The Intelligent Design Debate and the Temptation of Scientism

Description

The controversy over Intelligent Design (ID) has now continued for over two decades, with no signs of ending. For its defenders, ID is revolutionary new science, and its opposition is merely ideological. For its critics, ID is both bad science and bad theology. But the polemical nature of the debate makes it difficult to understand the nature of the arguments on all sides. A balanced and deep analysis of a controversial debate, this volume argues that beliefs about the purposiveness or non-purposiveness of nature should not be based merely on science. Rather, the philosophical and theological nature of such questions should be openly acknowledged. Review 'During the past few years, I have read many bad and (one way or the other) biased books on ID. The Intelligent Design Debate and the Temptation of Scientism is definitely not one of them. In fact, it might well be the best ID book I have ever got my hands on. It is impossible not to be impressed by the way Kojonen handles such a controversial and complex phenomenon. Throughout the book, Kojonen stresses the importance of a balanced, objec-tive analysis of ID – and this exactly what he himself succeeds in delivering. In the back cover endorsements, Jeffrey Koperski calls Kojonen’s book simply "the best place for students and scholars to start if they are trying to understand the arguments surrounding ID". I could not agree more.' Juuso Loikkanen, University of Easter Finland, European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT) About the Author Dr. Erkki Vesa Rope Kojonen is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Theology. He is also the editor of the Finnish Science and Theology magazine Areiopagi.fi, and has participated widely in discussions on science and theology both in his home country and internationally. His research interests also include the general discussion between faith and reason, philosophy of science as well as theology more generally. He was born in 1982, is married and lives in Espoo, Finland with his wife and three children. Cover Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgements 1 Introduction The purpose of this book The temptation of scientism The structure of the argument 2 Mapping the landscape of the debate Intelligent Design’s story ID and varieties of creationism ID’s struggle against naturalism The possibility of natural theology 3 The cosmological debate Fine-tuning for the existence of complex life Fine-tuning for discoverability Design arguments and critiques Level-shifting and the need for explanations 4 The biological debate Biological ‘machinery’ and ‘information’ Understanding evolutionary biology Irreducible complexity? How to explain the unexplained? 5 Intelligent Design as science or pseudoscience Methodological naturalism and ID’s critique Defending methodological naturalism On the difficulties of defining science 6 The designer of the gaps? ID’s understanding of the designer Natural theology and ID as idolatry The God of the gaps critique Theologies of the gaps 7 The intuitive possibility of design The importance of thought experiments Examples of thought experiments Critical responses to thought experiments Design as an intuitive belief Perception of design or design argument? 8 The logic of design arguments Traditional formulations of the design argument The inference to the best explanation Different strategies for defending the argument The inference to the only explanation 9 Design, natural evil and bad design Understanding the problem Explaining evil within id? A patchwork quilt of responses 10 Intelligent Design and theistic evolutionism Design and evolution in competition The compatibility of evolution and design? Theistic evolutionism and the evidence Afterword: towards better discussion of Intelligent Design Bibliography Index