Anika Smith

Display content from YouTube Click here to display content from YouTube. Learn more in YouTube’s privacy policy. Always display content from YouTube Open video directly

It’s the time of year to take stock… and figure out what books and DVDs are missing from your library so you can ask for them for Christmas! This year our list is handily organized by category: Science, Faith & Worldview and History, Culture and Philosophy.

Science

• In the Beginning: And Other Essays on Intelligent Design by Granville Sewell. This collection of essays explains why evolution is a fundamentally different and much more difficult problem than others solved by science and why increasing numbers of scientists are now recognizing what has long been obvious to the layman: there is no explanation possible without design. Highly recommended for those who want mathematical proof that Darwin’s theory doesn’t add up. (You can get it for $11.21 here.)
• Programming of Life by Donald E. Johnson. This book is Dr. Johnson’s second, and as we noted earlier, “full of helpful introductions to topics like statistics and information theory, chock-full with citations to the mainstream scientific literature. In particular, he cites to a growing body of technical literature of scientists who are skeptical of materialism.” It “focuses on elucidating the computer-like workings of the cell and their implications for materialism-based theories about life’s origins.” This is a great book for those following the debate and curious about the leading edge of the research. (You can get it for $12.45 here).
• Intelligent Design Uncensored: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to the Controversy by William Dembski and Jonathan Witt. This book is a must for anyone wanting to understand the science of intelligent design explained to the layperson. It summarizes the case for design while also contributing to ID thinking with verve and style that isn’t just accessible, but pleasurable for the reader. (You can get it for $10.20 here.)
• Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design by Stephen C. Meyer. The book that continues to stir up controversy far and wide is available in paperback. It’s a tour de force that made the Times Literary Supplement‘s “Books of the Year” last year and absolutely required reading for anyone interested in intelligent design. Unless, of course, you’re Francisco Ayala. (You can get it for $12.43 here.)
• The Deniable Darwin and Other Essays by David Berlinski. This collection is a treasure trove of classic Berlisnki wit and perception, featuring more than 30 essays written over the last 15 years. The consummate skeptic, Dr. Berlinski dispels the modern superstition of scientism and clears the way for real science to be conducted. Recommended for skeptics, doubters, and anyone who

This just in from Tom Woodward: A special edition of the weekly “Darwin or Design” program, featuring Trinity College Research Professor Tom Woodward’s interview with Discovery Senior Fellow John West, is airing tonight, Thursday, November 18th. The hour-long program begins at 7 pm Eastern (6 pm Central, 4 pm Pacific) on the Salem Network station in Tampa, WTBN, at AM 570. The discussion centers on the scientific and philosophical issues in the origins contoversy among naturalistic Darwinists, theistic evolutionists, and design theorists. Those outside Central Florida can listen live via the internet by clicking here.. The topic is the new book, God and Evolution, edited by Discovery Fellow Jay Richards. Dr. West contributed the opening chapters of the book, and Read More ›

Click here to listen CSC Senior Fellow (and sometime ENV contributor) Mike Behe is set to tour the United Kingdom starting this Saturday, speaking on “Darwin or Design? What does the science really say?” This week-long tour is sponsored by the Centre for Intelligent Design of the UK, and residents of Leamington/Warwick, London, Glasgow, Belfast, Cambridge, and Bournemouth should avail themselves of the chance to catch one of Dr. Behe’s evening lectures there. He will also be the main speaker at a day long conference in Oxford. Online registration is required. Visit http://www.darwinordesign.org.uk to register and for more detailed information.

There’s an outstanding review of Stephen Meyer’s Signature in the Cell by Terry Scambray in the New Oxford Review, which highlights a bit of relevant history for the reader on both Dr. Meyer and Darwin’s theory:

Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design is a testament to the fact that, fortunately, such advice [“don’t ask questions”] never sank in with Meyer. After abandoning his life as a geophysicist in search of oil for Atlantic Richfield, and then earning a Cambridge doctorate, he continued to ask questions as he humbly but resolutely began his new quest: the search to understand the origins and basis of life.

This is, of course, an ancient quest. From then to now, most people have believed that the sublime order that we see in nature must have been designed. But Charles Darwin argued that design was an illusion: Nature alone, by a process of accidental trial and error over eons of time, had produced this ineffable harmony.

