Does God Exist? [Last Updated 2/4/2014]
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Additional Resources and Links for TrueU: Does God Exist? [Last updated 2/4/2014] This document contains additional resources and links for use with TrueU: Does God Exist? Contents 1. Animations 2. Articles 3. Books 4. Debates 5. DVD Documentaries 6. Peer Reviewed Publications 7. Public Appearances 8. Resources 1. Animations • Journey Inside The Cell: DNA’s digital code directs protein synthesis within the cell. • CellCraft Video Game: A fun way to experience and remember the cell’s nanotechnology. • ARN’s Animation Museum: Life’s molecular machines. Here is list of more machines. • Inner Life of the Cell: Despite the intentions of Harvard, this animation shouts “intelligent design.” 2. Articles Articles Introducing the Science that has Implications for Theism and Atheism • William Dembski, “Science and Design,” First Things (October 1998). An introduction to the logic of design in the natural sciences. • Stephen C. Meyer, “A Scientific History and Philosophical Defense of the Theory of Intelligent Design,” Religion–Staat–Gesellschaft (October 2008). • Stephen C. Meyer, “The Scientific Status of Intelligent Design: The Methodological Equivalence of Naturalistic and Non-Naturalistic Origins Theories,” Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe (Ignatius Press, 2002). Answers objections such as “intelligent design is not testable.” • Stephen C. Meyer and Michael N. Keas, “The Meanings of Evolution,” Darwinism, Design and Public Education (Michigan State University Press, 2003). Articles About Lessons 2-4: Cosmology—Fine-Tuned Cosmos with a Beginning • Jay Richards, “Did Physics Kill God?” The American (November 3, 2010). • William Lane Craig and James D. Sinclair, “The Kalam Cosmological Argument,” 101-201, in William Lane Craig and J. P. Moreland, The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology (Wiley- Blackwell, 2009). An expensive volume published by a leading publisher of scientific and technical journals and books. • Robin Collins, “The Teleological Argument: An Exploration of the Fine-Tuning of the Universe,” 202-281, in The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009). See Robin Collins’ similar essay, “The Fine-Tuning Design Argument” (1999). • Jay W. Richards & Guillermo Gonzalez, “Are We Alone?” The American Spectator (May 2004). • Walter L. Bradley, “The Designed ‘Just So’ Universe” (January 1999). • Robert C. Koons, “Post-Agnostic Science” (November 1998). • William Lane Craig, “Existence of God: A series of articles on natural theology.” Requires free login. Some are reprinted from scholarly journals (e.g., Canadian Journal of Philosophy). • William Lane Craig, “Existence and Nature of God: A series of popular articles, featuring defenses of various arguments for God’s existence.” Requires free login. Articles About Lessons 5-8: The Inference to Intelligent Design in Biology • Stephen C. Meyer, “DNA and Other Designs,” First Things (April 2000). • Stephen C. Meyer, “Intelligent Design: The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories,” Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington (August 2004). This peer-reviewed journal is published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. • Stephen C. Meyer, Marcus Ross, Paul Nelson & Paul Chien, “The Cambrian Explosion: Biology’s Big Bang,” Darwinism, Design and Public Education (Michigan State University Press, 2003). The pattern of fossil appearance in the Cambrian period contradicts the predictions of neo-Darwinism. • Michael J. Behe, “Molecular Machines: Experimental Support for the Design Inference,” Cosmic Pursuit (March 1998). Articles About Lessons 9-10: God is the Best Explanation of Moral Experience • Mark D. Linville, “The Moral Argument,” 391-448, in William Lane Craig and J. P. Moreland, The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009). • Paul Copan, “The Moral Argument for God’s Existence” (2008). • William Lane Craig, “Theistic Critiques of Atheism,” abridged version in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, 69-85, ed. M. Martin. Cambridge Companions to Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2007). • Peter Kreeft, “The Moral Argument,” essay #14, in Twenty Arguments For The Existence Of God. See the related arguments from Consciousness and Conscience. • Video clip related to the articles above: William Lane Craig, “Richard Dawkins and the Moral Argument for God.” Op-Eds about Intelligent Design • Stephen C. Meyer, “Pro-Darwin consensus doesn’t rule out intelligent design,” CNN.com (November 23, 2009). • Stephen C. Meyer, “Intelligent Design is not Creationism,” The Daily Telegraph, London (January 29, 2006). Explains the scientific basis for intelligent design and how it differs from creationism. • Stephen C. Meyer and John Angus Campbell, “How Should Schools Handle Evolution? Debate it,” USA Today (August 14, 2005). Teach evolution as Darwin presented it, with competing arguments. • Michael Behe, “Design for Living: The Basis for a Design Theory of Origins,” The New York Times (February 7, 2005). 