Stephen C. Meyer

"This page is for the intelligent design advocate and Discovery Institute officer Stephen C. Meyer. For the rugby player see Steve Meyer."

Stephen C. Meyer is an American think tank executive officer and co-founder, along with Phillip E. Johnson and others, of the intelligent design movement. Meyer, along with Bruce Chapman and George Gilder, is a founder of the Discovery Institute and its Center for Science and Culture, which advocates the controversial concept of intelligent design. Formerly, an academic philosopher of science, Meyer is currently vice president and senior fellow at the institute's Center for Science and Culture.

Biography

Meyer graduated with a degree in geology in 1980 from Whitworth College and worked as a geophysicist for the Atlantic Richfield Company.cite news | url=http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&isFellow=true&id=11 | title=Paul Chien, Senior Fellow - CSC | publisher=Discovery Institute |date= 2008 | first= | last= | accessdate =2008-05-17] 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.cite news | url=http://www.arn.org/authors/meyer.html | title=Stephen Meyer Biography | publisher=Access Research Network |date= 2008 | first= | last= | accessdate =2008-05-17] His dissertation was entitled "Of clues and causes : a methodological interpretation of origin of life studies."

After graduating, Meyer taught philosophy at Whitworth College, which has links to the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Spokane, Washington, and then at Palm Beach Atlantic University, a Christian university. He currently does not hold a teaching position, but has since devoted his time to promoting intelligent design.

In 1990, Meyer, Bruce Chapman and George Gilder, formed the Discovery Institute as a non-profit educational foundation and think tank based upon the Christian apologetics of C. S. Lewis and opposed to materialism. It was founded as a branch of the Hudson Institute, an Indianapolis-based, conservative think tank and named for the HMS "Discovery", which explored Puget Sound in 1792.

Meyers was a member of the 'Ad Hoc Origins Committee' formed by supporters of Phillip E. Johnson in response to Stephen Jay Gould's devastating review of Johnson's "Darwin on Trial" that appeared in the July 1992 issue of "Scientific American". [Creationism's Trojan Horse, Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross, p18] Also in 1992 at a wedge conference CSC fellow Mark Hartwig referred to Johnson, Meyer, Dembski, and Behe as "creationists." [Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross. "". 2004, page 329]

In 1993, Chapman secured seed money in the form of a grant from Howard Ahmanson, Jr. and US$450,000 from the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based MacLellan Foundation, which underwrote the earliest nucleus of intelligent design authors who titled themselves "The Wedge". [ [http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=12-04-018-f The Wedge Breaking the Modernist Monopoly on Science] Phillip E. Johnson. Touchstone. July/August, 1999.] [ [http://www.antievolution.org/features/wedge.pdf The Wedge Document] Discovery Institute, 1999.] Meyer had previously tutored Ahmanson's son in science, and Meyer recalls being asked by Ahmanson "What could you do if you had some financial backing?". [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/national/21evolve.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=24bc7c9b16cac8a8&ex=1282276800&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss Politicized Scholars Put Evolution on the Defensive] Jodi Wilgoren. The New York Times, August 21 2005.] It is from these beginnings that the intelligent design movement grew.?

Meyer has co-edited "Darwinism, Design, and Public Education" (Michigan State University Press, 2000) with John Angus Campbell and co-edited "Science and Evidence of Design in the Universe" (Ignatius Press, 2000) with Michael J. Behe and William A. Dembski.

Meyer has been described as "the person who brought ID (intelligent design) to DI (Discovery Institute)" by historian Edward Larson, who was a fellow at the Discovery Institute prior to it becoming the center of the intelligent design movement. [ [http://www.waronscience.com/excerpt.php?p=3 The Republican War on Science, Chapter 11: "Creation Science" 2.0] Chris Mooney. 2005.]

Meyer is currently a director for the Access Research Network. [cite news | url=http://www.arn.org/infopage/info.htm | title=About the Access Research Network | publisher=Access Research Network |date= 2008 | first= | last= | accessdate =2008-05-17]

He has appeared on television and in public forums advocating intelligent design. On May 6, 2005 Meyer debated Eugenie Scott, on "The Big Story" with John Gibson. Then in April 2006, Meyer and Peter Ward, a paleontologist from the University of Washington held an open online discussion on the topic of Intelligent design in the Talk of the Times forum in Seattle, WA. [ [ http://www.tvw.org/MediaPlayer/Archived/WME.cfm?EVNum=2006040103&TYPE=A] ]

Peer review controversy

On 4 August 2004, an article by Meyer appeared in the peer-reviewed scientific journal, "Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington". [ [http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=2177 Intelligent Design: The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories] , Stephen C. Meyer] On 7 September, the publisher of the journal, the Council of the Biological Society of Washington, released a statement retracting the article as not having met its scientific standards and not peer reviewed. [ [http://www.biolsocwash.org/id_statement.html Statement of the Council of the Biological Society of Washington] ] The same statement vowed that proper review procedures would be followed in the future and endorsed a resolution published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which observes that there is no credible scientific evidence supporting ID. [ [http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2002/1106id2.shtml AAAS Board Resolution on Intelligent Design Theory] ]

The journal's reasons for disavowing the article were denied by Richard Sternberg, the managing editor at the time. [ [http://www.rsternberg.net/Procedures.htm Home page of Dr. Richard Sternberg] ] Critics believe that Sternberg's personal and ideological connections to Meyer suggest at least the appearance of conflict of interest in allowing Meyer's paper to be published. [ [http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/2005/08/sternberg_and_t.html Sternberg and the “smear” of Creationism] , Andrea Bottaro, The Panda's Thumb] As evidence they cite that Sternberg is a fellow of International Society for Complexity, Information and Design (ISCID), a group dedicated to promoting intelligent design, [ [http://www.iscid.org/fellows.php ISCID Fellows] ] and presented a lecture on intelligent design at the Research And Progress in Intelligent Design (RAPID) conference. [ [http://www.iscid.org/rapid/schedule.html RAPID Conderence Schedule] ]

