Intelligent Design Is the Backdrop for a Dan Brown-Style Thriller -- Bruce Buff's The Soul of the Matter

Intelligent design means different things to different people. In reality, it's a sober, meticulous theory of biological and cosmic origins. Starting with the failures of materialism in explaining life and the universe, it goes on to infer that the best available explanation suggests purposeful guidance. For all its modest refusal to draw conclusions beyond the scientific evidence, ID has far-reaching implications that unnerve, even unhinge some individuals.

To observers in the media and aca...