Chance or Dance: An Evaluation of Design

Chance or Dance provides an overview of design and clarification of the controversial Intelligent Design (ID) movement and ultimately concludes there is no scientific proof behind Intelligent Design. As the controversy over Intelligent Design has grown over the past few years, there is a tendency to confuse all statements about design with the Intelligent Design movement and to confuse any affirmation of creation with Scientific Creationism. Davis and Poe begin with a brief historical perspective of the design argument and then examine the significant breakthroughs in cosmology, math, physics, chemistry, and biology that have provided renewed speculation in design.

The authors discuss that the idea of design is far more expansive than the ID movement’s version of it, evaluate Dawkins’ interpretation of genetic determinism, include a chapter that explores the tendency since Darwin to assume that the presence of an observable cause excludes the possibility of divine involvement; and introduce further reflections on wonder and awe that take into account the recent surge of interest in this area. The book concludes with an argument for the correlation between faith and sensory experience and suggests that science has successfully described processes but failed to explain origins.

Chance or Dance is ideal for students and general readers interested in understanding how modern science gives evidence for nature’s creation by the Bible’s God.

Jimmy H. Davis is the vice president for the Germantown campus and university professor of chemistry at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. He has a PhD in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The author of two books and more than sixty articles, chapters, and presentations, he lectures and presents at conferences in the U.S. and internationally. He received a grant from the John Templeton Foundation to develop a science and faith course as well as a grant from the Metanexus Institute to establish a local society for promoting the science-faith dialogue. He lives with his wife and son in Germantown, Tennessee.

Harry L. Poe is the Charles Colson Professor of Faith and Culture at Union University. He has authored more than a dozen books and numerous articles. He holds a PhD in education from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He resides in Jackson, Tennessee, with his wife and two daughters.