A critical review of the article is available on the Panda's Thumb website. [ [http://www.pandasthumb.org/pt-archives/000430.html Meyer's Hopeless Monster] , Wesley R. Elsberry, The Panda's Thumb] In January 2005, the Discovery Institute posted its response to the critique on their website. [ [http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&program=CSC%20Responses&id=2375 Rebuttals to Critiques of Meyer's PBSW Article] , Discovery Institute]

Meyer alleges that those who oppose "Darwinism" are persecuted by the scientific community: "The numbers of scientists who question Darwinism is a minority, but it is growing fast. This is happening in the face of fierce attempts to intimidate and suppress legitimate dissent. Young scientists are threatened with deprivation of tenure. Others have seen a consistent pattern of answering scientific arguments with ad hominem attacks. In particular, the series' attempt to stigmatize all critics--including scientists--as religious 'creationists' is an excellent example of viewpoint discrimination." [ [http://www.reviewevolution.com/press/pressRelease_100Scientists.php 100 Scientists, National Poll Challenge Darwinism] (also known as A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism)] The American Society for Clinical Investigation says that the claim that intelligent design scientists undergoing persecution by the science establishment for their scientific ideas is a hoax, repeated by ID proponents to further their cause, which has failed to produce a legitimate body of science. [ [http://www.jci.org/cgi/content/full/116/5/1134 Defending science education against intelligent design: a call to action] , Alan D. Attie, Elliot Sober, Ronald L. Numbers, Richard M. Amasino, Beth Cox, Terese Berceau, Thomas Powell and Michael M. Cox, "J. Clin. Invest." 116:1134-1138 (2006)]

Political controversy

A "teach the controversy" strategy was announced by Meyer [ [http://www.talkreason.org/articles/Meyer.cfm Meyer's Hopeless Monster] , Alan Gishlick, Nick Matzke, and Wesley R. Elsberry, Talk Reason] 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”. [ [http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?program=CSC&command=view&id=1134 Teach the Controversy] , Stephen C. Meyer, Discovery Institute] 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, [ [http://www.natcenscied.org/about.asp About the NCSE] , National Center for Science Education] 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. [ [http://www.ncseweb.org/media/Analysis-of-the-Discovery-Institute.pdf Analysis of the Discovery Institute’s “Bibliography of Supplementary Resources for Ohio Science Instruction”] , National Center for Science Education]

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 required to teach alternative theories to evolution as part of its biology curriculum. A Brown University Professor of Biology, Kenneth R. Miller, showed that the Santorum Amendment is not in the body of the Education Bill itself. [ [http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/santorum.html The Truth about the "Santorum Amendment" Language on Evolution] , Web Site of the Dragonfly Book: "BIOLOGY" by Miller & Levine] Meyer and others rebutted that the language, while not in the bill itself is in the Conference Report to the bill and pointed out what they believe are misrepresentations by Miller. [ [http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=1149 Biologist Ken Miller Flunks Political Science on Santorum] , Discovery Institute] Miller replied that Conference Reports do not carry the weight of law and that in implying that they do, Meyer factually mistated the nature and gravitas of the Santorum Amendment. [ [http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/articles/ID-activists-guide-v1.pdf Is There a Federal Mandate to Teach Intelligent Design Creationism?] , National Center for Science Education]

Bibliography

Books
* David K. DeWolf, Stephen C. Meyer, and Mark E. DeForrest (1999) "Intelligent Design in Public School Science Curriculum: A Legal Guidebook". Foundation for Thought and Ethics. ISBN 0-9642104-1-X
* Michael J. Behe, William A. Dembski and Stephen C. Meyer (2000) "Science and Evidence of Design in the Universe". Ignatius Press ISBN 0-89870-809-5
* John Angus Campbell and Stephen C. Meyer (2003) "Darwinism, Design, and Public Education", Michigan State University Press. ISBN 0-87013-675-5

Scientific paper

* Stephen C. Meyer (2004) "The origin of biological information and the higher taxonomic categories". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 117(2):213-239. [http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=2177 online version] This paper was withdrawn by the publisher because the editor, fellow intelligent design proponent Richard Sternberg, went outside the usual review procedures in allowing Meyer's article to be published in his last issue as editor. (See:Sternberg peer review controversy)

Film

* "Unlocking the Mystery of Life" (Illustra Media, 2002) (With Jay Richards, Paul Nelson, Dean Kenyon, Michael Behe, William Dembski, Jonathan Wells, Jed Macosko and Scott Minnich.)

References

External links

Official
* [http://www.arn.org/authors/meyer.html Biography] from the Access Research Network
* [http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=11&isFellow=true Biography] from the Discovery Institute
** [http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=submitSearchQuery&query=Stephen%20C.%20Meyer&orderBy=date&orderDir=DESC&searchBy=author&searchType=all&PHPSESSID=af8411e6055717a341c7a79b9dc9219b Discovery Institute articles]
* [http://www.darwinanddesign.com/ "Darwinism Design and Public Education"]

Critical
* [http://wiki.cotch.net/index.php/Stephen_C._Meyer Stephen C. Meyer] at Evolutionwiki
* [http://www.talkreason.org/articles/Meyer.cfm Meyer's hopeless monster] Review of Meyer, Stephen C. 2004. The origin of biological information and the higher taxonomic categories. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 117(2):213-239
* [http://www.antievolution.org/people/meyer_sc/ the antievolutionists - Meyer]