ABSTRACT

For a thing to be real, it must be able to communicate with other things. If this is so, then the problem of being receives a straightforward resolution: to be is to be in communion. So the fundamental science, indeed the science that needs to underwrite all other sciences, is a theory of communication. Within such a theory of communication the proper object of study becomes not isolated particles but the information that passes between entities. In Being as Communion philosopher and mathematician William Dembski provides a non-technical overview of his work on information. Dembski attempts to make good on the promise of John Wheeler, Paul Davies, and others that information is poised to replace matter as the primary stuff of reality. With profound implications for theology and metaphysics, Being as Communion develops a relational ontology that is at once congenial to science and open to teleology in nature. All those interested in the intersections of theology, philosophy and science should read this book.

chapter 1|10 pages

The Challenge of a Material World

chapter 2|6 pages

Free Will: The Power of No

chapter 3|8 pages

Information as Ruling Out Possibilities

chapter 4|4 pages

Possible Worlds

chapter 5|8 pages

Matrices of Possibility

chapter 6|4 pages

Measuring Information

chapter 7|6 pages

Information Theory

chapter 8|17 pages

Intelligence vs. Nature?

chapter 9|12 pages

Natural Teleological Laws

chapter 10|15 pages

Getting Matter from Information

chapter 11|6 pages

The Medium and the Message

chapter 12|6 pages

Embodiment and Transposition

chapter 13|10 pages

Energy

chapter 14|8 pages

An Informationally Porous Universe

chapter 15|4 pages

Determinism

chapter 16|20 pages

Contingency and Chance

chapter 17|14 pages

Search

chapter 18|16 pages

Conservation of Information

chapter 19|12 pages

Natural Selection

chapter 20|10 pages

The Creation of Information

chapter 21|8 pages

A World in Communion