I recently completed a review of William Dembski's 1999 book _Intelligent
Design_ for _Trinity Seminary Review_. It should be published in one of the next two
issues. The review, which will be read primarily by ELCA clergy, was somewhat limited
in length but I thought would be of interest to ASA members. I reproduce it here with
the permission of _Trinity Seminary Review_.
George Murphy
_Intelligent Design_. By William A. Dembski. Downers Grove IL: InterVarsity Press,
1999. 312 pp. ISBN # 0 - 8308 - 1581 - 3. (Hardcover).
The subtitle calls this "The [not "a"] Bridge between Science & Theology" and
one of the jacket blurbs describes the author as "the Isaac Newton of information
theory". An author can't be blamed for all such hyperbole but the promotion of
_Intelligent Design_ tells even the casual reader that it is part of a well organized
"ID" campaign whose purpose is to unseat naturalism from its dominant role in science.
There is a foreword by biochemist Michael Behe, author of _Darwin's Black Box_, an
important text of the ID movement.
Some may be tempted to dismiss _Intelligent Design_ as just another religious
attack on biological evolution. In reality the book is well written and worth reading:
Its author comes to his task with doctorates in mathematics and philosophy as well as
study in theology. It can be criticized on theological and scientific grounds but it
should be engaged and not simply ignored.
The main argument can be put briefly. Life involves "complex specified
information" (CSI), such as that encoded in DNA, and the probability of this information
arising simply by chance is so minute that there must be some other explanation for it.
CSI can come only from an intelligent agent, so life is evidence for intelligent design
in the universe. It is a small step for the theist to identify the intelligent designer
with God.
It has long been known that the odds against a random selection of amino acids
forming even one specific protein are more than astronomical, and this has often been
cited as an argument against the idea that life arose by chance. What Dembski has done
is to pose the argument carefully in terms of the well-established discipline of
information theory. Chapter 6 spells out in some detail just what is meant by CSI and
how it fits into the overall picture. But Dembski does more than explain the
mathematics. He first establishes a context by discussing the ideas of signs and
miracles and the older British natural theology. After a criticism of the "disease" of
naturalism for which ID is the "cure" (p.120), he argues for design as a legitimate part
of science. Chapters 7 and 8 present a case for mutually supporting roles of science
and theology and an understanding of creation with ID as the centerpiece. The book
closes with responses to some criticisms of the design concept.
Dembski makes a case for ID about as well as it can be made, but the case is
defective. Those in the ID movement deny strenuously that theirs is a "God of the gaps"
(pp.238-245) approach and in one sense they are right, but their arguments do proceed by
pointing out that science hasn't explained certain phenomena like "irreducible
complexity" or CSI, and then claiming that only intelligent design can explain them.
There is either a failure of scientific imagination or a desire that the "disease" of
naturalism not succeed - or perhaps both.
There are theological problems as well. No consideration is given to
theological arguments for methodological (not metaphysical) naturalism based on the
hiddenness of God and the kenotic character of divine action which is ultimately rooted
in a theology of the cross. The idea that God's activity in the world is characterized
by kenosis has been discussed by a number of workers in the modern science-theology
dialogue, and it is surprising that Dembski does not deal with it in the "Objections to
Design" appendix. He also does not really present a full theology of divine action in
the world, and it is unclear how God's input of information is supposed to be connected
with other aspects of providence.
_Intelligent Design_ has flaws but it represents a part of today's
science-religion discussions with which clergy should be familiar. Read with some care.
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Akron, Ohio George L. Murphy
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