Stephen C. Meyer
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Stephen C. Meyer is an American philosopher of science and theologian. He is director and senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture which advocates the controversial idea of intelligent design.
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Biography
Meyer originally graduated with a degree in geology in 1980 from Whitworth College and worked in the oil industry. After attending a creationist conference however, he became increasingly interested in origins and rejected the evolutionary creationism in which he had previously believed.
Meyer won a scholarship to Cambridge University in the United Kingdom to study the history and philosophy of science. He graduated in 1991. His dissertation was on the history of the origin of life and biology and the methodology of the historical sciences.
Meyer formerly worked as a geophysicist for the Atlantic Richfield Company and is now a professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University, a Christian University, where he teaches a course on Christian apologetics in its School of Ministry. He was previously on the faculty of Whitworth College (which has links to the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Spokane, Washington for 12 years.
Meyer has the only published paper on intelligent design theory that has appeared in the scientific literature. This, entitled The origin of biological information and the higher taxonomic categories appeared in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 117(2):213-239. The editors of the magazine subsequently withdrew their support for the paper, since it had not gone through proper peer-review process.
Political controversy
A "teach the controversy" strategy was announced by Meyer [1] (http://www.talkreason.org/articles/Meyer.cfm) following a presentation to the Ohio State Board of Education in March 2002. The presentation included submission of an annotated bibliography of 44 peer-reviewed scientific articles that were said to raise significant challenges to key tenets of what was referred to as “Darwinian evolution” [2] (http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?program=CSC&command=view&id=1134). In response to this claim the National Center for Science Education, an organisation that works in collaboration with National Academy of Sciences, the National Association of Biology Teachers, and the National Science Teachers Association that support the teaching of evolution in public schools [3] (http://www.natcenscied.org/about.asp), contacted the authors of the papers listed and twenty-six scientists, representing thirty-four of the papers, responded. None of the authors considered that their research provided evidence against evolution [4] (http://www.ncseweb.org/media/Analysis-of-the-Discovery-Institute.pdf).
On March 11, 2002 during a panel discussion on evolution Meyer publicly told the Ohio Board of Education that the "Santorum Amendment" was part of the Education Bill, and therefore that the State of Ohio was obligated to teach alternative theories to evolution as part of its biology curriculum. A Brown University Professor of Biology, Kenneth R. Miller, using the actual text of the law, showed that Stephen Meyer's statement was false and that the Santorum Amendment is not in the Education Bill. [5] (http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/santorum.html) Meyer and others pointed out that the language is in the Conference Report to the bill, and have pointed out what they believe are numerous misrepresentations by Miller.[6] (http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=1149) Since Conference Reports do not carry the weight of law, Meyer factually mistated the nature and gravitas of the Santorum Amendment. [7] (http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/articles/ID-activists-guide-v1.pdf)
Bibliography
Books
- David K. DeWolf, Stephen C. Meyer, Mark E. DeForrest (1999) Intelligent Design in Public School Science Curriculum: A Legal Guidebook ISBN 096421041X
- Michael J. Behe William A. Dembski and Stephen C. Meyer (2000) Science and Evidence of Design in the Universe ISBN 0898708095
- Campbell and Meyer (2003) Darwinism, Design, and Public Education, Michigan State University Press. ISBN 0870136755
Scientific paper
- Meyer, S.C. (2004) The origin of biological information and the higher taxonomic categories. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 117(2):213-239. online version (http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=2177)
External links
Pro-ID
- ARN page (http://www.arn.org/meyer/smhome.htm)
- Discovery Institute biography (http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=11&isFellow=true)
- Discovery Institute articles (http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=submitSearchQuery&query=Stephen%20C.%20Meyer&orderBy=date&orderDir=DESC&searchBy=author&searchType=all&PHPSESSID=af8411e6055717a341c7a79b9dc9219b)
- biography at Palm Beach University (http://www.pba.edu/Academic/Schoolbio.cfm?ID=129&SchoolID=1)
- website for Darwinism Design and Public Education (http://www.darwinanddesign.com/)
Anti-ID
- evowiki (http://wiki.cotch.net/index.php/Stephen_C._Meyer)
- Meyer's hopeless monster (http://www.talkreason.org/articles/Meyer.cfm)
- the antievolutionists - Meyer (http://www.antievolution.org/people/meyer_sc/)
