Dr. Stephen Meyer, PhD from Cambridge, is an expert in information theory. Functional information, as opposed to random information, necessitates the prior existence of an intelligent mind. In the first video, he describes how “functional” information, such as found in DNA, requires intelligence. In the second 10-min video he explains how mathematics (the language of the universe) refutes materialism. Anyone that codes complex software algorithms (as I did in a previous job) should not only understand but sympathize with this argument. Intricate software code, which pales in comparision to the information encoded in DNA, is not the result of a mindless, random process (i.e., a cat walking back and forth across a keyboard) but the consequence of a purposeful, intelligent mind. The more we come to understand the Universe, the more powerful an argument Intelligent Design becomes. As Meyers affirms in his book, there is “an enduring mystery of modern biology: the origin of the digital information encoded along the spine of the DNA molecule.”

The better that one grasps the physics of the Cosmos, the more they are inevitably driven to one of two options that Paul presents in Romans: either they (1) acknowledge (willfully or reluctantly) the existence of a purposeful, unimagineably powerful intelligent God who brought everything into existence ex nihilo . . . or . . . (2) they end up worshipping creation. Intelligent Design (ID) is an evidence-based scientific theory about life’s origins that challenges strictly materialistic views of evolution. Because the argument is not based on any religious text or document, it is especially threatening to the club of atheistic materialism, who vociferously seek to knock it out of the public square. Intelligent Design is anathema to those who believe they are safely and securely ensconced in their worldview devoid of God. The Intelligent Design argument has the power to destroy materialistic reasoning and represents secular thermonuclear warfare against atheism. Ultimately, the Intelligent Design argument is what caused renowned British philosopher Anthony Flew to repudiate his lifelong commitment to atheism in 2004, upsetting many of his cohorts. The Intelligent Design argument is not rooted in Biblical doctrine, but is an “inference from scientific evidence, not a deduction from religious authority.”

Meyers spent nearly 20 years developing his Intelligent Design argument “based on the discovery of information-bearing properties———the digital code———stored in the DNA molecule.” Meyer’s book Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design is recommended reading for anyone seeking to understand the Intelligent Design argument. He wrote the book to “go over the heads of an entrenched establishment to force the reevaluation of an established theory by creating wider interest in its standing.” American Spectator’s review of the book, calls it “an engaging, eye-opening, and often eye-popping read.”

Meyers refers to two seminal works that influenced him to write his book: “In 1996, Lehigh University biochemist Michael Behe made a detailed case for intelligent design based upon the discovery of nanotechnology in cells—such as the now famous bacterial flagellar motor with its thirty-part rotary engine. Behe’s Darwin’s Black Box sold over a quarter of a million copies and almost single-handedly put the idea of intelligent design on the cultural and scientific map. In 1998, William Dembski, a mathematician and philosopher with two Ph.D.’s (including one from the University of Chicago), followed suit by publishing a groundbreaking work on methods of design detection. Dembski’s work, The Design Inference, published by Cambridge University Press, established a scientific method for distinguishing the effects of intelligence from the effects of undirected natural processes. His work established rigorous indicators of intelligent design.”

One of the online comments to the second video is interesting, “Agnostic here. I have to say that this breakdown of the mathematical argument for intelligent design is probably the most serious and convincing argument for God I’ve ever encountered on the Internet.”