October 2006

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Darwin's Nemesis: Phillip Johnson and the Intelligent Design Movement by William A. Dembski IVP Academic, 357 pp.; $25.00

Every few months, a wise head predicts the end of Intelligent Design—in time for the next uproar. Darwin's Nemesis, a collection of essays in honor of Phillip Johnson—the Berkeley law professor whose Darwin on Trial started the controversy in 1991—helps readers understand why id cannot simply go away. Long before Johnson, many scientists objected to Darwinism, but lacked a framework for their objections in an academic environment committed to reductive materialism. Johnson's legal approach provided that framework.

Steve Meyer's analysis of the Cambrian explosion, reprinted here, should have interested only the few paleontologists who really care about extinct organisms from half a billion years ago. His paper instead became headline news, because it challenged Darwinism.

Mathematician William Dembski, Johnson's successor as informal leader of the id community, offers reflections on how a small, beleaguered band of scientists succeeded in bringing their issues to the front page. One reason he suggests is that id is not a top-down community and thus is less vulnerable to politically correct scientific orthodoxy. As this volume demonstrates, we can expect more such uproars in the coming years.

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Darwin's Nemesis is available from ChristianBook.com and other book retailers.

Christianity Today coverage of science, evolution, and Intelligent Design includes:

Science in Wonderland | Getting some perspective (250 million years' worth) on the evolution controversy. By John Wilson (Apr. 25, 2006)

The Other ID Opponents | Traditional creationists see Intelligent Design as an attack on the Bible. (Apr. 25, 2006)

Doubts About Fish Story | Anti-Darwinists downplay 'missing link.' (May 11, 2006)

God by the Numbers | Coincidence and random mutation are not the most likely explanations for some things. (March 10, 2006)

Intelligent Design Is Too Religious For Schools, Judge Rules | "Abundantly clear" that it's updated creationism, he says. (Dec. 21, 2005)

Design Film Sparks Angst | Under fire, Smithsonian disavows presentation on Intelligent Design. (July 6, 2005)

Science that Backs Up Faith | There is overwhelming evidence for a creator, says Lee Strobel. (June 1, 2005)

Verdict that Demands Evidence | It is Darwinists, not Christians, who are stonewalling the facts. (March 28, 2005)

Were the Darwinists Wrong? | National Geographic stacks the deck. (Nov. 23, 2004)

The Art of Debating Darwin | How to intelligently design a winning case for God's role in creation. (Sept. 08, 2004)

Unintelligent Debate | It's time to cool the rhetoric in the Intelligent Design dispute. (Sept. 03, 2004)

The Dick Staub Interview: William Dembski's Revolution | The author of Intelligent Design set out to answer the toughest questions about the movement he helped promote. (March 30, 2004)

'A Nuclear Bomb' For Evolution? | Critics of Darwinism say skull's discovery isn't all it's cracked up to be. (Aug. 14, 2002)

Your Darwin Is Too Large | Evolution's significance for theology has been greatly exaggerated. (May 25, 2000)

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