The Origin of Animal Life

No question is greater or more ultimate than that of our origins as living creatures. Darwinian theory tells the story of our origins one way. Biblical creationists tell another. Does that exhaust the possibilities? Stephen Meyer, doesn’t think so. Trained in the philosophy of science at Cambridge University, Dr. Stephen Meyer directs Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture. Meyer’s first book – Signature in the Cell – examined the evidence for design in the origin of life. His second book, Darwin’s Doubt, advances the story to the origin of animal life. That’s where the conversation leads in this episode.

Video Notes

• 02:45 | What is the “Big Bang of animal life”?
• 03:30 | What was Darwin’s doubt?
• 04:15 | The fossil record, the tree of life, and the abrupt appearance of life forms
• 05:20 | A “creative explosion”, an explosion of innovation
• 06:10 | Filling in the gaps in the pre-Cambrian
• 06:50 | Two issues emerging from the Cambrian fossils
• 07:55 | The Burgess Shale and the vindication of Darwin?
• 10:40 | How do Darwin’s defenders explain the Cambrian?
• 11:25 | How does intelligent design interpret the Cambrian fossils?
• 11:45 | The top down pattern of appearance in fossils and in the evolution of technology
• 12:45 | The Cambrian Explosion as an explosion of new information
• 13:45 | Alfred Russell Wallace’s different trajectory
• 15:12 | What kind of designer designs systems that become obsolete?
• 16:16 | The Royal Society and the explanatory deficit of the received theory
• 18:00 | The disparity between the public presentation of Darwinism and the academic literature