Read complete books and articles on: Intelligent Design (ID)

Intelligent Design - theory that some complex biological structures and other aspects of nature show evidence of having been designed by an intelligence. Such biological structures are said to have intricate components that are so highly interdependent and so essential to a particular function or process that the structures could not have developed through Darwinian evolution, and therefore must have been created or somehow guided in their development. Although intelligent design is distinguished from creationism by not relying on the biblical account of creation, it is compatible with a belief in God and is often explicitly linked with such a belief. Also, unlike creationists, its proponents do not challenge the idea that the earth is billions of years old and that life on earth has evolved to some degree. The theory does, however, necessarily reject standard science's reliance on explaining the natural world only through undirected natural causes, believing that any theory that relies on such causes alone is incapable of explaining how all biological structures and processes arose. Thus, despite claims by members of the intelligent-design movement that it is a scientific research program, the work of its adherents has been criticized as unscientific and speculative for inferring a pre-existing intelligence to explain the development of biological structures instead of attempting to develop adequate falsifiable mechanistic explanations. In addition, the theory has been attacked on the grounds that many aspects of nature fail to show any evidence of intelligent design, such as "junk" DNA (see nucleic acid) and the vestigial webbed feet of the frigate bird (which never lands on water).

The idea that nature shows signs of having been designed by an intelligent being dates back at least to ancient Greece. The English theologian William Paley gave the theory its classic formulation in his Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity (1802), in which he argued that the eye and other biological features are perfectly suited for their purposes and that in this suitable design the hand of God can be discerned. The modern intelligent-design movement, however, has its origins in the 1980s with such works as The Mystery of Life's Origins (1984) by Charles Thaxton et al. and Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (1986) by Michael Denton. Micheal Behe's Darwin's Black Box (1996) is perhaps the best-known statement of the movement's critique of Darwin and its argument for a role for God or some other intelligence in the design of biological entities. Advocates of intelligent design have campaigned to have it taught in U.S. public schools alongside the Darwinian theory of evolution, most notably in Ohio in 2002.

See R. T. Pennock, ed., Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics (2002).

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15 of the Best Books and Articles on: Intelligent Design (ID)

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

God after Darwin: A Theology of Evolution » Read Now
by John F. Haught. 245 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...In God After Darwin, Haught argues that the ongoing debate between Darwinian evolutionists and Christian apologists is fundamentally misdirected: both sides persist in...
2.

From Genesis to Genetics: The Case of Evolution and Creationism » Read Now
by John A. Moore. 223 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...The clash between evolution and creationism is one of the most hotly contested topics in education today. This book, written by one of America's most distinguished science
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3.

God, the Devil, and Darwin: A Critique of Intelligent Design Theory » Read Now
by Niall Shanks. 273 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Education, Entire Library

In the last fifteen years a controversial new theory of the origins of biological complexity and the nature of the universe has been fomenting bitter debates in education and science policy across North America, Europe, and Australia. Backed by intellectuals at respectable universities, Intelligent...
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In the last fifteen years a controversial new theory of the origins of biological complexity and the nature of the universe has been fomenting bitter debates in education and science policy across North America, Europe, and Australia. Backed by intellectuals at respectable universities, 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. Niall Shanks has written the first accessible introduction to, and critique of, this controversial new intellectual movement. Shanks locates the growth of ID in the last two decades of the twentieth century in the growing influence of the American religious right. But as he shows, its roots go back beyond Aquinas to Ancient Greece. After looking at the historical roots of ID, Shanks takes a hard look at its intellectual underpinnings, discussing modern understandings of thermodynamics, and how self-organizing processes lead to complex physical, chemical, and biological systems. He considers cosmological arguments for ID rooted in so-called "anthropic coincidences" and also tackles new biochemical arguments for ID based on "irreducible biological complexity." Throughout he shows how arguments for ID lack cohesion, rest on errors and unfounded suppositions, and generally are grossly inferior to evolutionary explanations. While ID has been proposed as a scientific alternative to evolutionary biology, Shanks argues that ID is in fact "old creationist wine in new designer label bottles" and moreover is a serious threat to the scientific and democratic values that are our cultural and intellectual inheritance from the Enlightenment.
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4.

Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism » Read Now
by Matt Young, Taner Edis. 238 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

Is Darwinian evolution an established fact, or a dogma ready to be overtaken by the next scientific revolution? The intelligent design movement argues the latter. Why Intelligent Design Fails assembles a team of physicists, biologists, computer scientists, mathematicians, and archaeologists to...
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Is Darwinian evolution an established fact, or a dogma ready to be overtaken by the next scientific revolution? The intelligent design movement argues the latter. Why Intelligent Design Fails assembles a team of physicists, biologists, computer scientists, mathematicians, and archaeologists to examine intelligent design from a scientific perspective. They consistently find grandiose claims without merit. Contributors take intelligent design's two most famous claims--irreducible complexity and information-based arguments--and show that neither challenges Darwinian evolution. They also discuss thermodynamics and self-organization, the ways human design is actually identified in fields such as forensic archaeology, how research in machine intelligence indicates that intelligence itself is the product of chance and necessity, and cosmological fine-tuning arguments. Intelligent design turns out to be a scientific mistake, but also a useful contrast highlighting the amazing power of Darwinian thinking and the wonders of a complex world without design.
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5.

Science and Religion Twenty Years after McLean v. Arkansas: Evolution, Public Education, and the New Challenge of Intelligent Design, in Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy » Read Now
by Francis J. Beckwith. 45 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Education, Entire Library
6.

Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design » Read Now
by Barbara Forrest, Paul R. Gross. 401 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Education, Entire Library

Forrest and Gross expose the scientific failure, the religious essence, and the political ambitions of "intelligent design" creationism. They examine the movement's "Wedge Strategy, " which has advanced and is succeeding through public relations rather than through scientific research. Analyzing the...
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Forrest and Gross expose the scientific failure, the religious essence, and the political ambitions of "intelligent design" creationism. They examine the movement's "Wedge Strategy, " which has advanced and is succeeding through public relations rather than through scientific research. Analyzing the content and character of "intelligent design theory, " they highlight its threat to public education and to the separation of church and state.
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7.

Taskhir, Fine-Tuning, Intelligent Design and the Scientific Appreciation of Nature, in Islam & Science » Read Now
by Adi Setia. Multiple pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library
8.

Intelligent Design Psychology and Evolutionary Psychology on Consciousness: Turning Water into Wine, in Journal of Psychology and Theology » Read Now
by Christopher R. Grace, J. P. Moreland. 17 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Psychology, Entire Library
9.

The Pleistocene Mind: A Critical Review of Evolutionary Psychology, and an Introduction to Intelligent Design Psychology, in Journal of Psychology and Theology » Read Now
by Christopher R. Grace. 12 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Psychology, Entire Library
10.

Intelligent Design Psychology and Evolutionary Psychology: A Comparison of Rival Paradigms, in Journal of Psychology and Theology » Read Now
by J. P. Moreland. 17 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Psychology, Entire Library
11.

Sex Differences: Evolved, Constructed, and Designed, in Journal of Psychology and Theology (Includes "Intelligent Design: Alternative or Complementary Approach?") » Read Now
by Heather Looy. 13 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Psychology, Entire Library
12.

DNA, Intelligent Design and Misleading Metaphors: What Makes ID So Intuitively Appealing?, in Free Inquiry » Read Now
by Mark R. Seely. 3 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library
13.

Intelligent Design: Creationsim's Trojan Horse: A Conversation with Barbara Forrest, in Church & State » Read Now
by Church & State. 3 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library
14.

Of Pandas and Plots: What's at Stake in the Dover ID Lawsuit, in Church & State » Read Now
by Church & State. 2 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library
15.

Debating Darwin: The 'Intelligent Design' Movement: A New Generation of Anti Evolutionists Has Arisen Based on the Perceived Inadequacies of Darwin's Theory, in The Christian Century » Read Now
by Edward B. Davis. 4 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library