Stephen C. Meyer

Director, Center for Science and Culture

Stephen C. Meyer received his Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge. A former geophysicist and college professor, he now directs Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture in Seattle. He has authored the New York Times best seller Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design (HarperOne, 2013), Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (HarperOne, 2009), which was named a Book of the Year by the Times (of London) Literary Supplement in 2009, and now, Return of the God Hypothesis (HarperOne, 2021).

In his first book on intelligent design, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (HarperOne, 2009) Meyer examined the mystery of the origin of the first life. With Darwin’s Doubt, he has expanded the scope of the case for intelligent design to the whole sweep of life’s history. Meyer’s research addresses the deepest mystery surrounding the origin of life and the origin of animal life: the origin of biological information necessary to produce it.

Meyer graduated from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington, in 1981 with a degree in physics and earth science. He later became a geophysicist with Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) in Dallas, Texas. From 1981 to 1985, he worked for ARCO in digital signal processing and seismic survey interpretation. In 1986 as a Rotary International Scholar, he began his training in the history and philosophy of science at Cambridge University, earning an M.Phil. in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1991. His doctoral thesis was titled “Of Clues and Causes: A Methodological Interpretation of Origin-of-Life Research.”

He returned to Whitworth in the fall of 1990 to teach philosophy and the philosophy of science. He left a tenured position as a professor at Whitworth in 2002 to direct the Center for Science and Culture full time, which he had helped found with John West in 1996.

Prior to the publication of Signature in the Cell and Darwin’s Doubt, the writing for which Meyer was best known was an August 2004 review essay in the Smithsonian Institution-affiliated peer-reviewed biology journal Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. The article laid out the evidential case for intelligent design, presenting it as the best explanation for the origin of the biological information necessary to produce the new forms of animal life that arose abruptly during the Cambrian explosion.

Because the article was the first peer-reviewed publication arguing for intelligent design in a technical journal, it proved extremely controversial.  The journal’s editor, evolutionary biologist Richard Sternberg, was punished by his Smithsonian supervisors for allowing Meyer’s article into print. This led to the investigation of top Smithsonian personnel by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.  The controversy was widely covered in the media with articles or news stories appearing about it in The Wall Street Journal, Science, Nature, NPR, The O’Reilly Factor and the Washington Post. The federal investigation eventually concluded that Sternberg had been wrongly disciplined and intimidated.

Meyer’s many other publications include contributions to, and the editing of, the peer-reviewed volume Darwinism, Design and Public Education (Michigan State University Press, 2004) and the innovative textbook Explore Evolution (Hill House Publishers, 2007).

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 The Jim Lehrer News Hour, NBC Nightly News, ABC Nightly News, CBS Sunday Morning, Nightline, Fox News Live, Paula Zahn Now (CNN), Good Morning America and the Tavis Smiley Show on PBS.  He has also been featured in two New York Times front-page stories and has garnered attention in other top national media.

In 2008, he appeared with Ben Stein in the theatrical-released documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.  He has also been featured prominently in the science documentaries Icons of Evolution, The Case for a Creator, Darwin’s Dilemma and Unlocking The Mystery of Life, the latter which was shown on PBS and which Meyer co-wrote with producer Lad Allen.

Archives

Stephen Meyer: Scientific Arguments for a Theistic Worldview

Are there strong scientific arguments for theism? Is there such a thing as objective morality? How is a worldview built? On this ID The Future, philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer answers these questions and more in the first hour of a new two-hour interview on various topics related to his work and books. Dr. Meyer answers questions related to worldview, consciousness, arguments for theism, objective morality, materialism, the nature of information, and more. This is Part 1 of a two-part interview.

Stephen Meyer on the Crisis of Trust in Science

Is modern science a search for truth or a search for power? How can we restore public trust in the scientific enterprise? On this ID The Future, we're delighted to share a recent conversation between bioethicist Wesley J. Smith and philosopher of science Dr. Stephen C. Meyer. In an exchange that lasts just over an hour, Smith and Meyer touch on a variety of topics relevant to the public’s view of the scientific enterprise. This interview originally aired on the Humanize podcast.

Stephen Meyer: Evidence of Mind in The Natural World

Can we scientifically detect the activity of a mind behind the universe? On this ID The Future, philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer answers this question and more in the concluding hour of a new two-hour interview on various topics related to his work and books. Dr. Meyer discusses the problems with scientific materialism, the problems with quantum cosmological models, a good theology of nature, and more. This is Part 2 of a two-part interview.

Stephen Meyer: Has the West Forgotten God?

In today’s ID the Future philosopher Stephen Meyer revisits Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Templeton Prize speech from May 10, 1983, where Solzhenitsyn indicted the West for forgetting God. Meyer argues that Solzhenitsyn’s indictment is more timely than ever. But at the same time, there is today more scientific evidence than ever for the existence of a personal God, Meyer says, and the argument from intelligent design is a powerful means to awaken individuals to the presence of God and to renew culture. Meyer goes on to support those claims with concrete examples. Today’s episode is taken from a talk Dr. Meyer gave at the 2023 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. Meyer is author of the bestselling book Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries that Reveal the

Meyer, Behe, and Lennox on Science, God, and Darwin’s Other Doubt

On today’s ID the Future, Oxford’s John Lennox, Lehigh University’s Michael Behe, and Darwin’s Doubt author Stephen Meyer continue a probing conversation with host Peter Robinson on what they see as the growing evidence for intelligent design and the scientific and philosophical problems with Darwinian materialism. In this second half of their discussion, the foursome touch on everything from the genetic code and molecular biological machines to design reasoning, the history and philosophy of science, and what Meyer refers to as “Darwin’s other doubt.” Tune into to catch the many fascinating twists and turns in their conversation. And for additional stimulating content from Peter Robinson, head over to the “Uncommon Knowledge 2023” playlist on YouTube. This interview

