A Decent Respect

From Telicom, Journal of the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry, Q1 2010, Book Review of Signature in the Cell by Stephen C. Meyer

excerpts:

“Stephen C. Meyer changes the game in the intelligent design fight with Signature in the Cell (SITC), a big book that methodically, but agreeably, constructs an argument that intelligence, in some unspecified form, is responsible for the bio-molecular machinery in the cell and, therefore, for first life…”

“With engaging whimsy, [Meyer] ingeniously adduces The Cat in the Hat as a metaphor for the displacement of one problem by another in a kind of continuing regress in which each highly improbable arrangement is explained by another. Readers will recall Dr. Seuss’s immortal sequel, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, in which our eponymous hero must triumph over the tenacious pink bathtub ring, the pink stuff that spreads from one household item to another as the Cat gamely concocts successive ploys to restore order before the parents return.

The target of this conceit is various theories, computer simulations and laboratory experiments conceived to explain biomolecular activity as the product of undirected processes.” [read more]