What do you think?
Rate this book
How Blind Is the Watchmaker?: Nature's Design & the Limits of Naturalistic Science
If you found a watch, as William Paley asked nearly two centuries ago, would you think that it came into existence by chance or that there was a watchmaker? Likewise, Neil Broom asks, was the universe created by the blind forces of physics and chemistry, or is there evidence in nature of a designing mind?While prominent scientists in recent years have suggested that the watchmaker is indeed blind, Broom, a biomechanics scientist, sees much more than their naturalistic blinders allow them to perceive. His book How Blind Is the Watchmaker? boldly challenges the scientific establishment's commitment to what he labels as "the flimsily crafted but persuasively packaged myth of scientific materialism."Broom reveals how naturalistic science is guilty of attempting to reduce all explanations to the molecular level, even when higher nonmaterial levels of explanation are clearly required to describe the behavior of many systems. Likewise he shows why there is little chance that science can define life in a way that seamlessly connects it to the inanimate world. Broom also uncovers the rarely discussed or acknowledged assumptions that raise serious questions about the limits of a purely naturalistic approach to the problem of life's genesis. In a clear and readable style, he considers the recent research about the origin of life and the function of RNA, DNA and proteins. Further, he exposes how scientists often attribute "personal" characteristics to inanimate molecules. And he shows why postulating billions of years for various natural processes does not adequately explain inadequacies in evolutionary scenarios.This thought-provoking book (a thoroughly revised and updated edition of the volume originally published by Ashgate) points beyond the poverty of many scientific pronouncements and builds a robust case for viewing the true splendor of our living world.
12 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1998
47 people want to read
About the author
Neil Broom
7 books-Professor, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Auckland, 2002 to present.
- NZ Health Research Council Research Fellow, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Auckland, 1975-2001
- UK Science Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, University of Cambridge, 1971-1975
- NZ Health Research Council Research Fellow, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Auckland, 1975-2001
- UK Science Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, University of Cambridge, 1971-1975
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 29, 2020
This book is full of clear evidence of design in our physical world and rejects the materialistic model of the universe that rejects a designer or any kind. The author is a Christian and he does not attempt to hide that fact but his rejection of the materialistic worldview is scientific. I will share a criticism that I have with the book in the second paragraph of this review but I want to clearly state that I truly appreciate his clear rejection of a purely materialistic worldview by showing the poverty of the scientific proofs used by materialists science. This was truly well done and as a result, I can recommend this book.
However, I was disappointed in the author's acceptance of evolution. His view on this only came up in a couple of places in the book but it was clear that he believes the universe to very old and that God used evolution over millions of years to create the world as we now see it. He did not explain how he was willing to accept the evolutionary explanation of the world rather than the Biblical record. He rejects so much of the evolutionists" conclusions yet uses their basic conclusion of evolution. I am not sure why. He describes himself as a Christian and I have no reason to doubt that he really is a Christian. A person's view on the age of the earth does not affect his relationship with his Creator. However, it does sadden me that Christians accept the evolutionary view rather than the Biblical record contained in Genesis.
It is a good book; hopefully, it will cause its readers to consider the nature of the physical world that does not demonstrate the absence of a designer. In fact, it points clearly to a designer. That truly was the author's goal and it is my prayer that it will lead the reader to a desire to know this Designer / Creator.
However, I was disappointed in the author's acceptance of evolution. His view on this only came up in a couple of places in the book but it was clear that he believes the universe to very old and that God used evolution over millions of years to create the world as we now see it. He did not explain how he was willing to accept the evolutionary explanation of the world rather than the Biblical record. He rejects so much of the evolutionists" conclusions yet uses their basic conclusion of evolution. I am not sure why. He describes himself as a Christian and I have no reason to doubt that he really is a Christian. A person's view on the age of the earth does not affect his relationship with his Creator. However, it does sadden me that Christians accept the evolutionary view rather than the Biblical record contained in Genesis.
It is a good book; hopefully, it will cause its readers to consider the nature of the physical world that does not demonstrate the absence of a designer. In fact, it points clearly to a designer. That truly was the author's goal and it is my prayer that it will lead the reader to a desire to know this Designer / Creator.
