In biology, where the Darwinian methodological battle is still being fought, there is a move now to reintroduce design as a bona fide scientific explanation. Dembski's book is an important document. It looks thoughtfully at the assumptions of modern scientific method and argues vigorously for the uselessness of naturalism, whether as a methodological or a metaphysical presupposition. Under scrutiny, Darwinism, too, becomes a genuinely failed research program, not a well-supported scientific theory, severely lacking in explanatory power. For Dembski, this is after all how intelligent design is connected with the logic of signs and why detecting design in the universe can turn out to follow a well-defined methodology within a scientific theory of information.
Intelligent design is the systematic study of intelligent causes and the effects they leave behind.
Naturalism, which pervades our academic discourse, leaves no room for a designing intelligence that does not conform to natural laws. On the contrary, argues Dembski, design can be effectively used in the explanatory sciences. Given that some objects are designed, the theory asks how they were produced, or could have been produced. Dembski, a Christian, brings this all together into a lively, palpable, contemporary debate on scientific methodology, metaphysics, and the poverty of a naturalistic world view. He weaves these themes together into a well-written, popularly presented platform for intellectual reform.