Debating Darwin’s Doubt A Scientific Controversy that Can No Longer Be Denied DAVID KLINGHOFFER, EDITOR DISCOVERY INSTITUTE PRESS SEATTLE 2015 Description This book contains essays responding to criticism of Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design by Stephen Meyer. The book explores topics such as orphan genes, cladistics, small shelly fossils, protein evolution, the length of the Cambrian explosion, the God-of-the-Gaps objection to intelligent design, and criticisms raised by proponents of theistic evolution. Contributors include Stephen Meyer, Douglas Axe, David Berlinski, William Dembski, Ann Gauger, Casey Luskin, and Paul Nelson. Edited by David Klinghoffer. Copyright Notice Copyright © 2015 by Discovery Institute. All Rights Reserved. Publisher’s Note This book is part of a series published by the Center for Science & Culture at Discovery Institute in Seattle. Previous books include Signature of Controversy: Responses to CritiCs of Signature in the Cell, edited by David Klinghoffer; The Myth of Junk DNA by Jonathan Wells; The Deniable Darwin & Other Essays by David Berlinski; and DisCovering Intelligent Design: A Journey into the SCientifiC EvidenCe by Gary Kemper, Hallie Kemper, and Casey Luskin. Library Cataloging Data Debating Darwin’s Doubt: A SCientifiC Controversy that Can No Longer Be Denied Edited by David Klinghoffer. BISAC Subject: SCI027000 SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Evolution BISAC Subject: SCI080000 SCIENCE / Essays BISAC Subject: SCI034000 SCIENCE / History ISBN-13: 978-1-936599-30-1 (Kindle) 978-1-936599-31-8 (EPUB) 978-1-936599-28-8 (paperback) Publisher Information Discovery Institute Press, 208 Columbia Street, Seattle, WA 98101 Internet: http://www.discoveryinstitutepress.com/ First Edition. July 2015. Contents Introduction: No Debate over Darwinian Evolution? David Klinghoffer . .9 I. Pre-Publication Debate & Discussion 1. Darwinists Waste No Time William Dembski . 17. 2. Gripe-Fest Turns Surreal David Klinghoffer . .23 II. Speed Reader: Nick Matzke 3. Rush to Judgment Casey Luskin . .27 4. Matzke, Cladistics, and Missing Ancestors Stephen C . Meyer . .42 5. A Graduate Student Writes David Berlinski . .71 6. How “Sudden” Was the Cambrian Explosion? Casey Luskin . .75 7. A One-Man Clade David Berlinski . .89 8. Hopeless Matzke David Berlinski & Tyler Hampton . 10. 0 9. Cladistics to the Rescue? Casey Luskin . .115 III. Heavyweight: Berkeley’s Charles Marshall 10. When Theory Trumps Observation Stephen C . Meyer . .129 11. No New Genetic Information Needed? Stephen C . Meyer . .133 12. The God-of-the-Gaps Fallacy? Stephen C . Meyer . .142 13. Small Shelly Fossils and the Cambrian Explosion Casey Luskin . .150 14. More on Small Shelly Fossils and the Cambrian Explosion Stephen C . Meyer . .156 IV. Biologist: Martin Poenie 15. Answering Objections from Martin Poenie Douglas Axe . 16. 3 16. More on Objections from Martin Poenie Douglas Axe . .167 17. Orphan Genes: A Guide for the Perplexed Ann Gauger . .173 18. Protein Evolution: A Guide for the Perplexed Ann Gauger . .177 19. Show Me: A Challenge for Martin Poenie Douglas Axe . 18. 2 V. Miscellaneous Challenges 20. Backhanded Compliments from The New Yorker David Klinghoffer . .187 21. About an Ellipsis: John Farrell in National Review David Klinghoffer . .191 22. Darwin Defenders Love Donald Prothero’s Amazon Review Casey Luskin . .194 23. Does the “Great Unconformity” Explain Missing Ancestors? Casey Luskin . .202 VI. Trends in Reviewing Darwin’s Doubt 24. Evidence of Short-Term Memory Loss David Klinghoffer . .209 25. Reviewing the Reviewers: A Taxonomy of Evasion David Klinghoffer . .213 26. Hostile Responses Change a Thoughtful Reader Casey Luskin . .218 VII. Replying to Darwin’s Doubt Without Naming It 27. Cambrian Animals? Just Add Oxygen Evolution News & Views . 2. 25 28. Teamwork: New York Times and Science Offer a Rebuttal Casey Luskin . .230 29. To Create Cambrian Animals, Whack the Earth from Space Evolution News & Views . 2. 36 30. Does Lightning-Fast Evolution Solve the Cambrian Enigma? Stephen C . Meyer . .241 VIII. Responses from Theistic Evolutionists 31. Finding the Designer’s Garbage Casey Luskin . .251 32. BioLogos Delivers a Raft of Reviews David Klinghoffer . .258 33. Ralph Stearley’s “Well, Maybe, Who Knows?” Review Paul Nelson . .262 34. Still Awaiting Engagement Paul Nelson . .267 35. Are Biologists Coming to Reject Neo-Darwinian Evolution? Casey Luskin . .275 36. Leading Theistic Evolutionist PraisesDarwin’s Doubt David Klinghoffer . .278 37. Methodological Naturalism: A Rule That No One Needs or Obeys Paul Nelson . .285 38. Mistaking Intelligent Design for a God-of-the-Gaps Argument Casey Luskin . .295 39. Clarifying Issues: My Response to BioLogos Stephen C . Meyer . .305 40. Walking It Back? Stephen C . Meyer . .313 41. Among Theistic Evolutionists, No Consensus Casey Luskin . .328 42. Denying the Signature: A