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IntroductIon   5



        between designed and naturally formed objects per se, since this goes
        on not only in archeology but in many fields of science, but that con-
        temporary design-theorists look for and claim to have found signs of
        intelligence in nature and life. Living organisms, they say, have fea-
        tures that cannot be ascribed to the laws of nature alone but are best
        explained as artifacts of an intelligent cause. Of course, this at once
        puts ID in opposition to Darwinism and evolutionary theory, which
        precisely claim that everything about life can be explained materially.
           This  explains  why  the  face-off  between  evolutionists  and  propo-
        nents of Intelligent Design creates such a stir. Critics accuse ID of
        being veiled religion, whereas design theorists retort that ID is no more
        a religion than Darwinism – or perhaps only just as much. ID scientists
        say that since they demonstrate their conclusions entirely from studies
        of nature and not by recourse to religious concepts or scripture, ID can-
        not be called “religion” in any usual sense of the term. But if Intelligent
        Design should be called religious because it has religious implications –
        which everyone agrees it has – then Darwinism is also religious. The
        only difference between the two is that Intelligent Design points to an
        intelligent cause behind nature whereas Darwinism purports to show
        that an intelligent cause for life and nature is not necessary. Perhaps
        the real fact is that, whether one likes it or not, the discussion about the
        nature of life invariably overlaps both science and religion.
           What science has to say about the nature of life has implications for
        more than just an elite group of experts. The question of life’s origin
        and development influences every human being’s self-understanding
        and indeed lies at the foundation of how we each build ideas of what is
        true and false, right and wrong, important and unimportant, and about
        the meaning of existence. This may be one more reason why this issue
        causes so much stir.
           In this book, assisted by Jonathan Wells, Michael Behe, William
        Dembski, and Michael Cremo, I first offer the reader an understand-
        ing of what Darwinism and Intelligent Design are. Next, while agree-
        ing with the basic ideas of Intelligent Design, I go one step further by
        examining evidence normally not a direct part of the Intelligent Design
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