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Mere Creation: Science, Faith & Intelligent Design

William A.Dembski, Ph.D.

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A mathematician and philosopher, William A. Dembski is Research Professor in Philosophy at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth. He is also a senior fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture in Seattle as well as the executive director of the International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design. Previously he was the Carl F. H. Henry Professor of Theology and Science at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, where he founded its Center for Theology and Science. Before that he was Associate Research Professor in the Conceptual Foundations of Science at Baylor University, where he also headed the first intelligent design think-tank at a major research university: The Michael Polanyi Center.

Dr. Dembski has taught at Northwestern University, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Dallas. He has done postdoctoral work in mathematics at MIT, in physics at the University of Chicago, and in computer science at Princeton University. A graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago where he earned a B.A. in psychology, an M.S. in statistics, and a Ph.D. in philosophy, he also received a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Chicago in 1988 and a master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1996. He has held National Science Foundation graduate and postdoctoral fellowships.

Dr. Dembski has published articles in mathematics, philosophy, and theology journals and is the author/editor of more than ten books. In The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance Through Small Probabilities (Cambridge University Press, 1998), he examines the design argument in a post-Darwinian context and analyzes the connections linking chance, probability, and intelligent causation. The sequel to The Design Inference appeared with Rowman & Littlefield in 2002 and critiques Darwinian and other naturalistic accounts of evolution. It is titled No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence. Dr. Dembski has edited several influential anthologies, including Uncommon Dissent: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing (ISI, 2004) and Debating Design: From Darwin to DNA (Cambridge University Press, 2004, co-edited with Michael Ruse). His newest book is a festschrift volume in honor of Phillip Johnson. It is titled Darwin’s Nemesis: Phillip Johnson and the Intelligent Design Movement.

As interest in intelligent design has grown in the wider culture, Dr. Dembski has assumed the role of public intellectual. In addition to lecturing around the world at colleges and universities, he is frequently interviewed on the radio and television. His work has been cited in numerous newspaper and magazine articles, including three front page stories in the New York Times as well as the August 15, 2005 Time magazine cover story on intelligent design. He has appeared on the BBC, NPR (Diane Rehm, etc.), PBS (Inside the Law with Jack Ford; Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson), CSPAN2, CNN, Fox News, ABC Nightline, and the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

For more Dr. Dembski articles and information, including news and speaking schedule, visit his personal website Design Inference.

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Essayists: Introduction, Dembski; Part 1, "Unseating Naturalism," Walter Bradley, Jonathan Wells; Part 2, "Design Theory," Nancy Pearcey, Dembski, Steve Meyer, Paul Nelson; Part 3, "Biological Design," Mike Behe, Siegfried Scherer, Sigrid Hartwig-Scherer, Jeff Schloss; Part 4, "Philosophy and Design," J.P. Moreland, Del Ratzsch, John Mark Reynolds, Bill Craig; Part 5, "Design in the Universe," Hugh Ross, Robert Kaita, David Berlinski, Robert Newman; Concluding essays, Phil Johnson and Bruce Chapman.

In November 1996, Christian Leadership Ministries sponsored Mere Creation, a conference on origins which gathered 180 scientists and scholars from the growing "intelligent design," or ID, community. Now the 19 papers from this conference, with revisions and two additional essays, are available in this new volume. Abstracts of the essays and information on the authors are available at www.origins.org/mc/menus/conf.html.

The publication of Mere Creation signals a broadening, multi-disciplinary movement of scholars who challenge naturalistic evolution on scientific and philosophical grounds. Scientifically, specialists in the relevant fields show that the evidence points to intelligence which fine-tuned the universe and designed complex organisms. Philosophically, the authors insist that origins science must be separated from the naturalism which excludes design or a Designer by definition.

Each essay contains an extensive bibliography and, unlike many edited volumes, Mere Creation has a thorough index. Most of the essays are accessible to college-level readers, but some are highly technical. In summary, this book makes a substantial contribution to the origins debate by gathering 19 leading scholars from relevant fields to propose how intelligent design can be made into a full-fledged scientific research program.

Order through IVP (800-843-9487 or www.ivpress.com); 20% off through December for Real Issue subscribers.

For over a century, the scientific establishment has ignored challenges to the theory of evolution. But in the last decade such complacency about its scientific and philosophical foundations has been shaken. As cracks in the Darwinian edifice have begun to appear, many are asking whether a defensible alternative exists.

In response to this growing crisis, a movement has emerged among scholars exploring the possibility of intelligent design as an explanatory theory in scientific descriptions of the universe. As Michael Behe has proposed in his landmark Darwin's Black Box, at the cellular level there appears to be a high level of irreducible complexity that suggests design.

In this book Behe is joined by eighteen other expert academics trained in mathematics, mechanical engineering, philosophy, physical anthropology, physics, astrophysics, biology, ecology and evolutionary biology to investigate the prospects for this emerging school of thought. Challenging the reigning ideology of materialistic naturalism on both scientific and philosophical grounds, these scholars press the case for a radical rethinking of established evolutionary assumptions.

"This book shows the robustness of the emerging design paradigm, and demonstrates that it is a workable research program across a broad range of disciplines. A great introduction to this exciting new movement."

Chuck Colson, Prison Fellowship Ministries

"This collection not only brings one up to date on a vital issue, but it is so stimulating that it should lead to more ground-breaking investigations."

Diogenes Allen, Stuart Professor of Philosophy, Princeton Theological Seminary

Fr. Patrick Reardon, Touchstone Magazine

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, editor-in-chief, First Things

Dean L. Overman, author of A Case Against Accident and Self-Organization

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Updated: 1 November 2007