Publisher's Synopsis
One of the most profound questions philosophers have asked throughout history is "What is the relationship between mankind and the universe?" Are we accidents of nature, meaningless aberrations on a speck of dust adrift in a vast, uncaring universe, or is there some deep transcendent meaning and purpose to our existence? Eminent scientists tell us that we live in a Godless world, that the universe, life and mankind are of natural origins and that our existence is nothing more than an accident of nature. Author Joseph Renick following a long and productive career in the engineering sciences, and with a lifelong interest in Christian apologetics, disagrees, arguing that a scientifically objective examination of the natural world reveals overwhelming evidence of the work of a creative intelligence. He makes his case, not through biblical apologetics, but through natural philosophy.
His broad-ranging investigation includes--
- an examination of the historical and philosophical roots of modern science;
- exposure of the mythology of the so-called "War between Science and Religion";
- an in-depth analysis of the use of methodological naturalism as a constraint on scientific method;
- a review of the history and evidentiary foundations of evolutionary theory;
- an account of the origins of the intelligent design movement from a dissent in the 1980s within mainstream science from Darwin;
- a look into the dark side of Darwinism and its influence on the murderous totalitarian systems of the twentieth century;
- a look at what David Hume actually had to say about design;
- a review of the philosophical and historical foundations of the American Republic in natural law;
- an analysis of the poisonous influence of positivist epistemology on physics, judicial philosophy, political philosophy and moral philosophy in America; and
- recommended guidelines to restore objectivity and religious neutrality to origins science education in public schools.
Then, arguing fully within the bounds of the observational, experimental and inductive methodological tradition of Francis Bacon, he concludes that within the natural sciences the concepts of Law and Design are of the same cognitive category, and that they are unified in nature around the centrality of the place of mankind in the cosmos. Far from proving that there is no ultimate meaning or purpose to our existence, scientific discovery in the twentieth century in the biological and cosmological sciences, reveals an extraordinary universe which is fine-tuned for life, leading to the stunning proposition that mankind is central to the meaning and purpose of the cosmos. That changes everything.
