ABSTRACT
Recent discoveries in physics, cosmology, and biochemistry have captured the public imagination and made the Design Argument - the theory that God created the world according to a specific plan - the object of renewed scientific and philosophical interest. This accessible but serious introduction to the design problem brings together new perspectives from prominent scientists and philosophers including Paul Davies, Richard Swinburne, Sir Martin Rees, Michael Behe, Elliot Sober and Peter van Inwagen.
It probes the relationship between modern science and religious belief, considering their points of conflict and their many points of similarity. Is the real God of creationism the 'master clockmaker' who sets the world's mechanism on a perfectly enduring course, or a miraculous presence who continually intervenes in and alters the world we know? Are science and faith, or evolution and creation, really in conflict at all? Expanding the parameters of a lively and urgent debate, God and Design considers how perennial questions of origin continue to fascinate and disturb us.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |23 pages
Introduction: Neil A.Manson
part |1 pages
PART I General considerations
chapter |29 pages
The design argument: Elliott Sober
chapter |11 pages
The meaning of design: John Leslie
chapter |23 pages
The design inference: old wine in new wineskins: Robert O'Conner
chapter |18 pages
God by design?: Jan Narveson
chapter |19 pages
The argument to God from fine-tuning reassessed: Richard Swinburne
chapter |21 pages
Perceiving design: Del Ratzsch
part |1 pages
PART II Physical cosmology
chapter |8 pages
The appearance of design in physics and cosmology: Paul Davies
chapter |22 pages
Evidence for fine-tuning: Robin Collins
part |1 pages
PART III Multiple universes
chapter |11 pages
Other universes: a scientific perspective: Martin Rees
chapter |8 pages
Too many universes: D.H.Mellor
chapter |22 pages
Fine-tuning and multiple universes: Roger White
chapter |24 pages
The chance of the gaps: William Dembski
part |1 pages
PART IV Biology