Darwin Strikes Back: Defending the Science of Intelligent Design

by Thomas E. Woodward, William Dembski (Foreword)

The debate between proponents of Darwinism and those of Intelligent Design has reached the status of a full-scale public battle. With stories of qualifying statements about evolution in public school textbooks and the recent 70th anniversary of the Scopes Monkey trial in the news, the question about our origins will not be put to rest.
Following up his award-winning Doubts about Darwin , Thomas Woodward traces the continuing saga of the ID movement in Darwin Strikes Back . Focusing on the emerging key players on both sides--Michael Behe, William Dembski, Kenneth Miller, Robert Pennock, and more--Woodward helps readers navigate the tangled maze of public debate, including anti-ID activism from Christians, and shows them what might be coming next.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Biology

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2006

About the author

Thomas Woodward (Ph.D., University of South Florida) is a professor at Trinity College of Florida, where he teaches the history of science, communication, and systematic theology. He is founder and director of the C. S. Lewis Society and lectures in universities on scientific, apologetic, and religious topics. He is an avid astronomer and has been published in Moody magazine and Christianity Today.

Reviews

[David Sakrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone interested in the current scientific debates over macroevolution, this is a good, readable history and summary of the issue over the past ten years.
A growing number of scientists are questioning the validity of macroevolution on the basis of new evidence--primarily in microbiology and genetics. The media have made a serious mess of reporting this controversy. For a clear, concise, and accurate picture of where the scientific controversy has come from and where it might be going, you can't do better than this book.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gave me a solid overview of the arguments on both sides of the intelligent design debate, centering on the backlash of Darwinists against the ID folks. It gives a lot of attention to the marginalization of ID scientists by the larger scientific community. It also pointed out a lot of the literature that has been generated in recent years on this topic. The book is admittedly written from a pro-design standpoint, but I did not mind too much.

[Stan Sorensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first book on Intelligent Design and has opened me up to a whole genre of reading, so now I'm reading Darwin's Black Box by Michael Behe which is incredible. This book by Woodward is a good overview of the issue and the severe reaction of much of the scientific community.

I really find a lot of parallels in the political world, the savage retaliation by those in the establishment who feel their turf is being threatened, resorting to personal attacks and attempting to silence other views, especially if the view indicates deity. It's enlightening to read about this issue in conjunction with the apostle Paul in Romans 1 or Calvin's Institutes Book One, chapter 4 where man attempts to smother the knowledge of God by ignorance or malice.

I am a Creationist and I feel Woodward and those who hold to Intelligent Design (ID) don't go far enough to demonstrate that there is a personal Creator God who designed the Universe down to the molecular level and He has revealed Himself. I sense quite a bit of timidity by those in the ID community whose greatest fear is not to be accepted by the scientific world and that their writings won't be taken seriously by the scientific establishment. There's also a naivety about human nature that somehow minute scientific arguments can win over some Darwinists to acknowledge an intelligent Designer. I doubt it. Most Darwinists are so hardened that only a work of God can change their hearts, again referencing the Apostle Paul, Augustine, Calvin, Luther, etc. This book by Woodward inadvertently acknowledges this as he indicates over and over again the attacks of scientists against ID.

It's interesting to look up Intelligent Design in Wikipedia. Those who wrote the articles are blatantly antagonistic to Intelligent Design, calling it pseudo-science, and misrepresenting the movement throughout. So much for convincing the hardened Darwinists! Forgive my cynicism.

I've noticed the newest book by Stephen Meyer, Return of the God Hypothesis, comes right out to acknowledge God, not merely an unknown "Intelligent Designer." We'll see what the reaction will be.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

MY NOTES ON BOOK: Woodward points out that whoever gets to define science sets the terms that will decide the outcome of the dispute between whether intelligent design or evolution is the real science. Science has typically been defined as the search for the "natural causes" of all phenomena while ID theory would replace that with "real causes". By deciding that definition beforehand the issue has been decided before the first piece of evidence has been put on the table. This is especially relevant because it turns science away from seeking truth, and instead limits areas of inquiry because of the motivation to not allow a God to exist. If the intelligent designer were an alien race, then a scientist would have no trouble accepting the same evidence for the likelihood of design.

*** In response to the "God of the gaps" claim that ID just fills in lack of scientific knowledge with God, it's actually the growth of science that contributes to the support of intelligent design. Using Dembski's information filter, it becomes easier to test whether the formation of particular structures, etc. came from natural processes or whether a designer must be necessary. Much in the same way an archeologist might use a filter to determine whether something they find is due to natural processes or intelligent design. With each additional discovery in the complexity of various cell structures it becomes more certain that design was involved.

*** The general purpose of this book is to respond to the enormous number of attacks that have taken place against ID theorists since the movement began in the mid 90s. He addresses several specific theorists throughout the book. He begins with Michael Behe because he wrote "Darwin's Black Box" about irreducible complexity. He then goes to Jonathan Wells, who wrote "Icons of Evolution". He also addresses the response to the Cambrian explosion, the mystery of where life began, and then moves into the development of Dembski's explanatory filter of specified complexity to determine whether something was intelligently designed or formed via random processes. At each of the steps he points out the unfair attacks perpetrated by evolutionists and calls for a more even-handed debate instead of name calling and distortion.

[d · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, this is the second book so read Doubts About Darwin first. This is a well written over view of the way evolutionists have responded to the idea of intelligent design as a theory from an almost tactical perspective. It doesn't give a great deal of depth on the actual concepts. If you're trying to understand the controversy it's interesting, but if you're just looking for info on the theories there are other books that go into more depth.

[Jimmy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whenever you hear someone refer to "Darwinism" you know they are not scientists. Darwin died in 1882, and he published his Origin of Species in 1859. Since then evolution has undergone rigorous scientific scrutiny. It is a fundamental part of all natural science. If you don't believe in evolution, you don't believe in science. After reading, I flipped the pages of the book and found on almost every page one of these words: Darwin, Darwinian, Darwinism, God, and ID.

[Bud Hewlett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent follow up to Doubts About Darwin.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

an intelligent defense of intelligent design

[Joe]

Good Stuff