Despite the fact that Darwin’s theory of natural selection was accepted by most educated people, the theory itself was weakly supported from the beginning. It gained acceptance mainly for cultural rather than scientific reasons. Progressive ideas had gained dominance by the nineteenth century; correspondingly traditional institutions — mainly religion — were taking their lumps. Against this background, criticisms of Darwin were castigated as regressive and religiously motivated, despite their scientific objectivity and rigor. Such polemical treachery continues to this day.

This month’s edition of Touchstone Magazine has a great column by the godfather of intelligent design, Phillip Johnson, offering his review of Stephen Meyer’s Signature in the Cell and his take on why the book has been met with such an uproar in the blogosphere: In another way, however, it is peculiar that there is such a furious and often ill-informed objection to a learned volume that isn’t even about the theory of biological evolution. The book advances well-reasoned arguments based on solid evidence about a prior problem — the origin of the cell’s information content — concerning which most scientists would concede that they know very little. The one thing that many of these scientists think they do know Read More ›

CSC research director Jay Richards takes aim at the latest pronouncement from Stephen Hawking today at The American: Stephen Hawking declared that our understanding of physics proves God did not create the universe. Is he right? Stephen Hawking holds the chair of mathematics at Cambridge University once held by Sir Isaac Newton. So when he declared that our understanding of physics shows that God did not create the universe, it was bound to get attention. Summarizing the thesis of his new book, The Grand Design (co-authored with Leonard Mlodinow), Hawking announced: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why Read More ›

After yesterday’s plenary session with Dr. Falk at the Vibrant Dance of Faith and Science, I was looking forward to attending his breakout session and hearing more about his view of evolutionary creation.

And I was not disappointed.

There were fewer than twenty of us sitting in a U-shape at tables in a classroom, which felt a little bit like we were all having a small class session on theistic evolution evolutionary creation, up close and personal. In addition to the volunteers working with Dr. Falk on a film project (more on that later), Dr. Walter Bradley, conference organizer Larry Linenschmidt, Dr. Dennis Venema, and Dr. Richard Sternberg were in attendance, as well as a few younger thinkers.

Falk explained what he means by the term “evolutionary creation” and why he prefers it to “theistic evolution,” then outlined his particular view with three major points:

1. God speaks natural laws into existence.
2. Natural laws are a reflection of God’s ongoing activity.
3. Through God’s ongoing natural activity, and through supernatural intervention, God is there at work and we have all the glory of creation.

We were then treated to a clip from a new film BioLogos is doing with Highway Media, which looked very good – beautiful, compelling, and full of talking heads with British accents sitting in nice churches. And a shot of C. S. Lewis’s grave, just in case you didn’t get the point that “evolutionary creation” is the smart Christian choice. (They also have Americans like Brian McLaren, but that’s less impressive to their evangelical targets, IMO.)

Finally, Dr. Falk took questions from the small group of us assembled there.

I’m here at the Vibrant Dance of Faith and Science Conference in Austin, where I’ve enjoyed hearing from Stephen Meyer, Hugh Ross, Darrel Falk, Dan Heinze, and more in presentations to a large auditorium of conference attendees. It’s interesting and I think good to bring together so many different perspectives on science and origins, though sometimes distinctions seemed purposefully blurred so as to preserve unity. An example of this might be Biologos’ Darrel Falk’s plenary session, where he discussed his view of “evolutionary creation” (he doesn’t like “theistic evolution”) as God working through a gradual process. He is right that most of the theists in the room do indeed agree on the point that God is creative and creator, but Read More ›

UPDATE 10/22/10: Unfortunately, yesterday afternoon we were informed by a conference organizer that the session featuring an exchange of views between Discovery Institute and BioLogos scientists was being canceled. The good news is that attendees will still be able to hear the same speakers at other sessions, and the rest of the conference is going forward. We hope that another forum for a public exchange of views can be found in the future. The conversation about God and Darwin is heating up. After several months of back-and-forth, the theistic evolutionists at BioLogos (notably attacking Stephen Meyer’s Signature in the Cell, in some cases without reading it) will meet and finally face intelligent design proponents, who are coming fresh off their Read More ›