Return of the God Hypothesis: Breakthroughs in Physics, Cosmology, and Biology Seeking Evidence for the Existence of God

by Stephen C. Meyer

Indeed, when I first noticed the subtitle of Lyell’s book referring to “causes now in operation,” a light came on for me. I asked myself a question: “What cause now in operation produces digital code or specified information?” Is there a known cause—a vera causa—of the origin of such information? What does our uniform experience tell us? It occurred to me that by Lyell’s and Darwin’s own criterion of a sound scientific explanation, intelligent design qualifies as the best explanation for the origin of biological information. Why? Because we have independent evidence—“uniform experience”—that intelligent agents can and do produce specified or functional information and we know of no other cause that does (at least starting from a purely physical or chemical state). Late nineteenth-century scientists knew nothing, of course, about the importance of information to living systems.