October 23, 2024
A CHRISTIAN CRITIQUE OF RICHARD DAWKINS AND “NATURALISM”
Neil Broom is a professor in the department of chemical and materials engineering at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
He wrote in the Preface of this 1998 book (2nd edition 2001), “This book examines and confronts the view widely held in modern industrialized cultures that the materialist model of the universe is alone consistent with the facts revealed to us by modern science… we will explore possible reasons why the modern, scientifically conditioned mind appears so confident in holding to this godless view of the world and of human existence. We will ask whether this confidence is really supported by the findings derived from science itself. Could it be that in much of modern science an overriding set of assumptions actually stifles the obvious, permitting only a particular version of truth (one purged of all religious implications) to surface?...
"[M]y primary aim is to point the interested reader beyond the desert of scientific materialism to the splendor of a living world that functions poised… in the presence of a transcendent, nonmaterial dimension… that both nourishes and imparts meaning to the processes of life.” (Pg. 15-16)
He acknowledges, “First, we can state something that I believe no serious scientist will dispute---life is mechanical. Living systems at one level of description are unquestionably marvelous mechanical contrivances… The heart, lungs, kidneys and joints are all obvious examples of biological systems that perform a mechanical type of function in the living animal… But there is an equally impressive lineup of highly sophisticated ‘technologies’ that operate at the microscopic and molecular levels.” (Pg. 46-47)
He suggests, “even at the simplest descriptive level there exists a fundamental qualitative difference between the world of nonliving objects and that of living organisms. And despite the enthusiastic claims of many modern materialists, there seems little prospect of science ever being able to define a continuum of impersonal and purely material processes that would link the living and the dead in a coherent way… It is, I am convinced, impossible to avoid the impression of intentionality in the living organism, even in its lowest forms. The question therefore remains: Where does this purposive order come from? Is not intention a property of mind? If so, then whose mind?” (Pg. 71)
He critiques the famous computer program in Richard Dawkins’ book 'The Blind Watchmaker': “here is an intelligent human being programming a computer that itself has been built with an immense amount of creativity. This computer is then instructed to generate an intriguing series of pictures by sequential changes in the values of the various shaping parameters (his ‘genes’) made to occur at random (that is, ‘mutating’). In other words, Dawkins requires a carefully structured, nonrandom, highly sophisticated and intelligently constructed environment in which to produce his so-called biomorphs. This is no more a wholly material process than is implied in the use of monkeys to type out meaningless screeds on their typewriters.” (Pg. 123-124)
He argues, “In a wholly material universe things just are. There is no logical reason why a purely material system should want to embark on a self-improvement program. Why should a functionally superior system be favored over a functionally superior system be favored over a functionally inferior one? On what purely material grounds is ‘superior’ or ‘inferior’ function to be judged? Here we seem to have exhausted the answers that a purely naturalistic science can supply. Here, it would seem, the so-called scientific explanations must yield to a higher level of accounting.” (Pg. 158)
He contends, “The question, Why do the wicked prosper? is one that was asked repeatedly by the ancient Hebrews. We struggle equally with the problem, Why do the innocent suffer?... The Christian theist will admit to the enormous problem of suffering and evil but will not give up searching for an eventual resolution. The Christian theist believes there is yet to be a ‘moral balancing of the books’… that will reveal just how significant are the consequences of human freedom… Christian theism asserts a crucial causal connection between humans as the apex of creation and all that exists beneath. Our truly significant actions in the moral realm will have both constructive and destructive consequences that flow on into the rest of creation… Both we humans and the rest of creation are in need of redemption, which is an implicit declaration that a profound unity exists between the seen (material) and the unseen moral and spiritual dimensions of the cosmos.” (Pg. 190-191)
He concludes, “In this book I have tried to offer the reader a tiny glimpse of the sheer wonder of life. It is my hope that many will shun the temptation to embark on that journey through the arid desert of naturalism, choosing rather to follow the route signposted so clearly by the findings of science, the path that leads to the source of all life---God.” (Pg. 193)
The arguments in this book will be very unlikely to convince any pro-Dawkins skeptics and atheists; but for the college-age, largely pro-Christian audience that IVP books usually seek, it will be welcomed.
