Signature in the Cell by Stephen C. Meyer

Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design; Stephen C. Meyer; Copyright 2009; HarperCollins, publishers.


Signature in the Cell by Dr. Stephen C. Meyer is a great book. Although Cambridge educated Dr. Meyer is a relatively young man, the book can be described as a life work.

In the book Dr. Meyer records chronologically his personal quest for the best scientific explanation of the origin of life. His field of science is what he terms historical. He defines and describes this branch of science in detail and identifies its principles of operation as being similar to the principles Darwin used in arriving at his conclusions.

The historical sciences, as opposed to the experimental sciences, include geology, evolutionary biology, and paleontology. Physics and chemistry, on the other hand, are experimental sciences. While experimental sciences perform experiments under controlled laboratory conditions, the theories of historical sciences are tested by evaluating their explanatory power, that is, their ability to causally explain the phenomena of nature we see around us.

Dr. Meyer presents the argument for intelligent design historically; that is, he seeks to prove that intelligent design provides the best explanation for the extremely high levels of chemical and informational complexity which recent science has discovered in the DNA of all living cells, including the simplest.

As Dr. Meyer unfolds his own personal search for the best explanation of the origin of life, he takes the reader along on a comprehensive and in-depth journey into the history of the life sciences over the past century, including the famous Watson-Crick model of the double helix in DNA. The autobiographical elements make the otherwise technical text read like a "whodunit?" of molecular cellular biology.

Dr. Meyer is also an educator, and in his book he uses a teacher's techniques of repetition and analogy to develop his points. But, after using an analogy as a springboard to illustrate a scientific concept, he always teaches the science the analogy is meant to illustrate. Because of his down-home style of writing, Signature in the Cell presents the main principles of the explanations of origin of life research in a way that both scientists and lay people can readily understand.

One of the main premises of origin of life theory that Dr. Meyer establishes is that modern, molecular-cellular biological research has shown a complexity of form and information that all the probabilistic resources of the entire universe from its initial inception to the present can not account for. In other words, in order for non-living material to get to even the most elementary, most simple living cell by means of random, non-intelligent, naturally occurring events would require a probability so small that in the entire history of the universe there is neither enough time nor matter for such a probability to occur. Dr. Meyer explains this fact of existence in the greatest of detail. His book is long.

His book is also complete. He covers the many explanations for the origin of life from many different angles and multiple perspectives. He leaves no leaf, no major experiment unturned. He explains how evolution does not address the issue of life's origin, simply because natural selection can only begin to operate after life is already reproducing itself. Before life, there is no natural selection, only random processes or an intelligent designer.

Dr. Meyer shows just how it is that recent laboratory and computer based experiments that attempt to recreate a possible random-only scenario for a pathway from non-living to living fall short of being the best explanation. He shows in great detail just why intelligent design remains the best explanation for the origin of life.

Critics of intelligent design often say that it is not science. Dr. Meyer holds a PhD from Cambridge University, which he earned as he studied the various theories and experiments dealing with the origin of the first life. He is not a stupid man. He devotes an entire chapter in his book to addressing and correcting the criticisms which deny that intelligent design is a science. 

Dr. Meyer applies and compares the scientific principles inherent in the explanatory power of intelligent design with the very same scientific principles used by theorists of life's origin by non-intelligent means. In doing so, he logically proves and demonstrates how a consistent, fair use of the same scientific principles favors an intelligent cause as the best explanation for the origin of life.

In comparing Dr. Meyer's Signature in the Cell  with Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, I can find no positive comparisons. While Dawkins insults, rants, raves, and asserts, Dr. Meyer explains, defines, illustrates, and uses painstakingly consistent logic to prove his points according to the strictest of pre-defined historical scientific principles. While Dawkins uses analogy, he does not always explain the actual science the analogy is meant to describe. Dr. Meyer does give scientific explanations of the science behind the analogies he uses. While Dawkins' book is full of arrogant pomposity and emotional attacks, the lowest Dr. Meyer stoops is to quote a mild but very witty You-Tube video that pokes fun at Dawkins [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QERyh9YYEis ].

Anyone subscribing to intelligent design who has ever felt intimidated by the published attacks and bashing on the part of so-called scientists, those who define science as only that which produces conclusions that match their own worldview, should find Dr. Meyer's book absolutely refreshing. Here is a scientific work by an intellectual giant who uses the same methods and definitions which the materialistic-only scientists themselves use, but with far different results. Dr. Meyer's book Signature in the Cell is a great book. It's very enjoyable. I highly recommend it.