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by Joseph Renick (Author)
One of the most profound questions philosophers have asked throughout history is "What is the relationship between mankind and the universe?" Are we accidents of nature, meaningless aberrations on a speck of dust adrift in a vast, uncaring universe, or is there some deep transcendent meaning and purpose to our existence? Eminent scientists tell us that we live in a Godless world, that the universe, life and mankind are of natural origins and that our existence is nothing more than an accident of nature. Author Joseph Renick following a long and productive career as a research scientist, and with a lifelong interest in Christian apologetics, disagrees, arguing that a scientifically objective examination of the natural world reveals overwhelming evidence of the work of a creative intelligence. He makes his case, not through biblical apologetics, but through natural philosophy. His broad-ranging investigation includes ...
- an examination of the historical and philosophical roots of modern science;
- an exposure of the mythology of the so-called "War between Science and Religion";
- an analysis of the deceptive use of methodological naturalism as a constraint on scientific method;
- a review of the evidentiary foundations of evolutionary theory;
- an account of the origins of the intelligent design movement which emerged as a dissent within mainstream science from Darwin;
- a look into the dark side of Darwinism and its influence on the murderous totalitarian systems of the twentieth century;
- a review of the present crisis in physics and an introduction to recent work in classical physics that resolves that crisis, identifies dark matter, and has led to discovery of a clean, abundant and inexpensive new source of energy;
- a review of the natural law founding of the American Republic;
- an analysis of the poisonous influence of positivist epistemology on physics, judicial philosophy, political philosophy and moral philosophy in America;
- analysis of how positivist thinking has corrupted the judiciary; and ...
- recommended guidelines to restore objectivity and religious neutrality to origins science education in public schools.
Arguing fully within the bounds of the observational, experimental and inductive methodological tradition of Francis Bacon, he concludes that within the natural sciences the concepts of Law and Design are of the same cognitive category, both must be treated as natural causes, and that they are unified in nature around the centrality of the place of mankind in the cosmos. Far from proving that there is no ultimate meaning or purpose to our existence, scientific discovery in the biological and cosmological sciences reveals an extraordinary universe which is fine-tuned for life, leading to the stunning proposition that mankind is central to the meaning and purpose of the cosmos. We are left with good reason to believe that the Old Stories about Creation and Redemption just might be true.