Neil Broom is a professor in the department of chemical and materials engineering at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
He wrote in the Preface of this 1998 book (2nd edition 2001), “This book examines and confronts the view widely held in modern industrialized cultures that the materialist model of the universe is alone consistent with the facts revealed to us by modern science… we will explore possible reasons why the modern, scientifically conditioned mind appears so confident in holding to this godless view of the world and of human existence. We will ask whether this confidence is really supported by the findings derived from science itself. Could it be that in much of modern science an overriding set of assumptions actually stifles the obvious, permitting only a particular version of truth (one purged of all religious implications) to surface?...
"[M]y primary aim is to point the interested reader beyond the desert of scientific materialism to the splendor of a living world that functions poised… in the presence of a transcendent, nonmaterial dimension… that both nourishes and imparts meaning to the processes of life.” (Pg. 15-16)
He acknowledges, “First, we can state something that I believe no serious scientist will dispute---life is mechanical. Living systems at one level of description are unquestionably marvelous mechanical contrivances… The heart, lungs, kidneys and joints are all obvious examples of biological systems that perform a mechanical type of function in the living animal… But there is an equally impressive lineup of highly sophisticated ‘technologies’ that operate at the microscopic and molecular levels.” (Pg. 46-47)
He suggests, “even at the simplest descriptive level there exists a fundamental qualitative difference between the world of nonliving objects and that of living organisms. And despite the enthusiastic claims of many modern materialists, there seems little prospect of science ever being able to define a continuum of impersonal and purely material processes that would link the living and the dead in a coherent way… It is, I am convinced, impossible to avoid the impression of intentionality in the living organism, even in its lowest forms. The question therefore remains: Where does this purposive order come from? Is not intention a property of mind? If so, then whose mind?” (Pg. 71)
He critiques the famous computer program in Richard Dawkins’ book 'The Blind Watchmaker': “here is an intelligent human being programming a computer that itself has been built with an immense amount of creativity. This computer is then instructed to generate an intriguing series of pictures by sequential changes in the values of the various shaping parameters (his ‘genes’) made to occur at random (that is, ‘mutating’). In other words, Dawkins requires a carefully structured, nonrandom, highly sophisticated and intelligently constructed environment in which to produce his so-called biomorphs. This is no more a wholly material process than is implied in the use of monkeys to type out meaningless screeds on their typewriters.” (Pg. 123-124)
He argues, “In a wholly material universe things just are. There is no logical reason why a purely material system should want to embark on a self-improvement program. Why should a functionally superior system be favored over a functionally superior system be favored over a functionally inferior one? On what purely material grounds is ‘superior’ or ‘inferior’ function to be judged? Here we seem to have exhausted the answers that a purely naturalistic science can supply. Here, it would seem, the so-called scientific explanations must yield to a higher level of accounting.” (Pg. 158)
He contends, “The question, Why do the wicked prosper? is one that was asked repeatedly by the ancient Hebrews. We struggle equally with the problem, Why do the innocent suffer?... The Christian theist will admit to the enormous problem of suffering and evil but will not give up searching for an eventual resolution. The Christian theist believes there is yet to be a ‘moral balancing of the books’… that will reveal just how significant are the consequences of human freedom… Christian theism asserts a crucial causal connection between humans as the apex of creation and all that exists beneath. Our truly significant actions in the moral realm will have both constructive and destructive consequences that flow on into the rest of creation… Both we humans and the rest of creation are in need of redemption, which is an implicit declaration that a profound unity exists between the seen (material) and the unseen moral and spiritual dimensions of the cosmos.” (Pg. 190-191)
He concludes, “In this book I have tried to offer the reader a tiny glimpse of the sheer wonder of life. It is my hope that many will shun the temptation to embark on that journey through the arid desert of naturalism, choosing rather to follow the route signposted so clearly by the findings of science, the path that leads to the source of all life---God.” (Pg. 193)
The arguments in this book will be very unlikely to convince any pro-Dawkins skeptics and atheists; but for the college-age, largely pro-Christian audience that IVP books usually seek, it will be welcomed.
November 5, 2017
Another completely compromised nit arguing for the very thing he is arguing against. Don't waste your time.
September 28, 2020
Would be a good primer to read before the more detailed and brilliant “Nature’s Destiny” by Michael Denton.
October 8, 2013
The book explores nature's design and the limits of naturalistic science. Evolution between types of organisms is enslaved to the laws of physics and chemistry. These laws cannot explain how information came to be coded into DNA.
January 24, 2016
Awesome Book
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews