The Privileged Planet

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The Privileged Planet
The Privileged Planet.jpg
Cover
Authors Guillermo Gonzalez
Jay Richards
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Subject Intelligent design
Publisher Regnery Publishing
Publication date
Hardback March 2004, Paperback 2006
Media typePrint (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages464
ISBN 0-89526-065-4
OCLC 54046478
523.2 22
LC Class QB501 .G66 2004

The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery is a 2004 book by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards, in which the authors claim scientific evidence for intelligent design. Both Gonzalez and Richards are associated with the Discovery Institute, identified with the intelligent design movement; Gonzalez works as a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture.

Contents

Reception

This book has proven to be highly controversial within the scientific community.

Positive reviews:
Owen Gingerich, astronomer and historian of science, reviews the book explaining "This thoughtful, delightfully contrarian book will rile up those who believe the 'Copernican principle' is an essential philosophical component of modern science. Is our universe designedly congenial to intelligent, observing life? Passionate advocates of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) will find much to ponder in this carefully documented analysis." [1]

Philip Skell reviewed the book writing "In this fascinating and highly original book, Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards advance a persuasive argument, and marshal a wealth of diverse scientific evidence to justify that argument. In the process, they effectively challenge several popular assumptions, not only about the nature and history of science, but also about the nature and origin of the cosmos. The Privileged Planet will be impossible to ignore. It is likely to change the way we view both the scientific enterprise and the world around us. I recommend it highly." [1]

Negative reviews:
William H. Jefferys, an astronomer, reviewed the book writing "the little that is new in this book isn't interesting, and what is old is just old-hat creationism in a new, modern-looking astronomical costume." [2]

Victor J. Stenger, a physicist and philosopher, reviewed the book explaining that it not only "ignores" the 2000 book Rare Earth (written by Gonzalez's Washington colleagues paleontologist Peter Ward and astronomer Donald E. Brownlee), but it goes against "the consensus of astrobiologists in adopting the Rare Earth position." [3]

Film

The book served as the basis for a movie by the same name. The Institute donated $16,000 to the Smithsonian Institution, which according to policy, must allow a special event on its premises. The Institute chose to show the film at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian withdrew its cosponsorship, stating: "We have determined that the content of the film is not consistent with the mission of the Smithsonian Institution's scientific research." They allowed the film to be shown but turned down the payment. [3]

Charles G. Lambdin reviewed the film, concluding that while life on planets may be remote, there are a lot of planets and "Using Gonzalez and Richard’s own odds of habitability, this suggests that there may be one billion habitable planets due to chance alone." [4] He also argued that the film's claim that the fact that we can do science at all suggests the universe was designed so that we can understand it is no different than the old quip that the nose must have been designed so that we can wear spectacles.

According to IMDb, it is distributed and produced by Illustra Media and Randolph Productions. [5]

Tenure controversy

The Institute has alleged that the book is "at the heart of the attacks on Iowa State University astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez" and played a role in his denial of tenure and that it provoked 124 of Gonzalez's faculty colleagues to sign a petition in 2005 denouncing intelligent design and urging all other faculty members to do the same. [6] [7] The statement did not mention Guillermo Gonzalez or his involvement with the creationism movement, and faculty members, including Hector Avalos have denied that the statement was directed at Guillermo Gonzalez.

Related Research Articles

Extraterrestrial life Hypothetical life that may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth

Extraterrestrial life, colloquially referred to as alien life, is life that may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected, although efforts are underway. Such life might range from simple forms comparable to prokaryotes, to intelligent beings, possibly bringing forth civilizations that might be far more advanced than humankind. The Drake equation speculates about the existence of sapient life elsewhere in the universe. The science of extraterrestrial life in all its forms is known as astrobiology, the multidisciplinary field that investigates the deterministic conditions and contingent events with which life arises, distributes, and evolves in the universe.

Intelligent design Pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God

Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins". Proponents claim that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." ID is a form of creationism that lacks empirical support and offers no testable or tenable hypotheses, and is therefore not science. The leading proponents of ID are associated with the Discovery Institute, a Christian, politically conservative think tank based in the United States.

William A. Dembski American mathematician

William Albert Dembski is an American mathematician, philosopher and theologian. He was a proponent of intelligent design (ID) pseudoscience, specifically the concept of specified complexity, and was a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture (CSC). On September 23, 2016, he officially retired from intelligent design, resigning all his "formal associations with the ID community, including [his] Discovery Institute fellowship of 20 years". A February 2021 interview in the CSC's blog Evolution News announced "his return to the intelligent design arena".

Owen Jay Gingerich is professor emeritus of astronomy and of the history of science at Harvard University and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In addition to his research and teaching, he has written many books on the history of astronomy.

Rare Earth hypothesis Hypothesis that complex extraterrestrial life is improbable and extremely rare

In planetary astronomy and astrobiology, the Rare Earth hypothesis argues that the origin of life and the evolution of biological complexity such as sexually reproducing, multicellular organisms on Earth required an improbable combination of astrophysical and geological events and circumstances.

