationism as well as to work in evolutionary biology about natural selection and common ancestry? In this rich and wide-ranging book, Elliott Sober investigates general questions about probability and evidence and shows how the answers he develops to those questions apply to the specifics of evolutionary biology. Drawing on a set of fascinating examples, he analyzes whether claims about intelligent design are untestable; whether they are discredited by the fact that many adaptations are imperfect; how evidence bears on whether present species trace back to common ancestors; how hypotheses about natural selection can be tested, and many other issues. His book will interest all readers who want to understand philosophical questions about evidence and evolution, as they arise both in Darwin's work and in contemporary biological research.

Download or read book The Argument from Design written by Thomas H. McPherson and published by Springer. This book was released on 1972-06-18 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Darwin and Intelligent Design written by Francisco José Ayala and published by Facets. This book was released on 2006 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this short but illuminatingpiece, world-renowned biologistFrancisco Ayala addresses the notionof intelligent design – the notion thatindividual species are too complexto have developed through evolutionand therefore must be the work of anintelligent designer, God. Ayala shows first just what the theoryof evolution claims, and the rangeof questions it can answer. He then turns to the notionof intelligent design, as it is expounded today, and itsweaknesses as a scientific or even a theological explanationof the complexity of the universe and all its creatures. Ayala'streatment is especially valuable for its clarity about therespective roles and provinces of science, faith, and theology.

Download or read book The Design Inference written by William A. Dembski and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-09-13 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a reliable method for detecting intelligent causes: the design inference.The design inference uncovers intelligent causes by isolating the key trademark of intelligent causes: specified events of small probability. Design inferences can be found in a range of scientific pursuits from forensic science to research into the origins of life to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This challenging and provocative book shows how incomplete undirected causes are for science and breathes new life into classical design arguments. It will be read with particular interest by philosophers of science and religion, other philosophers concerned with epistemology and logic, probability and complexity theorists, and statisticians.

Download or read book God the Devil and Darwin written by Niall Shanks and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-03-15 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years a controversial new theory of the origins of biological complexity has been fomenting bitter debates in education and science policy. Intelligent Design theory (ID) proposes an alternative to accepted accounts of evolutionary theory: that life is so complex, and that the universe is so fine-tuned for the appearance of life, that the only plausible explanation is the existence of an intelligent designer. For many ID theorists, the designer is taken to be the God of Christianity. This book is an accessible introduction to, and critique of, this controversial new movement. After looking at the historical roots of ID, philosophy-of-science professor Shanks takes a hard look at its intellectual underpinnings, and shows how arguments for ID lack cohesion, rest on errors and unfounded suppositions, and generally are grossly inferior to evolutionary explanations.--From publisher description.

Download or read book Mind and Cosmos written by Thomas Nagel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-22 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modern materialist approach to life has conspicuously failed to explain such central mind-related features of our world as consciousness, intentionality, meaning, and value. This failure to account for something so integral to nature as mind, argues philosopher Thomas Nagel, is a major problem, threatening to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology. Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete. And the cosmological history that led to the origin of life and the coming into existence of the conditions for evolution cannot be a merely materialist history, either. An adequate conception of nature would have to explain the appearance in the universe of materially irreducible conscious minds, as such. Nagel's skepticism is not based on religious belief or on a belief in any definite alternative. In Mind and Cosmos, he does suggest that if the materialist account is wrong, then principles of a different kind may also be at work in the history of nature, principles of the growth of order that are in their logical form teleological rather than mechanistic. In spite of the great achievements of the physical sciences, reductive materialism is a world view ripe for displacement. Nagel shows that to recognize its limits is the first step in looking for alternatives, or at least in being open to their possibility.

Download or read book Chance or Dance written by Jimmy H. Davis and published by Templeton Foundation Press. This book was released on 2008-04-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chance or Dance provides an overview of design and clarification of the controversial Intelligent Design (ID) movement and ultimately concludes there is no scientific proof behind Intelligent Design. As the controversy over Intelligent Design has grown over the past few years, there is a tendency to confuse all statements about design with the Intelligent Design movement and to confuse any affirmation of creation with Scientific Creationism. Davis and Poe begin with a brief historical perspective of the design argument and then examine the significant breakthroughs in cosmology, math, physics, chemistry, and biology that have provided renewed speculation in design. The authors discuss that the idea of design is far more expansive than the ID movement’s version of it, evaluate Dawkins’ interpretation of genetic determinism, include a chapter that explores the tendency since Darwin to assume that the presence of an observable cause excludes the possibility of divine involvement; and introduce further reflections on wonder and awe that take into account the recent surge of interest in this area. The book concludes with an argument for the correlation between faith and sensory experience and suggests that science has successfully described processes but failed to explain origins. Chance or Dance is ideal for students and general readers interested in understanding how modern science gives evidence for nature’s creation by the Bible’s God.