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The Privileged Planet Marks Second Anniversary with Release of Teacher’s Guide

Click here to download the free preview of The Privileged Planet Teacher Guide. SEATTLE, MAR. 7– The late astronomer Carl Sagan spoke for many when he said: “Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.”  The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery by Discovery Institute senior fellows Jay Richards and Guillermo Gonzalez challenged Read More ›

More Propaganda About Intelligent Design

The day before Robert Hazen was scheduled to give his talk at ISU titled, “Why Intelligent Design is not Science,” I was interviewed by a reporter from the Iowa State Daily about the event. Among my responses, I answered that given the title of the talk, I thought the audience was going to be subjected to more propaganda about intelligent Read More ›

Scientists Should Keep Minds Open

By now, everyone who follows the news has heard about intelligent design (ID). Contrary to caricatures, it’s a theory that draws on insights in well-established fields such as information and probability theory, forensics, and the philosophy of science. Design theorists argue that certain features of the natural world bear markers of intelligent agency. For instance, a whole series of physical Read More ›

Misrepresenting Intelligent Design

Upfront / Letters In an article1 about the recent Smithsonian screening of “The Privileged Planet,” based on a book I co-authored, Randall Kremer, the museum’s director of public affairs commented, “The scientific content for the most part is accurate. The problem we have is that the science is used to draw a philosophical conclusion.” Perhaps a more accurate statement would Read More ›

light on earth
Earth planet in dark outer space on background. High resolution sci-fi wallpaper. Elements of this image furnished by NASA
Photo licensed via Adobe Stock

The Skeptical Rejoinder

Since our argument in The Privileged Planet was virtually unknown before the book was published, we didn’t have the advantage of years of thoughtful criticism. So as we worked on the manuscript, we tried to imagine the best objections that could be raised against our argument. We eventually decided to include these objections, along with our answers, as chapter 16, “The Read More ›

An Open Letter to My Open-Minded Colleagues

In March 2004 The Privileged Planet, which I co-authored with Jay Richards, was published, evoking both enthusiastic and negative reactions from a number of leading scientists. The argument covers everything from the fine-tuning of the constants of physics to the initial conditions of the Big Bang; from our host star and planetary neighbors to our atmosphere and moon. Our conclusion? The Read More ›

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Review of The Privileged Planet

We all had the Copernican Principle drummed into us at university. This paradigm insists that there is absolutely nothing special about the Earth. Its composition, physical characteristics, biotic activity, position, the star it is orbiting, its place in the Galaxy, the Galaxy itself, and the Galaxy’s position in the Universe are all supposedly unexceptional. Gonzalez and Richards disagree. Their thesis is that Earth is very, very special. To them, Earth is exquisitely fitted not only to harbour life but also to provide that life with a grandstand view of the surrounding Universe. Earth’s orbit, atmosphere, mass, rate of continental drift, dynamo-produced magnetic field, and companion Moon have been fine tuned just for us. Read More ›