Theory of Intelligent Design

The movie The Privileged Planet is based on the book by the same name, by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards, published in 2004. Gonzalez, an astrophysicist who worked at Iowa State University at the time, and Jay Richards, philosopher from Biola University, refute the popularly held Principle of Mediocrity, which is that earth is a mediocre planet, with nothing exceptional about it.

There are at least twenty different properties considered essential for complex life, such as water, gravity, atmosphere, etc. Several of these properties about earth, and how exceptional they are, are described in the film. For instance, If the earth was 5% closer or further from the sun water would not exist in liquid form. Water absorbs heat from the sun, regulating the temperature of the planet’s surface. The earth’s crust is just thick enough to allow for tectonic plate movement, required to regulate the earth’s inner temperature. The earth’s interior liquid iron creates a magnetic field that protects it from solar winds. The moon’s large size stabilizes the planet’s axis, and makes for mild climate changes. The atmosphere is a combination of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide that sustains complex life. There is only a very small portion of the electro-magnetic spectrum that is useful for such process as photosynthesis, the rest being useless or deadly.

The earth’s position in the solar system, as well as in the galaxy, is convenient. Closer to the Milky Way’s center poses more dangers from supernovas, additional radiation, and a black hole at the center of the galaxy. Closer to the edge the elements of the earth, such as iron, magnesium, and silicon, are rare.

Gonzalez and Richards also look at the exceptional place given to humans to study these wonders. Because humans have the capacity, desire, and ability to observe space, without obstacles like the dust of a location closer to the galaxy’s core, and with the ability to note the differences between those stars within the galaxy and those without, humans inhabit a perfect place. The two authors illustrate our exceptional observational location by total lunar eclipses and note the size of the moon in comparison to the distance of the sun so as to have total eclipses, which led to discoveries such as the sun’s chromosphere, and from that helium. Also stars observed only when the sun was in eclipse proved Einstein’s theory of relativity as it was shown that the sun bent light.

The movie proposes Intelligent Design by observing the complexities required for life and the rarity of this taking place in our known universe. Gonzalez makes the statement, “There’s something about the universe that can’t be simply explained by just the impersonal forces of nature and atoms colliding with atoms.”

If you would like to see the hour-long film, it is on Google video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5488284265590289530#

A Contemporary Essay on Man

Mere Humanity, by Donald Williams, is a study of whether man, a being especially endowed by God to be more than an animal, is a myth. The question is prompted by contemporary concepts, such as materialism, naturalism, and Freudianism, which try to debunk the myth that man is anything but an animal. Williams answers by observing selected works of the three authors: G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

The three authors have in common their Christianity and their use of story. For Chesterton and Tolkien the fact that man creates stories proves he is different from the animals, above the beasts; they are endowed with reason, as stated in Chesterton’s Everlasting Man and Tolkien’s essay, “On Faery Stories.” Lewis’s belief in the elevation of man is evident in both his Space trilogy and the series Chronicles of Narnia, in which man is related to the animals by their Maker, but made to rise above animal nature, though some will give into it by choice. (Note, in the Chronicles man is meant to rule the land and the creatures, but not meant to exploit them. Given with dominion is responsibility.) Lewis incorporates the medieval/Renaissance view that man is higher than the beasts and just below the angels, such as expressed in Pico Mirandola’s On the Dignity of Man. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit, and The Simarillion illustrate a special place for man also. He is mortal, moral, and ever hopeful.

Williams applies these views to contemporary philosophies, especially those influencing the academic world. An appendix addresses postmodernism, which is defined as a disbelief in any objective truth, largely as a result of disillusionment with modernism earlier in the twentieth century, which promised absolute objective truth. Both reject Christianity because both consider it to be subjective. Williams also addresses reductionist philosophies, which reduce man to a product, such as of economy (Marxism), or conditioning (Behaviorism). The authors who elevate man reject the reduction, as they allow, like God, that he has a free will.

I found the book very useful and entertaining. While it is scholarly, offering a very good reference list for further study, it does not read as many academic papers do – for a very select group It is especially relevant for Christian scholars and students, but also offers an overview of three authors Christians should know. As Donald Williams is both a scholar and a pastor, he applies the literature to the world Christians live in.

Donald Williams' website: http://doulomen.tripod.com/