Book Review: Signs of Intelligence

Authors: William Dembski, James M. Kushiner, Michael Behe, Nancy Pearcey, Philip Johnson and others
Spiritual Bias: Mainly Christian
Origins Bias: Intelligent Design
Rating: Middle of the Road
Level: Intermediate

Comments: I buy so many books that I often don't pay attention to the details of how a book is put together. In this particular case, 'Signs of Intelligence' is a collection of articles that were published in the July/August 1999 edition of the Christian journal Touchstone. I usually avoid these anthologies because when I want to read a book, I read a book, and when I want to read a magazine article, I read a magazine article. I'm awfully deliberate - so you can imagine how I felt slightly deceived when I started reading the preface. In any case, this "book" was well worth the read. There are primarily two types of articles in this book. There are articles that "introduce" intelligent design theory (IDT) from a philosophical and logical perspective and there are articles that delve into the application of intelligent design in the different fields of science. Since I was already familiar with IDT, the philosophical articles were not of much interest, but I found the more scientific articles to be very educational. In particular Stephen Meyer's article titled "Word Games: DNA, Design, and Intelligence" was very good. He makes a very cogent argument that DNA and the messages contained therein are the result of intelligent agency, not random chance. Behe also writes a concise introduction to his concept of "irreducible complexity" as described in greater detail in his book Darwin's Black Box. Overall, if you're looking to understand the basics of IDT then I would recommend this book. If you're more hardcore, then for the philosophy read Dembski's Design Inference, and Behe's Darwin's Black Box for the science.

Summary Quote: From Meyer's "Word Games: DNA, Design, and Intelligence" - : "Of course, many scientists have argued that to infer design gives up on science. They say that inferring design constitutes an argument from scientific ignorance- a "God of the gaps." fallacy.... Yet design theorists do not infer design just because natural processes cannot explain the origin of biological systems, but because these systems manifest the distinctive hallmarks of intelligently designed systems- that is, they possess features that in any other realm of experience would trigger the recognition of an intelligent cause."