Stephen C. Meyer on “The Story of Everything”
In 50 BC, the great Roman statesman Cicero expressed a thought that has been echoed by thinkers down the generations: “The celestial order and beauty of the universe compel me to admit that there is some excellent and eternal Being who deserves the respect and homage of men.”
But in our own day, the evolutionary biologist and atheism proselytizer Richard Dawkins has claimed, “The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.” Dawkins believes that complex life and the cosmos arose through gradual, evolutionary mechanisms, not through any influence of a creator or purposeful creation.
But which worldview does the scientific evidence support? Ever since the time of Charles Darwin, the predominate philosophical approach within the scientific establishment supported the Dawkins perspective. But that consensus has crumbled. Today, the view that there is an intelligence behind it — a Creator — is receiving ever greater acceptance within the scientific community.
Wesley’s guest on this episode is Discovery Institute’s Director of the Center on Science and Culture, Dr. Stephen C. Meyer. Meyer is the most prominent advocate for what is known as intelligent design. He authored Return of the God Hypothesis, which presents at length the extensive scientific evidence pointing toward “a transcendent Mind” as having created the universe, a thesis that has now been made into a new feature-length documentary, The Story of Everything.
Meyer received his Ph.D. in philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge and is a former geophysicist and college professor. In addition to Return of the God Hypothesis, he authored Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, which was named a Book of the Year for 2009 by the Times of London, and Darwin’s Doubt.
Meyer has also published editorials in national newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the National Post (of Canada), the Daily Telegraph (of London) and the Los Angeles Times. He has appeared on national television and radio programs such as NBC Nightly News, ABC Nightly News, CBS Sunday Morning, Nightline, and Good Morning America. He was recently seen by millions of viewers in an extended interview on the Joe Rogan podcast.
This is Meyer’s third appearance on this podcast.
Show Notes
- The Story of Everything Official Trailer | YouTube
- Return of the God Hypothesis by Stephen C. Meyer | Website
- “Dr. Stephen C. Meyer on the ‘God Hypothesis’ and the Materialists’ Increasingly Fringe Rationales for Life and the Universe” | Humanize
- Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design by Stephen C. Meyer | Website
- Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design by Stephen C. Meyer | Website