Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design

by Stephen C. Meyer

Book Overview

"Signature in the Cell is a defining work in the discussion of life's origins and the question of whether life is a product of unthinking matter or of an intelligent mind. For those who disagree with ID, the powerful case Meyer presents cannot be ignored in any honest debate. For those who may be sympathetic to ID, on the fence, or merely curious, this book is an engaging, eye-opening, and often eye-popping read" -- American Spectator

Named...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061472794
• ISBN13: 9780061472794
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 624 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

What is the Premise of Intelligent Design?

Stephen Meyer answers this question. But why was the creation of this excellent work necessary? What could motivate Stephen Meyer to make himself (and his family) a target for the inevitable derogation and questioning of his credentials, intellect and character? The simple fact is this; the evolutionists have declared war on any thought not of their origin, indeed academia is generally intolerant of any ideas not of their creation, aggressively intolerant. A recent quote by one of the god's of evolutionary dogma; "It is absolutely safe to say, that if you meet somebody who does not to believe in evolution that person is ignorant, stupid or insane", the tone of this sediment is ubiquitous. That the disagreement between divergent points of view has been passionate is nothing new, the tone and overt antagonism from those with a naturalist view point, perhaps is. The purpose of this tactic is to shut down any discussion or disagreement with their orthodoxy; this to me displays a lack of confidence with the premise of their belief and argument, obfuscation by derogation. Stephen Meyer not only explains with clarity why what the evolutionists believe is simply not possible or even remotely possible, but gives creditable proof of design, intent and purpose in the architecture of cells. The hostility towards Meyer in exposing the inherent flaws in the theory of evolution take a tone of religious zealotry. The false superiority, arrogance and condescension of the vast majority scientist and academics make this work (and others like it) necessary. This work begins with the concept of what is the best explanation possible for the origin of life based on "historical scientific reasoning". To answer this question Meyer reviews many origin of life theories, specifically relating to DNA and RNA. He dissects each of these theories, the end result for nearly all of these ideas is that they are based on certain amounts of specified information existing as a premise for the subsequent parts of the theory to function, in other words they do not explain or solve the problem of where biological information comes from, but simply displace the problem, I will not bore you with the details of the competing theories. Meyer goes on to give a very detailed (and extremely interesting) probability analysis regarding the possibility for even one functioning protein to come into existence simply by chance at 10/164, to put that number in some kind of perspective, there are only 10/65 atoms in the known universe. Meyer further explains how at least two hundred different kinds of proteins are necessary for the simplest cell to exist, which would then put the probability of one cell existing by chance at 10/41,000, this is an order of magnitude more than the probabilistic resources of the entire universe. He then quotes recent work by James Brook and Gordon Shaw regarding geological and geochemical evidence for the prebiotic atmospheric conditions being friendly or not, for th

Finally an Authoritative Resource for "Origins of Life"

I am a public school classroom science teacher. Finally a resource by a scientist with impeccable credentials. Myers has created a very clear and extremely well documented resource for "Origins of Life". His "Signature in the Cell" replaces and adds to my copious notes written over 50 years of study. Particularly unique and important to me is his looking at the big picture from the beginning to present & then in making predictions of the future. He does this through the eyes of an expert in many disciplines. It is a great starting point for a fresh look at "Origins of Life" without the baggage of "Don't confuse me with facts my mind is already made up!"

It's now time for software engineers to step up

Intuitively, for anyone who has written more than 10 lines of computer code that actually did something, considering the DNA code; several billion lines long, written in 3D with chemicals instead of 0's and 1's, error checking, error correcting, very small, very efficient, replicating, and most important a working program (with consciousness and self awareness as a bonus), denying the fact that an intelligence wrote the first code is intellectual prostitution. The biology departments at our august learning institutions need to be subsumed by the computer science departments and the emphasis should be on reverse engineering the code and teaching software engineers more chemistry so they can try designing similar type code. Many professor-tutes are wasting the people's time and money waging a reborn inquisition trying, I assume, to protect their position, job and/or funding. Please shut up, learn the code and share the code's information with the rest of us. It is a crime that some noisy biologists are using the force of law, with help from the ACLU!?![pages 432-433], to garrucha, toca and potro [torture] those who dare to challenge CURRENT biological orthodoxy. Opposition to Dr. Meyer has been Climategate times ten, going after teaching and editorial positions, refusing publication and hiding or losing the source data. This is a very good book. The DNA program is not just very good, it is spectacular and I would like to learn more about what each part does and why. (Is it possible there are any comment/remark statements in the code?)

Positive case for design

First a note on the reviews I have been reading on this book: A lot of the one star book reviews seem to be attacking Dr. Meyers, and not the topic of his book. Please let us get something out of the way up front. "Signature of the Cell" is not about Stephen Meyer, the Discovery Institute or God for that matter. It is about an argument, and a lot of the negative (and positive, let's be honest) reviews seem to overlook this fact. There is a lot of spin on both sides of the Intelligent Design debate. One side often states that Judge Jones III was appointed by George W Bush, while another side makes certain we know that Judge Jones III was previously a former Head of a Liquor Control Board. Please let us approach this topic with reason and give our honest-if biased-opinions. In "Signature in the Cell", Dr. Meyers walks us through what information is and the different ways information is defined, created and discovered. He also goes into great detail on probability theory and the history of scientific reasoning. He then lays out the history of origins of life research including a fascinating exposition of the discovery of the DNA double helix, and the surprise of specified information that lies within. Dr. Meyers argues why the current OOL theories fail to explain how the first cell could have arisen by chance alone due to the insufficient probabilistic resources (temporal as well as physical) of the universe. He further argues why self organization/bio-chemical predestination models do not provide an adequate explanation for the origin of life. He also explains why the RNA world and other current models fail to explain the OOL, or what Dr Meyers calls the "DNA enigma" The DNA Enigma is that which researchers have not been able to uncover. That is, the origin of specified information or digital code in every living cell. The information in the DNA molecule is not only complex, but has specified complexity. All of the current OOL models Dr. Meyer critiques contain what he terms the "displacement problem" That is they push back the source of the information or assume that the information simply occured or merely ignore the source, and put it on the back burner. In the book Dr. Meyers explains why evolutionary computer simulations and that why trying to manufacture "life in the lab" are actually very good examples of ID and are ideal cases for design theory. Dr. Meyer does not make an appeal from ignorance or a "God of the Gaps" argument, but makes a positive case for design in OOL. Dr. Meyer appeals to the same historical branch of science that Darwin employed, and argues that if ID theory is arbitrarily deemed unscientific then Darwin's theory would fail to be classified as scientific on the same reasoning. For those that say that "ID is not science", please read chapter 18 of the book-"But is it Science?" Following are the headings for the reasons Dr. Meyers regards ID as science, specifically historically scientific..