The Design of Life

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future events.
It may contain information of a tentative nature and the content may change dramatically as the event approaches and more information becomes available.

The Design of Life: Discovering Signs of Intelligence in Biological Systems is the proposed title of the upcoming third edition of a controversial school-level biology textbook that espouses the idea of intelligent design by presenting various arguments against the scientific theory of evolution.

Originally published in 1989 as Of Pandas and People (ISBN 0-914513-40-0), the book immediately came under fire as an attempt to teach creationism in public schools. The renaming followed in the wake of several legal challenges to the earlier editions. The publisher attempted to join the defense in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, arguing that a decision for the plaintiffs in that case would cause about half a million dollars in financial losses for the publisher.

A 2004 announcement from publisher Foundation for Thought and Ethics lists the authors as:

A proposed cover from 2007 lists Dembski and Wells as primary authors.

The preface is by Jon A. Buell. The epilogue claims that the arguments in the book have been badly distorted and "stereotyped" by detractors, citing the film Inherit the Wind as a major example.