Center for Science and Culture Part of the Discovery Institute

The Center for Science and Culture (CSC), formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC), is part of the Discovery Institute (DI), a conservative Christian think tank in the United States. The CSC lobbies for the inclusion of creationism in the form of intelligent design (ID) in public-school science curricula as an explanation for the origins of life and the universe while trying to cast doubt on the theory of evolution. These positions have been rejected by the scientific community, which identifies intelligent design as pseudoscientific neo-creationism, whereas the theory of evolution is overwhelmingly accepted as a matter of scientific consensus.

Intelligent design movement Neo-creationist religious campaign

The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the pseudoscientific idea of intelligent design (ID), which asserts that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." Its chief activities are a campaign to promote public awareness of this concept, the lobbying of policymakers to include its teaching in high school science classes, and legal action, either to defend such teaching or to remove barriers otherwise preventing it. The movement arose out of the creation science movement in the United States, and is driven by a small group of proponents.

Hugh Ross (astrophysicist) Canadian Astrophysicist

Hugh Norman Ross is a Canadian astrophysicist, Christian apologist, and old-Earth creationist.

The Sternberg peer review controversy concerns the conflict arising from the publication of an article supporting pseudoscientific intelligent design creationism in a scientific journal, and the subsequent questions of whether proper editorial procedures had been followed and whether it was properly peer reviewed.

Paul A. Nelson is an American philosopher, noted for his advocacy of the pseudosciences of young earth creationism and intelligent design.

Guillermo Gonzalez is an astronomer, a proponent of the pseudoscientific principle of intelligent design, and a research scientist at the University of Alabama-Huntsville. He is a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, considered the hub of the intelligent design movement, and a fellow with the International Society for Complexity, Information and Design, which also promotes intelligent design.

A Scientific Support for Darwinism was a four-day, word-of-mouth petition of scientists in support of evolution. Inspired by Project Steve, it was initiated in 2005 by archaeologist R. Joe Brandon to produce a public response to the Discovery Institute's 2001 petition A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism.

A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism Statement issued in 2001 by the Discovery Institute

"A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism" was a statement issued in 2001 by the Discovery Institute, a Christian, conservative think tank based in Seattle, Washington, U.S., best known for its promotion of the pseudoscientific principle of intelligent design. As part of the Discovery Institute's Teach the Controversy campaign, the statement expresses skepticism about the ability of random mutations and natural selection to account for the complexity of life, and encourages careful examination of the evidence for "Darwinism", a term intelligent design proponents use to refer to evolution.

Michael John Denton is a British-Australian proponent of intelligent design and a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. He holds a PhD degree in biochemistry. Denton's book, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, inspired intelligent design proponents Phillip Johnson and Michael Behe.

<i>Creationisms Trojan Horse</i> 2004 book by Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross

Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design is a 2004 book by Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross on the origins of intelligent design, specifically the Discovery Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture and its wedge strategy. The authors are highly critical of what they refer to as intelligent design creationism, and document the intelligent design movement's fundamentalist Christian origins and funding.

Victor J. Stenger American particle physicist, author, and religious skeptic (1935–2014)

Victor John Stenger was an American particle physicist, philosopher, author, and religious skeptic.

Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns Campaigns which seek to promote intelligent design creationism

The Discovery Institute has conducted a series of related public relations campaigns which seek to promote intelligent design while attempting to discredit evolutionary biology, which the Institute terms "Darwinism." The Discovery Institute promotes the pseudoscientific intelligent design movement and is represented by Creative Response Concepts, a public relations firm.

Jay Wesley Richards is an American analytic philosopher who focuses on the intersection of politics, philosophy, and religion. He is the William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow in Heritage’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation. He serves as an adjunct professor in the School of Business at the Catholic University of America and the executive editor of The Stream and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute. A former Presbyterian, Richards is now a Catholic.

<i>Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed</i> 2008 American documentary-style propaganda film

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a 2008 American documentary-style propaganda film directed by Nathan Frankowski and starring Ben Stein. The film contends that there is a conspiracy in academia to oppress and exclude people who believe in intelligent design. It portrays the scientific theory of evolution as a contributor to communism, fascism, atheism, eugenics and, in particular, Nazi atrocities in the Holocaust. Although intelligent design is a pseudoscientific religious idea, the film presents it as science-based, without giving a detailed definition of the concept or attempting to explain it on a scientific level. Other than briefly addressing issues of irreducible complexity, Expelled examines intelligent design purely as a political issue.

<i>Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe</i> 2000 book by Peter Ward and Donald E. Brownlee

Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe is a 2000 popular science book about xenobiology by Peter Ward, a geologist and evolutionary biologist, and Donald E. Brownlee, a cosmologist and astrobiologist. The book is the origin of the term 'Rare Earth Hypothesis' which, like the book's authors, assert that complex life is rare in the universe.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Privileged Planet". Archived from the original on 2013-06-04. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
  2. ↑ "Review of The Privileged Planet". National Center for Science Education. July 2005. Retrieved 2006-10-18.
  3. 1 2 Stenger, Victor (Sep 2005). "Reality Check: The Privileged Planet". Skeptical Briefs. Archived from the original on December 6, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-18.
  4. ↑ "Creationism by Any Other Name". Skeptic (U.S. magazine). January 9, 2006. Retrieved 2009-04-18.
  5. ↑ "The Privileged Planet". IMDb .
  6. ↑ The Spiritual Brain, p. 25
  7. ↑ "ID petition". Archived from the original on 2012-07-21. Retrieved 2011-12-09.
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