God and Design

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.

Endorsements

Neil Manson has done an excellent job in assembling such a comprehensive and star-studded cast of contributors. He has also written a very useful introduction himself that identifies all the main areas of debate … this book is likely to remain the best guide to it for some time to come.

Fraser Watts

As this collection shows, the debates about God and design are far from dead, and can be intellectually fascinating.

Religious Studies

This volume is a rich discussion for and against arguments from order, intelligibility, and purposefulness to the existence of a designer, who might be God.

Bijdragen, International Journal in Philosophy and Theology

This book comes highly recommended …

The Secular Web

This volume is to be recommended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate classes on philosophy of religion and philosophy of science, among other more specialized courses focused on design arguments.

Amos Yong, Regent University of Divinity, Religious Studies Review