The Design of Life: Discovering Signs of Intelligence in Biological Systems

'The illusion of purpose is so powerful', writes Richard Dawkins, 'that biologists themselves use the assumption of good design as a working tool'. As an ardent proponent of Darwinian evolution, Dawkins imagines that all design in biology is merely an illusion. In ""The Design of Life"", William Dembski and Jonathan Wells present a compelling scientific case for the intelligent design of biological systems. They convincingly show that the reason biologists use the assumption of design with success is because design is not an illusion but obviously real. Intelligent Design (ID), as the study of patterns in nature best explained by intelligence, is already accepted in many special sciences. Archeology, forensics, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) all belong to ID in this broad sense. These sciences, however, are uncontroversial because they assume an 'evolved' intelligence. In biology, by contrast, intelligent design is highly controversial, as it cannot be the product of purely material evolutionary processes. Thus, to convinced materialists like Richard Dawkins, ""The Design of Life"" is a challenge to reexamine one of the most fundamental dogmas of Darwinian orthodoxy. Written for the general reader and making the most powerful and comprehensive case to date for intelligent design, ""The Design of Life"" is the one book that the promoters of unintelligent evolution do not want you to read.