Jay Richards

Jay Wesley Richards is an American analytic philosopher and intelligent design advocate.^[1][2][3][4] He is a distinguished fellow at the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics, a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute, and formerly the Program Director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture (CSC).^[5][6] Richards is a former faculty member at Biola University, where he taught apologetics.^[7]

Biography

Richards hold a B.A. with majors in political science and religion, and Master of Divinity (M.Div.) and Master of Theology (Th.M.) degrees. His Ph.D. (with honors) is in philosophy and theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the author of numerous scholarly and popular articles, as well as four books, including The Untamed God and The Privileged Planet. Richards has been known for his intelligent design advocacy since 1996. The Privileged Planet was co-authored with astronomer and fellow CSC Senior Fellow Guillermo Gonzalez.

Richards was the first fellow at the Discovery Institute to confirm the genuineness of the Wedge document.^[8] Science organizations then paid attention to the Institute after the document was published online, but Richards wrote "that the mission statement and goals had been posted on the CRSC's website since 1996."^[9] Richards has expressed skepticism of global warming.^[10][11]

Debate with Christopher Hitchens

In January 2008 at Stanford University Jay Richards had a debate with a leading Atheist, Christopher Hitchens, on the topic: Atheism vs. Theism and The Scientific Evidence of Intelligent Design. It was moderated by Ben Stein. The debate led up to the release of Ben Stein's movie "Expelled".

During the debate, Mr. Richards made statements that he believed that the laws of nature could be altered at the will of God. In answer to direct questions by Mr. Hitchens, Mr. Richards stated that he believed that Jesus born of a virgin, and that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. However, he also stated that he was unsure if mohammed made a night journey to Jerusalem flying on a horse.^[12]

Drawing similarity to God being able to violate natures law at will, Mr. Richards asked the rhetorical question, "Just because I throw a pen in the air and then catch it, have I violated the laws of gravity because I stopped it from dropping to the ground? No, of course not. Why not? Because the laws of physics we talk about are sort of generalizations."^[13]

Bibliography

• Are We Spiritual Machines?: Ray Kurzweil vs. the Critics of Strong A.I. by Jay W. Richards, George Gilder, Ray Kurzweil, Thomas Ray, John Searle, William Dembski, Michael Denton. Discovery Institute. ISBN 0-9638654-3-9
• The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery by Guillermo Gonzalez, Jay W. Richards, Regnery Publishing, Inc., Washington D.C., March 2004, ISBN 0-89526-065-4
• The Untamed God: A Philosophical Exploration of Divine Perfection, Immutability and Simplicity by Jay Wesley Richards, InterVarsity Press, October 2003, ISBN 0-8308-2734-X
• Unapologetic Apologetics: Meeting the Challenges of Theological Studies. William A. Dembski, Jay Wesley Richards. Downer's Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8308-1563-5
• Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem. New York: HarperOne, 2009. ISBN 978-0-06-137561-3

References

External links

• Jay Richards from Discovery Institute
• Jay Richards from Institute for Faith, Work & Economics (IFWE)