Debating Design: From Darwin to DNA

William A. Dembski, Michael Ruse

Cambridge University Press, Jul 12, 2004 - Science

In this book, first published in 2004, William Dembski, Michael Ruse, and other prominent philosophers provide a comprehensive balanced overview of the debate concerning biological origins - a controversial dialectic since Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859. Invariably, the source of controversy has been 'design'. Is the appearance of design in organisms (as exhibited in their functional complexity) the result of purely natural forces acting without prevision or teleology? Or, does the appearance of design signify genuine prevision and teleology, and, if so, is that design empirically detectable and thus open to scientific inquiry? Four main positions have emerged in response to these questions: Darwinism, self-organisation, theistic evolution, and intelligent design. The contributors to this volume define their respective positions in an accessible style, inviting readers to draw their own conclusions. Two introductory essays furnish a historical overview of the debate.

Contents

• General Introduction: 3
• The Argument from Design A Brief History: 13
• Whos Afraid of ID? A Survey of the Intelligent Design Movement: 32
• DARWINISM: 53
• Design without Designer Darwins Greatest Discovery: 55
• The Flagellum Unspun The Collapse of Irreducible Complexity: 81
• The Design Argument: 98
• DNA by Design? Stephen Meyer and the Return of the God Hypothesis: 130
• COMPLEX SELFORGANIZATION: 149
• Prolegomenon to a General Biology: 151
• Darwinism Design and Complex Systems Dynamics: 173
• Emergent Complexity Teleology and the Arrow of Time: 191
• The Emergence of Biological Value: 210
• THEISTIC EVOLUTION: 227
• Darwin Design and Divine Providence: 229
• The Inbuilt Potentiality of Creation: 246
• Theistic Evolution: 261
• Intelligent Design Some Geological Historical and Theological Questions: 275
• The Argument from Laws of Nature Reassessed: 294
• INTELLIGENT DESIGN: 309
• The Logical Underpinnings of Intelligent Design: 311
• Information Entropy and the Origin of Life: 331
• Irreducible Complexity Obstacle to Darwinian Evolution: 352
• The Cambrian Information Explosion Evidence far Intelligent Design: 371
• Index: 393

Popular passages

Page 191 - ... all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins...‎

Page 15 - We see that things which lack intelligence, such as natural bodies, act for an end, and this is evident from their acting always, or nearly always, in the same way, so as to obtain the best result.‎

Page 23 - On the other hand, I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe, and especially the nature of man, and to conclude that everything is the result of brute force. I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out of what we may call chance. Not that this notion at all satisfies me.‎

Page 21 - If such do occur, can we doubt (remembering that many more individuals are born than can possibly survive) that individuals having any advantage, however slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and of procreating their kind ? On the other hand, we may feel sure that any variation in the least degree injurious would be rigidly destroyed. This preservation of favourable individual differences and variations, and the destruction of those which are injurious, I have called Natural...‎

Page 18 - I knew to the contrary, it had lain there forever: nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place, I should hardly think of the answer which...‎

Page 59 - Hence, as more individuals are produced than can possibly survive, there must in every case be a struggle for existence — either one individual with another of the same species, or with the individuals of distinct species, or with the physical conditions of life.‎

Page 22 - There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.‎

Page 68 - For this reason, and for no other, viz. that when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive (what we could not discover in the stone) that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose...‎

Page 19 - ... a different size from what they are, or placed after any other manner, or in any other order, than that in which they are placed, either no motion at all would have been carried on in the machine, or none which would have answered the use that is now served by it.‎

About the author

William A. Dembski is an associate research professor in the conceptual foundations of science at Baylor University as well as a senior fellow with Seattle's Discovery Institute. His most important books are The Design Inference (Cambridge University Press, 1998) and No Free Lunch (2002).

Michael Ruse is Lucyle T. Wekmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University. He is the author of many books, including Darwinism and its Discontents (Cambridge University Press, 2006).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Debating Design: From Darwin to DNA
• Editors: William A. Dembski, Michael Ruse
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2004
• ISBN: 1139459619, 9781139459617
• Subjects: Religion / General; Science / Life Sciences / Evolution; Science / Philosophy & Social Aspects