Selected Annotated Bibliography for the Intelligent Design - Evolution Debate

Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D., Denver Seminary, 2002 (updated, December 26, 2002)

Internet sites

  1. Access Research Network: http://www.arn.org/. Materials by Phillip E. Johnson and many others on the cutting edge of the intelligent design movement.

  2. The Discovery Institute: http://www.discovery.org/crsc/. Information from William Dembski, Jonathon Wells, Michael Behe, Stephen Meyer, and other leading intelligent design thinkers.

Books by Christians

  1. Behe, Michael. Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. New York: The Free Press, 1996. A biochemist argues for "irreducible complexity" in living organisms that cannot be explained by gradualist Darwinian mechanisms.

  2. Broom, Neil. How Blind is the Watchmaker? Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001. Broom is a practicing scientist and philosopher of science, who challenges Darwinism (naturalism’s only available creation story, as Phillip Johnson says) on scientific and philosophical grounds. Foreword by William Dembski. Many helpful illustrations.

  3. Carlson, Richard F., editor. Science and Christianity: Four Views. InterVarsity Press, 2000. The entries by Stephen C. Meyer articulate the intelligent design approach wonderfully. See his full presentation on pages 127-187. The other views do not endorse the intelligent design perspective.

  4. Dembski, William, editor. Mere Creation: Science, Faith, and Intelligent Design. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998. Collection of papers by leading thinkers such as William Dembski, William Lane Craig, J.P. Moreland and many others.

  5. Dembski, William and James Kushiner, editors. Signs of Intelligence: Understanding Intelligent Design. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2001. Essays by important thinkers in the movement. Good starting point.

  6. Dembski, William. Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999. Possibly the key book on the theory of intelligent design as applied to modern science. A somewhat simplified version of the much more technical work by Dembski, The Design Inference (Cambridge University Press, 1998).

  7. Dembski, William. No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot be Purchased Without Intelligence. New York: Free Press, 2001. The follow up to The Design Inference; it is fairly technical in places.

  8. Geisler, Norman and Kerby Anderson, Origin Science. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1987. Written somewhat before the intelligent design movement got rolling, the book articulates some important conceptual distinctions, especially between “origin science” and “operation science,” and does not take a “young earth” position.

  9. Hunter, Cornelius. Darwin's God: Evolution and the Problem of Evil. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2001. Persuasively argues that much of the fuel for Darwinism comes from false metaphysical views of what creation should be like given the existence of a good and all-powerful God. This view, however, denies the reality of the fall (Genesis 3; Romans 3; 8:18-23). Since the world is not perfect, Darwinists (such as Stephen Jay Gould) falsely conclude it is not created or designed at all. Important insights often missing from both sides of the debate.

  10. Johnson, Phillip E. Darwin on Trial, revised edition. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993. One of the pivotal books for the intelligent design movement. Written by a law professor.

  11. Johnson, Phillip E. Reason in the Balance. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995. Explains the impact of naturalism in science and other aspects of American culture.

  12. Johnson, Phillip E. Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. Introductory material on the cultural and philosophical dynamics of the debate on origins.

  13. Johnson, Phillip E. The Wedge of Truth: Splitting the Foundations of Naturalism. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000. Explains the basic strategy of the Intelligent Design movement to dethrone naturalism in the sciences: separate philosophical materialism from empirical science.

  14. Johnson. Phillip E. The Right Questions. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002. Johnson reflects—sometimes quite personally, unlike his other books—on the broader questions of how naturalism should be addressed in contemporary culture

  15. Moreland, J.P.  Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1987. An apologetic for Christianity, which contains an excellent chapter on the philosophy of science and the rationality of creation over naturalistic evolution.

  16. Moreland, J.P. Christianity and the Nature of Science. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1989. An in-depth analysis of the philosophy of science in relation to the Christian world view. Excellent material on a creationist view as rational and scientific.

  17. Moreland, J.P., editor. The Creation Hypothesis. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994. Collection of important essays on various facets of intelligent design.

Books by Non-Christians

  1. Denton, Michael. Evolution: A Theory in Crisis. Bethesda Maryland: Adler and Adler, 1986. A key book challenging the scientific credentials of Darwinism.

  2. Denton, Michael. Nature’s Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe. New York: The Free Press, 1998. The subtitle says it.

  3. MacBeth, Norman, Darwin Retried. New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1971. Written by a lawyer who takes apart Darwinism logically and evidentially.

  4. MacBeth, Norman. Darwinism: A Time for Funerals: An Interview with Norman Macbeth. San Francisco: Robert Briggs Associates, 1982. Taken from a magazine interview.

  5. Milton, Richard. Shattering the Myths of Darwinism. Rochester, VT: Park Street Press. 1997. Compelling case against Darwinism offered by a science writer.

  6. Spetner, Lee.  Not By Chance: Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution. Brooklyn, NY: The Judaica Press, 1997. A Jewish, scientific challenge to Darwinism.

  7. Taylor, Gordon Rattray. The Great Evolution Mystery. New York: Harper and Row, 1983. Raises significant challenges to Darwinism.

  8. Wells, Jonathan. Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth? Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2000. Power expose of phony evidence for Darwinism. Does not present a positive case for intelligent design. Wells is a member of the Unification Church (a heretical, pseudo-Christian group), but does not bring the teachings of Sun Myung Moon into his writings on Intelligent Design (to my knowledge).

Mixed Anthology on Intelligent Design

Pennock, Robert T., editor. Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics: Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001. Large collection of essays crossing several disciplines. Several contributions by Alvin Plantinga, William Dembski, and Phillip Johnson.

Magazines and Journals Featuring the Intelligent Design Movement

  1. Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Volume 1, Number 4, Winter 1998. Features articles by Michael Behe, William Dembski, and others defending intelligent design and several articles critiquing the movement. Send $5 to Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Michigan State University Press, 1405 S. Harrison Road, 25 Manly Miles Building, East Lansing, MI 48823-5202. Phone: 517-355-9543.

  2. Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity. July/August 1999. Articles by William Dembski, Michael Behe, and others. Contact: Touchstone, Publishing management Associates, 129 Phelps Avenue, Suite 312, Rockford, IL 61108. Phone: 815-398-8569. Most of this material was republished as the book, Signs of Intelligence.

  3. Origins and Design: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Dedicated to Intelligent Design Issues. Access Research Network. P.O. Box 38069, Colorado Springs, CO 80937-8069.

Copyright © 2003 Douglas R. Groothuis. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.
File Date: 1.02.03

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