God and Design: The Teleological Argument and Modern Science

by Manson,Neil A.; Manson,Neil A.

• ISBN13: 9780415263436
• ISBN10: 0415263433
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-03-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	xi
Notes on contributors	xii
Preface	xv
Introduction	1	(1)
Neil A. Manson
Classifying the design argument	1	(1)
The resurgence of the design argument in the late twentieth century	2	(3)
The logic of the design argument	5	(6)
Specifying for what the Universe is designed	11	(3)
What should we expect from a supernatural designer?	14	(3)
The much-maligned multiverse	17	(8)
PART I General considerations	25	(120)
The design argument	27	(28)
Elliott Sober
What is the design argument?	28	(1)
Clarifications	29	(4)
Other formulations of the design argument, and their defects	33	(3)
Three objections to the likelihood argument	36	(6)
The relationship of the organismic design argument to Darwinism	42	(1)
Anthropic reasoning and cosmic design arguments	43	(6)
A prediction	49	(6)
The meaning of design	55	(11)
John Leslie
The miraculous and the natural	57	(4)
The place of evil in a designed universe	61	(2)
Explaining God: the Platonic approach	63	(3)
The design inference: old wine in new wineskins	66	(22)
Robert O'Connor
Introduction	66	(2)
The distinctive strengths of LDA	68	(1)
Empirical evidence for design	69	(8)
The philosophic assumptions of intelligent design	77	(5)
Conclusion	82	(6)
God by design?	88	(17)
Jan Narveson
``Natural'' theology and the design argument	88	(1)
The cosmological argument	88	(2)
Arguments from design: telling creation from non-creation	90	(2)
Clarifying ``design''	92	(1)
The argument from design: mechanisms	93	(1)
Design and cosmic purpose	94	(3)
Three examples	97	(3)
The goodness of God and the badness of theological explanations	100	(3)
A note on religion as a social phenomenon	103	(2)
The argument to God from fine-tuning reassessed	105	(19)
Richard Swinburne
Why a world with human bodies is likely if God exists	107	(8)
Why a world with human bodies is unlikely if there is no God	115	(9)
Perceiving design	124	(21)
Del Ratzsch
Background: Reid	125	(2)
Reid and design	127	(4)
Assessment	131	(5)
Implications	136	(1)
Some prospects	137	(8)
PART II Physical cosmology	145	(64)
The appearance of design in physics and cosmology	147	(8)
Paul Davies
Design and the anthropic fine-tuning of the Universe	155	(23)
William Lane Craig
Introduction	155	(1)
Examples of wider teleology	155	(6)
The inference to design	161	(4)
The design argument examined	165	(10)
Conclusion	175	(3)
Evidence for fine-tuning	178	(22)
Robin Collins
Introduction	178	(1)
Definition of and criteria for fine-tuning	179	(1)
Six solid cases of fine-tuning	180	(10)
Conclusion	190	(1)
Appendix: seriously problematic claims in the literature	191	(9)
Probabilities and the fine-tuning argument: a skeptical view	200	(9)
Timothy McGrew
Lydia McGrew
Eric Vestrup
The structure of the argument	201	(2)
The normalizability problem	203	(1)
Rescues and replies	204	(5)
PART III Multiple universes	209	(66)
Other universes: a scientific perspective	211	(10)
Martin Rees
Many ``universes''?	211	(1)
A special recipe?	212	(1)
Three interpretations of the apparent ``tuning''	212	(2)
Are questions about other universes part of science?	214	(2)
Scenarios for a multiverse	216	(2)
Universal laws, or mere bylaws?	218	(1)
Testing multiverse theories here and now	218	(3)
Too many universes	221	(8)
D.H. Mellor
Universes and the multiverse	221	(1)
Existence, location, and ultimate explanations	222	(1)
Explanations and probabilities	223	(2)
A prerequisite of chances	225	(1)
An importable argument	225	(1)
Facing the firing squad	226	(3)
Fine-tuning and multiple universes	229	(22)
Roger White
Introduction	229	(1)
Probabilistic confirmation	230	(3)
Our universe versus some universe	233	(1)
Carter's hypothesis	234	(1)
The observational selection effect	235	(3)
Improbable and surprising events	238	(2)
Leslie's shooting analogy	240	(3)
Conclusion	243	(1)
Postscript	243	(8)
The chance of the gaps	251	(24)
William Dembski
Probabilistic resources	251	(2)
Universal probability bounds	253	(2)
The inflationary fallacy	255	(2)
Four widely discussed inflatons	257	(3)
Explanatory power and independent evidence	260	(3)
Arthur Rubinstein -- consummate pianist or lucky poseur?	263	(2)
Independent evidence for a designer	265	(2)
Closing off quantum loopholes	267	(8)
PART IV Biology	275	(89)
The modern intelligent design hypothesis: breaking rules	277	(15)
Michael Behe
Differences from Paley	277	(2)
Darwinism and design	279	(3)
An ``evolved'' operon	282	(4)
Blood clotting	286	(2)
Falsifiability	288	(4)
Answering the biochemical argument from design	292	(16)
Kenneth R. Miller
An exceptional claim	293	(2)
Mr Darwin's workshop	295	(3)
Getting to the heart of the matter	298	(1)
Whips and syringes	299	(1)
Disproving design	300	(3)
Caught in the mousetrap	303	(1)
Breaking the chain	304	(1)
Paley's ghost	305	(3)
Modern biologists and the argument from design	308	(21)
Michael Ruse
Intelligent design	309	(2)
The explanatory filter	311	(4)
Intelligent design criticized	315	(3)
Explanatory filters	318	(1)
The blind watchmaker	319	(2)
Pain	321	(4)
Redundancy?	325	(1)
Conclusion	326	(3)
The paradoxes of evolution: inevitable humans in a lonely universe?	329	(19)
Simon Conway Morris
What is best?	330	(2)
Hallmarks of creation?	332	(2)
What is inevitable?	334	(2)
Focusing on convergence	336	(2)
Converging brains?	338	(2)
Rare Earth?	340	(3)
Inevitably lonely?	343	(5)
The compatibility of Darwinism and design	348	(16)
Peter Van Inwagen
Index	364