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.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 83 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!
July 06, 2008

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.
May 02, 2008

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.
April 29, 2008

Truth is a two way street.

Most people have fixed opinions, regardless of their academic achievements. All of us have gaps in our knowledge base. The gaps are filled in by faith. We must always be willing to entertain objections to our faith, whether materialistic evolutionists or intelligent designers.
April 17, 2008

Very good and worth reading but incomplete

Let me start by saying that giraffes may very well have evolved from antelopes, however, random mutation had absolutely nothing to do with it.

The idea that random mutation created the immense and amazing complexity of life is so farcical, so absurd, and so illogical, that it boggles my mind to think of the masses of intelligent individuals who have taken up the cudgels wholeheartedly.

We are supposed to believe the fairy tale that a beneficial mutation that occurs once in million individuals contributes to evolution. Yes, maybe a rare beneficial mutation can confer a survival or reproductive advantage to the individuals that carries it, however, that presupposes that the hordes of deleterious mutations that are always piling up over time are having no effect whatsoever.

I have no problem with natural selection. It is proven and valid. But when it comes to random mutation...well we have web sites such as "talkorigins" that will deluge the reader to form an impression that all is well on the random mutation front. However, upon closer inspection, does it really? Here's where I must choose my words carefully because I know the hard core fanatics will try to parse the words to fit their specious agenda.

Can it truly cite one paper, book or experiment anywhere in the annals of biology that empirically demonstrates and proves that random mutation of DNA produces novel adaptive features (eyes, wings, legs, functional organs); and that the mutations that produced those features were in fact random. Taken in the entire context the preceding sentence, which by any objective account is responded with an emphatic NO, renders random mutation as possibly the greatest myth in modern science.

It is easy to see why skepticism of Neo Darwinian evolution runs rampant in the Intelligent Design community, as well as the genera public, and this book provides a good measure of it, but it doesn't go far enough.

I am more inclined to believe that evolution is an engineered process rather than a product of random mutation, and I'll tell you why.

I'll specifically refer to work completed by Dr. James A. Shapiro, Professor of Microbiology at the University of Chicago who published a fascinating paper in the Journal of Biological Physics (2002) whereupon he theorizes that "random mutation" be discarded and replaced with a much more sophisticated, engineered process. Instead of seeing DNA as a static database that is acted on by outside random forces, it is now seen as being more like a self-correcting operating system that repairs files, amends errors, and adapts to changing circumstances.

Shapiro's work clearly shows that evolution, however it may be understood, is anything but a random process.

His work basically continues along the same vein as Dr. Barbara McClintock, one of the world's most distinguished cytogeneticists, and 1983 Nobel Prize laureate for her discovery of genetic transposition. In essence, she showed that damaged chromosomes re-arrange themselves in an impressively sophisticated pattern of internal genetic engineering. Again, that is far from a random process.

It is regretful that Dembski and Wells did not incorporate some aspect of their work in the Design of Life. Hence the four stars.

April 17, 2008

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions
by David Berlinski

The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism
by Michael J. Behe

The Design Matrix: A Consilience of Clues
by Mike Gene

The Cell's Design: How Chemistry Reveals the Creator's Artistry
by Fazale Rana

Intelligent Design 101: Leading Experts Explain the Key Issues
by Michael Behe, Eddie N. Colanter, Logan Gage, Phillip Johnson, Casey Luskin, J. P. Moreland, Jay Richards, H. Wayne House