Stephen Meyer: There’s a “Powerful Signal of Design” in Nature
On this ID The Future, enjoy the concluding half of a remarkable and candid discussion on the limits of Darwinian evolution and the arguments for intelligent design. The conversation, recorded in 2019, is hosted by Peter Robinson for his program Uncommon Knowledge, and features philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer, mathematician and author Dr. David Berlinski, and Yale Professor of Computer Science Dr. David Gelernter.
In Part 2, the focus turns from the inadequacies of Darwin’s theory of evolution to the merits of intelligent design. Although all three men are in solid agreement that Darwinian evolution fails, they differ on the question of intelligent design. Berlinski’s attitude towards intelligent design is “warm but distant.” For Gelernter, questions of human suffering and the purposes of an intelligent designer give him pause: “I don’t look at the world as we know it as more likely the result of intelligence than random playing around,” Gelernter says. “There are wonderful things, but on the whole, I’d fail this world if I were grading it.”
Dr. Meyer, on the other hand, sees a powerful signal of design in the world, even as he acknowledges the suffering in it. He sees evidence of both aboriginal design as well as decay, which aligns not only with the scientific principle of entropy but also with the theology of a fallen world. This leads the conversation to the topic of consciousness, and finally to the search for new mechanisms to replace neo-Darwinism.
We are grateful to the producers of Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson, a production of The Hoover Institution at Stanford University, for permission to share this interview on ID The Future.
This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation.
Dig Deeper
- Read the essay by Dr. Gelernter that inspired this conversation: Giving Up Darwin
- Read the books that inspired Dr. Gelernter to give up Darwin: Stephen Meyer’s Darwin’s Doubt and David Berlinski’s The Deniable Darwin.