15 March 2007

Intelligent Design, Fine Tuning, and String Theory

  • In an lecture presented at the American Scientific Affiliation, Francis Collins, evangelical Christian and director of National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said that he opposes Intelligent Design and considers "the evidence in favor of evolution is overwhelming."
  • Reasons to Believe and the book The Privileged Planet, among others, cite "fine-tuning" of physical laws and constants, also known as the anthropic principle, as evidence of deficiencies in the currently accepted theories of the origin and development of the Universe. They claim that only an astronomically improbable set of constants and laws could have allowed life to exist in this Universe. New research by three theoretical physicists challenges that claim.
  • In a review of the book The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin, Physics World reviewer Michael Riordan claims that "string theory and intelligent design belong in the same speculative, unprovable category."
  • For more winsome and respectful scientific disagreement with Intelligent Design, see the National Center for Science Education, especially Project Steve.

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