Stephen C. Meyer

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Stephen C. Meyer : biography

1958 –

Signature in the Cell

On June 23, 2009, HarperOne released Meyer’s Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design. Philosopher Thomas Nagel submitted the book as his contribution to the "2009 Books of the Year" supplement for The Times, writing "Signature in the Cell…is a detailed account of the problem of how life came into existence from lifeless matter – something that had to happen before the process of biological evolution could begin … Meyer is a Christian, but atheists, and theists who believe God never intervenes in the natural world, will be instructed by his careful presentation of this fiendishly difficult problem."., The Times Stephen Fletcher, chemist at Loughborough University, responded in The Times Literary Supplement that Nagel was "promot[ing] the book to the rest of us using statements that are factually incorrect." Fletcher explained "Natural selection is in fact a chemical process as well as a biological process, and it was operating for about half a billion years before the earliest cellular life forms appear in the fossil record." In another publication, Fletcher wrote that "I am afraid that reality has overtaken Meyer’s book and its flawed reasoning" in pointing out scientific problems with Meyer’s work by citing how RNA "survived and evolved into our own human protein-making factory, and continues to make our fingers and toes."

Footnotes

Biography

Meyer graduated with a degree in physics and earth science in 1981 from Whitworth College and worked as a geophysicist for the Atlantic Richfield Company. Shortly after, Meyer won a scholarship from the Rotary Club of Dallas to study at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. Meyer earned his Ph.D. in history and philosophy of science in 1991 at the University of Cambridge. His dissertation was entitled "Of clues and causes: A methodological interpretation of origin of life studies." After graduating, Meyer taught philosophy at Whitworth, then at the Christian Palm Beach Atlantic University. Meyer later ceased teaching to devote his time to the intelligent design movement.

Meyer is married and has three children.