1st Edition
The Intelligent Design Debate and the Temptation of Scientism
The controversy over Intelligent Design (ID) has now continued for over two decades, with no signs of ending. For its defenders, ID is revolutionary new science, and its opposition is merely ideological. For its critics, ID is both bad science and bad theology. But the polemical nature of the debate makes it difficult to understand the nature of the arguments on all sides. A balanced and deep analysis of a controversial debate, this volume argues that beliefs about the purposiveness or non-purposiveness of nature should not be based merely on science. Rather, the philosophical and theological nature of such questions should be openly acknowledged.
1. Introduction 2. Mapping the Landscape of the Debate 3. The Cosmological Debate 4. The Biological Debate 5. Intelligent Design as Science or Pseudoscience? 6. The Designer of the Gaps? 7. The Intuitive Possibility of Design 8. The Logic of Design Arguments 9. Design, Natural Evil and Bad Design 10. Intelligent Design and Theistic Evolutionism Afterword: Towards Better Discussion of Intelligent Design
Biography
Dr. Erkki Vesa Rope Kojonen is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Theology. He is also the editor of the Finnish Science and Theology magazine Areiopagi.fi, and has participated widely in discussions on science and theology both in his home country and internationally. His research interests also include the general discussion between faith and reason, philosophy of science as well as theology more generally. He was born in 1982, is married and lives in Espoo, Finland with his wife and three children.
'During the past few years, I have read many bad and (one way or the other) biased books on ID. The Intelligent Design Debate and the Temptation of Scientism is definitely not one of them. In fact, it might well be the best ID book I have ever got my hands on. It is impossible not to be impressed by the way Kojonen handles such a controversial and complex phenomenon. Throughout the book, Kojonen stresses the importance of a balanced, objec-tive analysis of ID – and this exactly what he himself succeeds in delivering. In the back cover endorsements, Jeffrey Koperski calls Kojonen’s book simply "the best place for students and scholars to start if they are trying to understand the arguments surrounding ID". I could not agree more.'
Juuso Loikkanen, University of Easter Finland, European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT)