From “Dover Beach” to Wokeness and Beyond

On today’s ID the Future, host Peter Robison continues a lively conversation with Douglas Murray, author of The War on the West, Tom Holland, author of Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, and Stephen Meyer, author of Return of the God Hypothesis. Here in the concluding part of the interview, the four consider English Victorian poet Matthew Arnold’s elegiac depiction of the West bereft of religious faith. What does this retreating “sea of faith” mean in practical terms for Western culture, and what path, if any, is there to a renewal of Western culture? Can we embrace the Christian ethical framework without belief in God, miracles, and the afterlife? Meyer warns that attempting to borrow some form of the Christian ethical framework without a reasonable faith

Tom Holland, Stephen Meyer, Douglas Murray: God and the West

On today’s ID the Future, Uncommon Knowledge host Peter Robinson talks with historian Tom Holland, journalist Douglas Murray, and philosopher of science Stephen Meyer about the decline of theistic faith in the West. Here in Part I of the conversation, the men consider possible causes for the decline of theistic faith. According to Meyer the decline has occurred in the face of increasing scientific evidence for the existence of God. So what gives? Tune in to hear their stimulating exploration of the question, and what each sees as the appropriate response. This material is used by permission of Peter Robinson and the Uncommon Knowledge

Stephen Meyer and Company Answer Questions about Science and Faith

On today’s ID the Future, philosopher of science Stephen Meyer, theologian Vern Poythress, engineer Stuart Burgess, and biologist Jonathan McLatchie answer questions about science and faith posed at the Westminster Conference on Science and Faith, held in the greater Philadelphia area. The session is moderated by Discovery Institute Vice President John West, and the conference jointly sponsored by Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and Westminster Theological Seminary. Panelists: Dr. Stuart Burgess has held academic posts at Bristol University (UK) and Cambridge University (UK), and published over 180 scientific publications on the science of design in engineering and biology. He also has received many national and international awards for design, including

Stephen Meyer: James Webb Telescope Supports the Big Bang

On this ID The Future, Return of the God Hypothesis author Stephen Meyer again speaks with radio host Michael Medved about the extraordinarily powerful new James Webb space telescope. One researcher, Eric Lerner, has claimed that what the Webb telescope is seeing many billions of light years away (and therefore, many billions of years in the past) undercuts the Big Bang theory. But according to Meyer, the new photographs coming back from Webb actually further confirm the reality that our universe had a beginning (“the Big Bang”) and that it has been expanding ever since. What these Webb images are forcing a rethink on, Meyer says, is the conventional wisdom among cosmologists on galaxy formation in the early universe. Meyer insists the evidence for a cosmic beginning is stronger than

Stephen Meyer: One God or Many Universes?

In this ID the Future, Stephen Meyer takes a deep dive into the case for not only intelligent design, but also for a designer of the cosmos who is immaterial, eternal, transcendent, and involved. Meyer draws on evidence for design at the origin of life, in the origin of plants and animals, and from the fine tuning of the laws and constants of chemistry and the initial conditions of the universe. He connects all this to the scientific evidence that the universe is not eternal but had a beginning—the Big Bang. What about the main materialistic alternative for explaining this suite of evidence—the idea that there is a multiverse with our universe just being one of the lucky universes with just the right conditions to allow for advanced life? In step-by-step fashion, Meyer walks

James Webb Telescope Goes Live: Stephen Meyer Reports

On today’s ID the Future, radio host Michael Medved sits down with Cambridge-trained philosopher of science Stephen Meyer to hear some exciting news about the newly active James Webb space telescope, a telescope dramatically more powerful than the already extraordinarily powerful Hubble space telescope. The James Webb telescope was launched by NASA last Christmas and has begun returning a stream of dramatic images. As Meyer explains, thanks to Webb we can now see farther into the distant universe than ever before, and the farther a telescope can see, the further into the past it can see. The James Webb telescope can see far enough to witness galaxies from the very early universe. Meyer says what Webb is revealing, and what astronomers and physicists have uncovered in the past several

Dr. Stephen Meyer Visits the Multiverse of Madness

On today’s ID the Future, radio host Michael Medved sits down with bestselling science author Stephen Meyer to discuss the Marvel movie Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Medved isn’t wild about the film, but he uses it as a springboard to dive into what he calls “the madness of the multiverse”—namely, the proposals in physics and cosmology for the idea that our universe is just one of many universes. Meyer explains some of the early motivations among twentieth-century physicists and cosmologists for proposing a multiverse. Then he turns to what he says is the main driver for interest in the multiverse in our day—a desire to explain away something that is deeply puzzling on the grounds of atheism, namely that the laws and constants of physics and chemistry are

Stephen Meyer — God Behind the Birth of Science and the Cosmos

On today’s ID the Future Return of the God Hypothesis author Stephen Meyer and radio host Michael Medved discuss some hit videos featuring Meyer that explore the increasingly strong scientific case for intelligent design and for the idea that the universe is the product of a transcendent mind. In their discussion, Meyer and Medved focus on how evidence of a cosmic beginning supports Judeo-Christian theism, and how the Judeo-Christian faith undergirded the birth of science. The Stephen Meyer videos that Medved spotlights now have more than 10 million views altogether. You can find them all