What exactly is the very best evidence for a designing agent behind nature? There are a number of contenders and, interestingly, not all ID proponents agree on the answer. William Dembski, co-author of the new edition of The Design Inference and other books, argues in a terrific podcast with Mike Licona that the genetic machinery of life deserves the honor, and materialist explanations of how it might have arisen without design amount to “magical thinking.” He finds cosmic fine-tuning to be highly suggestive of design, but not as compelling.
Dr. Dembski’s case makes a fascinating pairing with a series of four posts at Evolution News, just completed today, by Elie Feder and Aaron Zimmer asserting to the contrary that, “The fine-tuning argument is, in our view, the best modern-day design argument.” See here, here, here, and here. Who’s right? You decide.