Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design

by Stephen C. Meyer

In the spring of 2000, Discovery Institute, where I do my research, sponsored a lecture at the University of Washington geology department by renowned Chinese paleontologist J. Y. Chen (see Fig. 3.1). As the result of his role in excavating a new discovery of Cambrian-era fossils in southern China, Professor Chen’s standing in the scientific world was on the rise. The discovery, near the town of Chengjiang in the Yunnan Province, revealed a trove of early Cambrian animal forms. After Time magazine mentioned the Chengjiang discovery in a 1995 cover story about the Cambrian explosion,1 interest in the fossils surged. When he came to Seattle, Professor Chen had already published numerous scientific papers about this profusion of novel life-forms and had established himself as one of the foremost experts on the fossils in this unique geological setting.