Dogmatic Signs
For anyone who wants to understand the argument for the necessary role of intelligent design in the history of life, the indispensable source is now Stephen C. Meyer’s book Signature in the Cell (HarperOne, 2009). For cultural reasons, when arguments for the validity of Darwin’s theory of evolution have been made in the past, emphasis has often been placed on the question of human descent from ape-like ancestors. Meyers’s book, in contrast, directs attention to the scientifically most important subject: the origin of the cell and its complex molecular mechanisms.
Meyers’s analysis is based on facts about the cell that are well-known and uncontroversial in the scientific enterprise. From these facts, he proceeds to infer the best explanation for what we know to be present in the cell. This explanation has to include a role for an intelligent cause because the cell is replete with complex, specified information in digital form. In our uniform experience, we know that such information is produced only by a pre-existing intelligence.
A Peculiar Basis of Attack
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Phillip E. Johnson is Professor of Law (emeritus) at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of Darwin on Trial, The Wedge of Truth, The Right Questions (InterVarsity Press), and other books challenging the naturalistic assumptions that dominate modern culture. He is a contributing editor of Touchstone.
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
32.1—January/February 2019
The Diabolical Failure of Leaders in the Present Crises by James M. Kushiner
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
