The Deniable Darwin: Stephen Meyer Interviews David Berlinski
On this ID The Future, philosopher of science and bestselling author Stephen Meyer invites us to join him for an intimate conversation with one of his dearest friends and longest-standing colleagues: mathematician, writer, and thinker Dr. David Berlinski. The occasion for the exchange was a recent gathering of Discovery Institute supporters and colleagues in Cambridge, England.
In this first half of the conversation, Meyer begins by recounting a dinner meeting he had with Berlinski in 2004. It wasn’t long after Richard Sternberg had been hounded out of his job at the Smithsonian Institution for daring to publish a paper by Meyer supportive of intelligent design. Meyer and Berlinski had some doubts at the time about the momentum of the ID movement, but by the end of the evening, Berlinski had managed to encourage Meyer that the future indeed looked bright.
At Meyer’s beckoning, Berlinski also walks us through the harrowing story of how his parents survived the Nazi threat during World War II and immigrated to New York, where Berlinski was born and grew up. He shares how he learned mathematics and when he began to take an interest in the mathematical challenges to evolutionary theory. Berlinski recalls that when he finally got around to reading On The Origin of Species in college, he was underwhelmed, calling the book long-winded, digressive, and unpersuasive. And he wasn’t alone in his assessment. Respected thinkers like MIT’s Murray Eden were also asking hard questions about Darwin’s theory. One memorable gathering on this topic was the 1966 Wistar Symposium, held in Philadelphia, where mathematicians and other scientists from related fields congregated to assess whether Neo-Darwinism is mathematically feasible.
This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look out for Part 2 next!
Dig Deeper
- Learn more about Dr. Berlinski’s work and order copies of his books at DavidBerlinski.org.
- Want to attend intimate conversations like these in person? Consider joining the Discovery Society!
- Watch Dr. Berlinski discuss the mathematical challenges to Darwinian evolution with Stephen Meyer and Yale polymath David Gelernter: