Leading scientist and mathematician William A. Dembski has devoted years to researching intelligent design.
He is a research professor in philosophy at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and has been featured on the front page of The New York Times. He has appeared on numerous radio and television broadcasts, including Jon Stewart's The Daily Show and ABC's Nightline.
Dembski talked to CitizenLink about his latest book, The Design of Life — which he co-authored with Jonathan Wells.
1. What is intelligent design?
The study of patterns in nature that are best explained by intelligence. But the focus is really on biology. Are there patterns in biological systems that would point us to intelligence? What we find is that we see design in everything from human consciousness, through the fossil record, through similarities between organisms, through various molecular structures inside the cell to the very origin of life — the origin of the first cell.
2. Tell me about your new book.
It’s a comprehensive overview of intelligent design, trying to make it clear what intelligent design is. There’s lots that’s been written about intelligent design, especially in the media and some of the scientific community, that’s often misrepresented. This really puts to rest a lot of those biased and misrepresented claims about intelligent design.
3. Who is your target audience?
I don’t want to give the impression that it’s not a demanding book, but the book works at several levels. There are the main chapters; there are endnotes; then there’s a whole section of general notes on a CD. If you’re just reading the main chapters, I think it’s quite accessible. A lot of work went into it. You will learn some biology. You will learn what the real issues are and the specifics of what is wrong with Darwinism and what intelligent design has to offer.
4. Does your research conclude that God is the Intelligent Designer?
I believe God created the world for a purpose. The Designer of intelligent design is, ultimately, the Christian God.
The focus of my writings is not to try to understand the Christian doctrine of creation; it’s to try to develop intelligent design as a scientific program.
There’s a big question within the intelligent design community: “How did the design get in there?” We’re very early in this game in terms of understanding the history of how the design got implemented. I think a lot of this is because evolutionary theory has so misled us that we have to rethink things from the ground up. That's where we are. There are lots and lots of questions that are now open to re-examination in light of this new paradigm.
5. How will your research affect the world of science?
It’s going to change the national conversation. I don’t see how you can read this book, if you’ve not been indoctrinated with Darwin’s theory, and go back to the evolutionary fold. The case against this materialistic, undirected evolution is overwhelming. This really goes to the worldview issues that are underlying this whole discussion: Are we the result of a blind, purposeless, material process, and is our intelligence then just this evolutionary byproduct of our need to survive and reproduce? Or are intelligence and purpose fundamental to our existence? Were we planned? Or are we an accidental happening? That’s really what is underlying this whole debate, and what this book, I think, addresses very effectively.
Intelligent design goes a long way in this culture, which is so infused with materialistic and atheistic ideology.
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