Commentary

Over at Evolution News & Views, Dr. Jay Richards is weighing in with his thoughts on Signature In The Cell, in response to the beginning of a series of thoughtful reviews and discussion of the book over on Scott McKnight’s Jesus Creed blog at Beliefnet. Richards responds in part:  I’m familiar with McGrath and Conway Morris’s views, and think they have some merit; but I don’t think they offer an alternative that Meyer fails to address. Smoothing for inconsistencies in their proposals, their idea is basically that God hard-wired or “front-loaded” everything “in the beginning” as it were to give rise to complex life somewhere, while allowing for a lot of “freedom” and variation within the cosmos. (So they’re not hard determinists.)

Those who follow the debate over evolution will remember 2009 as the year Stephen Meyer’s Signature in the Cell convincingly made a new scientific case for intelligent design. In fact, according to Doug Groothuis, “Its publication may prove to be a decisive moment for the Intelligent Design movement. One could not ask for more in a philosophy of science treatise than what we find in The Signature in the Cell. The book is no less than magisterial, an adjective that curmudgeons such as myself seldom use. At every level—philosophical, scientific, historical and literary—it is a superb treatise. Reading every word of its 508 pages of text (not counting end notes)—as I did—repays the reader greatly. Meyer thoroughly examines a most significant topic—how life Read More ›

Salvo magazine has an excellent review of SITC in its latest issue, from science writer Heather Zeiger.  In what would be typical British understatement, Dr. Stephen Meyer calls DNA replication a “curiosity.” Here is the conundrum: DNA needs proteins to replicate, but these same proteins are encoded in DNA. So which came first? In his magnum opus, Signature in the Cell, Dr. Meyer puts on the table what went through my mind when I took my first biochemistry class: How did this closed loop get started? Whatever made the loop could not have made the first DNA molecule the same way that it is made now. And the DNA and protein interaction is just one of many closed loops in perhaps the Read More ›

[This response is crossposted from Biologos.org] No doubt it happens all the time. There must be many book reviews written by reviewers who have scarcely cracked the pages of the books they purport to review. But those who decide to write such blind reviews typically make at least some effort to acquire information about the book in question so they can describe its content accurately—if, for no other reason, than to avoid embarrassing themselves. Unfortunately, in his review of my book Signature in the Cell (titled ironically, “On Reading the Cell’s Signature”), eminent evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala does not appear to have even made a search for the crib notes online. Indeed, from reading his review it appears that he did little more than crack Read More ›

Last week on Dec. 2nd, Dr. Meyer was on Dennis Miller’s radio program to talk about his book. You can listen to the interview here.

Stephen Meyer has already made year-end lists with Signature in the Cell, an Amazon bestselling science book and one of Times Literary Supplement’s books of the year for 2009, but the latest news go far beyond that: Stephen Meyer has been named World Magazine’s “Daniel of the Year” for 2009: This fall Meyer came out with a full account of what science has learned in recent decades: Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (Harper One, 2009) shows that the cell is incredibly complex and the code that directs its functions wonderfully designed. His argument undercuts macroevolution, the theory that one kind of animal over time evolves into a very different kind. Meyer thus garners media scorn for raining on this year’s huge Read More ›

As part of the recognition of this being the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On The Origin of Species, CNN.com today published this piece by CSC Director Stephen C. Meyer.: Pro-Darwin consensus doesn’t rule out intelligent design STORY HIGHLIGHTS Stephen Meyer says there are scientific reasons to doubt consensus about Darwin’s theory Meyer: Fossil record challenges idea that organisms evolved from a single ancestor Meyer: There is compelling scientific evidence of actual intelligent design Darwin is the subject of adulation that teeters on the edge of hero worship, expressed in everything from scholarly seminars and lecture series to best-selling new atheist tracts like those by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. The atheists claim that Darwin disproved once and for all Read More ›

With the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species fast approaching, Dr. Meyer explains the holes in the theory of evolution and the magnificent ode to intelligent design. He discusses Darwin’s legacy, the science community’s reaction to intelligent design and more in this Q&A.

Today Amazon.com announced their bestselling books of 2009 and Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (HarperOne) by Dr. Stephen C. Meyer made the top ten in the science category. According to Amazon.com, books on its 2009 list of best sellers are “[r]anked according to customer orders through October. Only books published for the first time in 2009 are eligible.” The book’s publisher, HarperOne, reports that the book is entering its fifth printing in as many months, and continues to sell strongly both online and in stores.  “Here we are, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species, a book mistakenly assumed to have killed the design argument in science,” said Robert Crowther, director of communications at Discovery Read More ›