Design Arguments, Design Detection, and Natural Theology - Youtube
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Design Arguments, Design Detection, and Natural Theology

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Can we detect intelligent design in nature? If so, what are the implications for “natural theology”? These questions and more were explored at the panel “Design Write Large: Design Arguments, Design Detection, and Natural Theology” at the Evangelical Philosophical Society annual meeting in San Diego in November 2024. Speakers included Center for Science and Culture (CSC) Senior Fellows Doug Axe, Bill Dembski, and Bruce Gordon, along with theologian David Haines. The event was moderated by CSC Fellow John Bloom and organized by CSC Fellow Melissa Cain Travis.

Each speaker presented his work in turn, followed by an extended Q&A session. Bill Dembski led off by explaining rigorous means to detect design, including a refined understanding of specified complexity (based on the second edition of his book The Design Inference). Bruce Gordon followed by showing that design can be detected in the fine-tuning of the universe and that, indeed, the case for design is overwhelmingly in this area. Doug Axe then examined design in biology, highlighting in particular the inability of natural selection to overcome the improbabilities that hamper random chance. Finally, David Haines rounded out the discussion with broader reflections on the relationship between intelligent design and natural theology.