Proud Obstacles & a Reasonable Hope
The Apologetic Value of Intelligent Design
by Jay W. Richards
It is a mistake to view the theory of intelligent design (ID) as merely or even primarily a disguised apologetic for Christianity or theism. It is primarily a theory for how we may properly conclude that something—whether it be a human artifact or biological system—is designed. Design theorists claim that design is a fruitful, even necessary, concept for understanding many objects that fall under the purview of the natural sciences. They also offer an implicit critique of theories, particularly materialistic ones, that exclude design as a legitimate explanatory option.
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Jay W. Richards is vice president and senior fellow of the Discovery Institute in Seattle. He is the author most recently of The Untamed God (InterVarsity, 2003) and co-author with astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez of The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery (Regnery, 2004).
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