Two ID books were selected among Christianity Today’s 2005 Book Awards: in the category of Apologetics/Evangelism, Lee Strobel’s The Case for a Creator; in the category Christianity & Culture, my book The Design Revolution (another of my books Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology received that same award in 2000). Awards like this are no doubt gratifying to the books’ authors. But more important from my vantage is that ID books being given these awards indicates that our message is getting out. For the complete list of CT 2005 Book Awards, go here.

Denis Alexander is a molecular biologist with very solid credentials who is based at Cambridge University. He is also a theistic evolutionist who has written several books on the relation between science and Christian faith. His most recent is Rebuilding the Matrix (with Zondervan). Even though he is a critic of ID, he helped one of my ID colleagues who got shafted by another Cambridge lab. I therefore feel a sense of gratitude to him. Read More ›

I just learned from my editor at Cambridge University Press that The Design Inference is going to be issued in paperback in the next 6 months. This is good news. When the book came out in 1998, it listed at $55. I believe it is now up to $85. This will take the price down significantly and, I trust, make the ideas in that book all the more accessible. Also, for some reason, the hardback is issued these days without a dustcover. The dustcover contains some nice endorsements, notably, one by evolutionist Bill Wimsatt (go here and scroll down). I expect this information will be appearing on the cover of the paperback edition.

Looking for 10 Fine Journalists
Setting Up the Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowships in Science and Religion
By Julia Vitullo-Martin

“It’s a pleasure to meet a man who’s got an asteroid named after him,” said Cathy Lynn Grossman, the religion correspondent for USA Today, extending her hand to Owen Gingerich, research professor of astronomy at Harvard and a member of our advisory committee. We were interviewing semi-finalists for the Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowships in New York. “Oh, that’s nothing,” replied Gingerich. “I have dozens of friends who have asteroids named after them. Mine is small, just about the size of Manhattan. But it has a mind of its own and follows an eccentric orbit, of which I’m very proud.” With that rather wonderful summary of one scientist’s outlook on asteroids and life, the fellowship interviews proceeded. Read More ›

Check out the following stories at MSNBC and World Magazine: go here and here respectively.

I gave the entire Washington Post article on Phil Johnson here two days ago (go here). I want to draw your attention to two quotes in that article, one by Stuart Kauffman, the other by Theo Roszak. Kauffman is a well known self-organizational theorist. Roszak was a popular countercultural figure two and three decades ago (I remember him especially in the 80s for his critique of strong AI). Finally I want to draw your attention to a closing comment by Lou Dobbs in an interview of Michael Ruse, Jonathan Wells, and John Morris a few days ago on CNN. Read More ›

Which statements reflect your views on the origin of human beings? 1. We evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years, and God did not directly guide this process. 2. We evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years, but God guided this process. 3. God created us in our present form. …………………………… DEMOCRATS…………….REPUBLICANS ……………….ALL Evolved w/o God…………16% …………………………9%………………………….13% Guided by God…………… 28% ………………………..23%…………………………27% Created by God……………51% ……………………….66%…………………………55% Unsure………….. ……………5%…………………………..2% ………………………….5% Source: CBS News/New York Times poll, Nov. 18-21, 2004