3. Books Essential Reading (best read in this order) These books are also included in the topical lists below. • Strobel, Lee. The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points toward God. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004. Introductory overview of the implications of science for the theism vs. atheism debate. This book most closely matches the structure of Meyer’s arguments in TrueU. Also watch Strobel’s The Case for a Creator documentary DVD. • Meyer, Stephen C., Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design. New York: HarperOne, 2010. Subscribe to a free weekly newsletter from the Center for Science & Culture and download a complimentary digital book, Signature of Controversy, in which Meyer responds to Darwinist critics. View the related DVD Unlocking the Mystery of Life. • Heeren, Fred. Show Me God: What the Message from Space Is Telling Us About God. Wheeling, IL: Day Star Publications, 1997. A fun and easy read compared to similar books about cosmology. • Craig, William Lane. The Kalam Cosmological Argument. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2000. Craig explains the cosmological argument for God better than anyone. • Gonzalez, Guillermo, and Jay Richards. The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2004. View the documentary DVD by the same title: The Privileged Planet. • Meyer, Stephen C., Scott Minnich, Jonathan Moneymaker, Paul A. Nelson, and Ralph Seelke. Explore Evolution: The Arguments for and against Neo-Darwinism. London: Hill House, 2007. Also view these companion documentary DVDs: Icons of Evolution and Darwin’s Dilemma. • Dembski, William A. The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004. • Craig, William Lane, and J. P. Moreland, eds. The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Leading philosophers provide relevant arguments in light of state-of-the-art philosophical and scientific discussions. This anthology offers lengthy essays on all the major arguments for God’s existence, including the moral, cosmological, and teleological—the principal arguments in TrueU DVD set #1: Does God Exist? • West, John G. Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science. Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2007. Documents the morally damaging effects of Darwinism in the USA. View these related DVD documentaries: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008) and What Hath Darwin Wrought? (2010). • Behe, Michael J. Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. 2nd ed. New York: Free Press, 2006. Also read Behe’s sequel—The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism. New York: Free Press, 2007. Books About Lessons 2-8: Intelligent Design vs. Darwinism and Naturalism • Dembski, William A., and Jonathan Witt. Intelligent Design Uncensored: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to the Controversy. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2010. Introduction to intelligent design similar to Dembski’s book coauthored with Sean McDowell, Understanding Intelligent Design. Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2008. Read one of these two books if you are new to intelligent design or found yourself struggling to understand some of the books in the essential reading list (above). • Dembski, William A. The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities (Cambridge Studies in Probability, Induction and Decision Theory). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. The seminal text that defines how design inferences occur in the sciences. See Dembski’s other books and articles (especially his “Science and Design” essay of October 1998) for more accessible treatments of the methodology of intelligent design in the sciences. • Dembski, William A. The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004. • Johnson, Phillip E. Darwin on Trial. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993. The classic text by the founding father of today’s version of intelligent design theory. • Menuge, Angus. Agents under Fire: Materialism and the Rationality of Science. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. Argues that science itself requires a metaphysical foundation that includes intelligent agency (mind and “intentionality” that cannot be reduced to material processes, or you remove the epistemological basis for