''The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery'' is a 2004 book by Guillermo Gonzalez and

Jay Richards Jay Wesley Richards is an American analytic philosopher who focuses on the intersection of politics, philosophy, and religion. He is the William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow in Heritage’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heri ...

, in which the authors claim scientific evidence for

intelligent design Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins". Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured headlines for its bold attempt to ...

. Both Gonzalez and Richards are associated with the

Discovery Institute The Discovery Institute (DI) is a politically conservative non-profit think tank based in Seattle, Washington, that advocates the pseudoscientific concept Article available froUniversiteit Gent/ref> of intelligent design (ID). It was founded ...

, identified with the

intelligent design movement The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the pseudoscientific Article available froUniversiteit Gent/ref> idea of intelligent design (ID), which ...

; Gonzalez works as a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's

Center for Science and Culture The Center for Science and Culture (CSC), formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC), is part of the Discovery Institute (DI), a conservative Christian think tank in the United States. The CSC lobbies for the in ...

Reception

This book has proven to be highly controversial within the scientific community. Positive reviews:

Owen Gingerich Owen Jay Gingerich (; born 1930) is professor emeritus of astronomy and of the history of science at Harvard University and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In addition to his research and teaching, he has ...

, astronomer and historian of science, reviews the book explaining "This thoughtful, delightfully contrarian book will rile up those who believe the '

Copernican principle In physical cosmology, the Copernican principle states that humans, on the Earth or in the Solar System, are not privileged observers of the universe, that observations from the Earth are representative of observations from the average position ...

' is an essential philosophical component of modern science. Is our universe designedly congenial to intelligent, observing life? Passionate advocates of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) will find much to ponder in this carefully documented analysis."

Philip Skell Philip S. Skell (December 30, 1918 – November 21, 2010) was an American chemist, emeritus Evan Pugh Professor at Pennsylvania State University, and from 1977 a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. Biography Skell was born in ...

reviewed the book writing "In this fascinating and highly original book, Guillermo Gonzalez and

advance a persuasive argument, and marshal a wealth of diverse scientific evidence to justify that argument. In the process, they effectively challenge several popular assumptions, not only about the nature and history of science, but also about the nature and origin of the cosmos. The Privileged Planet will be impossible to ignore. It is likely to change the way we view both the scientific enterprise and the world around us. I recommend it highly." Negative reviews:

William H. Jefferys William Hamilton Jefferys III (born 1940) is an American astronomer. He is a Harlan J. Smith Centennial Professor of Astronomy (Emeritus) of astronomy at The University of Texas at Austin, and an adjunct professor of statistics at the University ...

, an astronomer, reviewed the book writing "the little that is new in this book isn't interesting, and what is old is just old-hat

creationism Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 't ...

in a new, modern-looking astronomical costume."

Victor J. Stenger Victor John Stenger (; January 29, 1935 – August 25, 2014) was an American particle physicist, philosopher, author, and religious skeptic. Following a career as a research scientist in the field of particle physics, Stenger was associated ...

, a physicist and philosopher, reviewed the book explaining that it not only "ignores" the 2000 book '' Rare Earth'' (written by Gonzalez's Washington colleagues paleontologist Peter Ward and astronomer

Donald E. Brownlee Donald Eugene Brownlee (born December 21, 1943) is a professor of astronomy at the University of Washington at Seattle and the principal investigator for NASA's Stardust mission. In 2000, along with his co-author Peter Ward, he co-originated the ...

), but it goes against "the consensus of astrobiologists in adopting the Rare Earth position."

Film

The book served as the basis for a movie by the same name. The Institute donated $16,000 to the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, which according to policy, must allow a special event on its premises. The Institute chose to show the film at the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian withdrew its cosponsorship, stating: "We have determined that the content of the film is not consistent with the mission of the Smithsonian Institution's scientific research." They allowed the film to be shown but turned down the payment. Charles G. Lambdin reviewed the film, concluding that while life on planets may be remote, there are a lot of planets and "Using Gonzalez and Richard’s own odds of habitability, this suggests that there may be one billion habitable planets due to chance alone." He also argued that the film's claim that the fact that we can do science at all suggests the universe was designed so that we can understand it is no different than the old quip that the nose must have been designed so that we can wear spectacles. According to

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

, it is distributed and produced by ''Illustra Media'' and ''Randolph Productions''.

Tenure controversy

The Institute has alleged that the book is "at the heart of the attacks on Iowa State University astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez" and played a role in his denial of tenure and that it provoked 124 of Gonzalez's faculty colleagues to sign a petition in 2005 denouncing intelligent design and urging all other faculty members to do the same. The statement did not mention Guillermo Gonzalez or his involvement with the creationism movement, and faculty members, including

Hector Avalos Hector Avalos (October 8, 1958 – April 12, 2021) was a professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University, cultural anthropologist, and the author of several books on religion.

have denied that the statement was directed at Guillermo Gonzalez.

References

External links

The Privileged Planet Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Privileged Planet 2004 non-fiction books English-language books Intelligent design books Regnery Publishing books 2004 films