Life’s Origin: Lab + Information = Mind

In this interview, Dr. James Tour and Dr. Stephen Meyer discuss science and faith, while getting into the details on the discovery of complex, sequence specific information required for life’s function and origin, and the required fine-tuned laboratory that we call our universe that must exist in order for assembly to occur.

In the search for a cause, and by using historical scientific methods even used by Charles Darwin and his mentor Lyell, Meyer posits questions such as “What causes now in operation are known to produce such effects as these?” and “What has the causal power to create the laboratory conditions we find on our rare planet and also the biological information encoded in digital form, that when decoded and translated, performs a function in lieu of its specific arrangement?” From our repeat and uniform experience, Meyer says, we know of only one cause having such power to produce this type of information: an intelligent agent — a mind.

By reference to the evidence provided by our human intelligence, and by surveying the probabilistic resources available in our universe, Meyer then makes a positive argument for a greater Designing Intelligence of this universal “set up job” in which life came to be.

• 00:00 – Intro
• 00:19 – Welcome to Science & Faith
• 01:20 – Introducing Dr. Stephen C. Meyer
• 02:48 – “Why do you believe the resurrection of Jesus?”
• 09:56 – Fine tuning: the Information for Life and the Fabric of the Universe
• 15:46 – Thought experiment: When a living thing dies, what is lost, and how to rebuild?
• 20:09 – What is life and how did it get here: Requirements and laboratory interventions
• 25:08 – Sustaining life: Low entropy, high thermal energy, engines, and information
• 32:04 – The Positive Case for Intelligent Design
• 39:47 – Q&A – Multiverse
• 43:25 – Q&A – Quantum Cosmology
• 48:13 – Q&A – Alien Life, Information Search & Discovery
• 50:36 – Q&A – Big Bang Evidence & Implications
• 53:50 – Q&A – Creation, Fall, and Decay
• 56:16 – Q&A – Bacteria and Viruses
• 59:03 – Q&A – Scientific Methods of Reasoning, Evidence, and Truth
• 1:04:08 – Q&A – Causal Adequacy – Two Sides of the Same Coin
• 1:07:23 – Q&A – Life and Consciousness
• 1:11:25 – Closing