Design in the Bible and the Early Church Fathers

The idea that human beings can observe signs of intelligent design in nature reaches back to the foundations of both science and civilization. In the Greco-Roman tradition, Plato and Cicero both espoused early versions of intelligent design. In the history of science, most scientists until the latter part of the nineteenth century accepted some form of intelligent design, including Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution by natural selection. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, meanwhile, the idea that design can be observed in nature can be found not only in the Bible but among Jewish philosophers such as Philo and in the writings of the Early Church Fathers. This free sourcebook contains a collection of some of the main texts on design from the Bible, extra-Biblical Jewish sources, and the writings of the Early Church Fathers.

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