Nature’s Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe by Michael J. Denton (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 323 as superior? Or, finally, is theological dramatics an inadequate way of expressing the sacra doctrina? Nichols's sparkling exposition paves the way for such analysis. One imagines that Nichols himself, with characteristic acuity, will take up this challenge in the future. Ave Maria University Ypsilanti, Michigan MATIHEW LEVERING Nature's Destiny: How the Laws ofBiology Reveal Purpose in the Universe. By MICHAEL]. DENTON. New York: The Free Press, 1998. Pp. 448 $27.50 ISBN 0684845091. Michael Denton ambitiously presents us with a scientific version of the thesis that "all things in the material universe exist for man." He intends first to show that the "the cosmos is uniquely fit for life as it exists on earth and for organisms of design and biology very similar to our own species" (xiii). He also intends to examine the more problematic thesis that the laws of nature are fine-tuned to enable life's becoming. From the fitness of the universe for life's being and becoming, he argues in favor of the teleological claim that life and mankind are the goals to which the universe is ordered. In chapter 1 Denton examines evidence from physics that indicates that if a number of factors in the universe's development had been other than they are, carbon-based life could not exist. For example if the speed of expansion of the universe had been slightly greater or lesser than it was, matter would not have been able to accumulate into galaxies. In chapter 2 he cites the numerous properties that water has which make it ideal as a medium within which life processes can be carried out, and make it part of a hospitable environment for life. He points out, for example, six properties of water that are all means to the end of weathering, a process that is responsible for distributing throughout the hydrosphere the minerals upon which life depends. Chapter 3 is devoted to showing the fitness of light. Denton points out that the electromagnetic radiation of the sun is restricted to a tiny region of the total electromagnetic spectrum, equivalent to one card in a deck of 1025, and that the very same infinitely minute region is precisely that required for life. In addition both the atmospheric gases and water are opaque to all regions of the spectrum except this same tiny region. Denton concludes: "it is as if a card player had drawn precisely the same card on four occasions from a deck of 102-'" (60). Chapters 4-10 make a case that the table of elements, the earth, carbon, the gases 0 2 and COz, HC03, DNA, proteins, metals, and constituents of the cell, such as phospholipids, are fit for sustaining life. Summarizing is not helpful 324 BOOK REVIEWS here, since the case that Denton is making depends on the numerous details that he describes. What Denton is trying to show is that the very matter out of which living things and the environment upon which they depend have properties that fall within a very narrow range of precisely what living things need in order to live. Human artisans do not make the very matter of their artifacts, but may take matter which is already there and prepare it in ways that are appropriate for the artifact they intend to make; for example, an artisan takes clay and bakes it into tiles to give the clay the hardness and lack of porousness that is needed in a floor. Denton is examining the very building blocks of living things and their environment and showing how those things have features that make them especially suited for their roles. He is insistent that it is the number and specificity of properties that matter must have to make life possible that makes or breaks the teleological argument: "If the existence of life had been compatible with a greater range of values for the fundamental constants, or, in other words, if the design of the celestial machine could have been different at least to some degree and yet still have sustained life, then the teleological conclusion would be far weaker. It is the necessity that it be exactly as it is...