ID

bradley monton

The doctrine of intelligent design has been maligned by atheists, but even though I'm an atheist, I'm of the opinion that the arguments for intelligent design are stronger than most realize. The goal of this book is to try to get people to take intelligent design seriously. I maintain that it is legitimate to view intelligent design as science, that there are somewhat plausible arguments for the existence of a cosmic designer, and that intelligent design should be taught in public school science classes. The book is written in such a way that it will have appeal to both non-academics and fellow professors. There is a fair amount of literature nowadays on atheism vs. theism, and the merits of intelligent design, but that literature has become like a war between two camps, and the point of my book is to transcend that. Chapter 1 What Is Intelligent Design, and Why Might an Atheist Believe In It? After setting aside the culture war that many atheists associate with the intelligent design movement, I discuss the issue of what exactly the doctrine of intelligent design amounts to. I agree with the claims of intelligent design proponents that the doctrine of intelligent design is not inherently theistic. Chapter 2 Why It’s Legitimate to Treat Intelligent Design as Science I discuss the ruling of Judge Jones in the recent Dover, Pennsylvania intelligent design trial, and I take issue with his arguments for the claim that intelligent design is not science. I also respond to various other arguments that attempt to establish the same thesis. Chapter 3 Some Somewhat Plausible Intelligent Design Arguments Ultimately, I think that the question of whether intelligent design counts as science is a bit of a red herring. What we really want to know isn’t whether intelligent design is science -- what we really want to know is whether intelligent design is true. In this chapter, I take up four arguments for intelligent design that I think are somewhat plausible: an argument based on the fine-tuning of the fundamental constants of physics, an argument based on the beginning of the universe, an argument based on the improbability of life originating from non-life, and an argument that suggests that we're living in a computer simulation. Chapter 4 Why Intelligent Design Should be Taught in School Much of the intelligent design literature relates to the issue of what should be taught in public school. First I make clear that this topic raises issues that are very different than the sorts of issues I’ve been discussing so far. Then I argue that it could benefit students' science education to see the arguments for and against intelligent design, and to be introduced to the philosophy of science issues that are key components of those arguments.