Information Related to "Our Privileged Place in the Universe"
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Dr. Jay Richards of the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based scientific think tank on intelligent design, is coauthor of the 2004 book The Privileged Planet. He is currently research fellow and director of Acton Media at the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dr. Richards has a Ph.D. in philosophy and theology from Princeton Theological Seminary, a Th.M. from Calvin Theological Seminary and a M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia.
The Good News: Dr. Richards, what inspired you the most to write The Privileged Planet?
Jay Richards: The book started when Guillermo Gonzalez and I first met in 1999. I noticed he was an astronomer at the University of Washington and I was at the Discovery Institute in Seattle, so I called him. Eventually we formulated a hypothesis: If you go through the list of the important things needed for habitability, do they contribute to the best conditions overall for scientific discovery?
It was that idea that intrigued us because we knew that if it was right, there would be a fundamentally new type of design argument that could be made. It would focus not only on the idea that the universe is designed for complex life, but that it was designed for discovery as well.
GN: What was the most amazing discovery you found in the research for your book?
JR: There probably was nothing as intriguing as the eclipse illustration itself with all the coincidences of size and position that have to be just right—if only because everyone is familiar with the idea of eclipses, and most people who have experienced eclipses have, frankly, a spiritual experience. It has been used in Western art for centuries.
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