Response to Bishop and O’Connor Stephen C . Meyer . .334 43. Of Minds and Causes: A Further Response to Bishop and O’Connor Stephen C . Meyer . .352 IX. Independent Confirmation of Meyer’s Thesis 44. Erwin and Valentine: The Cambrian Enigma Unresolved Casey Luskin . .363 Contributors Index Introduction: No Debate over Darwinian Evolution? David Klinghoffer hatever else Stephen Meyer demonstrated about the Wexplosion of biological information required to build the Cam- brian animals, his bestseller Darwin’s Doubt served as a massive rebuke to the mantra-like assertion that there is “no debate,” “no controversy” among scientists about Darwinian evolution. There’s plenty! Meyer showed this in the book by addressing the ar- guments of prominent scientists who seek what they call a “Third Way” (neither intelligent design nor Darwinism) and a new theory of evolution. Nicely coinciding with the release of the paperback edition of Darwin’s Doubt, these researchers launched a provocative website, The Third Way, as a gathering place for those sharing their views.1 And Meyer showed it again with the new Epilogue, included in the paperback, in which he replied in detail to the most substantive of his critics. Debating Darwin’s Doubt could be thought of as a supplement to what Dr. Meyer wrote in the Epilogue. The reception ofDarwin’s Doubt, with serious scientific thinkers arguing back and forth about his thesis, was definitive evidence that the Darwinist mantra is wrong. If there is no scientific controversy about Darwinism versus intelligent design, how 10 Debating Darwin’s Doubt can one explain the volume of disputatious views aired in the wake of the book’s release? Here we have gathered together a sample, collected mostly from writing by Discovery Institute scholars published at our popular news site Evolution News & Views. In these pages Stephen Meyer, Douglas Axe, Ann Gauger, William Dembksi, David Berlinski, Casey Luskin, Paul Nelson and I argue with critics including Charles Marshall (UC Berkeley), Robert Asher (Cambridge University), Martin Poenie (Uni- versity of Texas), Donald Prothero (Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County), Nick Matzke (National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis), and others. These critics’ arguments in turn were recycled by popular media out- lets such as The New Yorker, National Review, First Things, and around the Internet including more than six hundred reviews (at the moment) on the book’s Amazon page. Nick Matzke’s critiques at Panda’s Thumb, in particular, became a guiding light for the recyclers, brandished again and again by both lofty and anonymous opponents of intelligent de- sign. University of Chicago biologist Jerry Coyne, who writes the blog Why Evolution Is True2 and is arguably the American Richard Dawkins, pointed to Matzke as a justification for failing to wrestle with Meyer’s arguments himself. All this accounts for the extensive treatment given here to Matzke. The critical response toDarwin’s Doubt was matched by warm ap- preciation from readers—and from scientists in high places. Harvard University geneticist George Church praised it as “an opportunity for bridge-building, rather than dismissive polarization.” Biologist Scott Turner, State University of New York, saw in it “an intriguing explora- tion of one of the most remarkable periods in the evolutionary history of life.” Russell Carlson, molecular biologist at the University of Georgia, said that it “demonstrates, based on cutting-edge molecular biology, why explaining the origin of animals is now not just a problem of missing fos- sils, but an even greater engineering problem.” Mark McMenamin, pa- Introduction: No Debate over Darwinian Evolution? 11 leontologist at Mt. Holyoke College and co-author of The Emergence of Animals, greeted the book as “a game changer for the study of evolution.” Bestselling novelist Dean Koontz even threw in an enviable acco- lade from his own professional perspective: “Meyer writes beautifully. He marshals complex information as well as any writer I’ve read.” Did I mention that Darwin’s Doubt hit #7 on the New York Times bestseller list, while also making the bestseller ranks at the Los Angeles Times and Publishers Weekly? So obviously book-buyers were enthusias- tic as well. The challenge in editing this book was one of cutting and sifting from a vast literature in response to Darwin’s Doubt. I was sad, for example, to have to exclude everything we wrote about University of Chicago pathologist Stephen Meredith’s essay in First Things.3 Meredith used Darwin’s Doubt as an occasion to launch a bizarre attack on intelligent design as a revival of a medieval religious heresy, oc- casionalism. That one brought forth a delicious response4 from ENV’s Michael Egnor, distinguished pediatric neurosurgeon at SUNY Stony Brook—which, unfortunately, I was unable to include just because Mer- edith’s criticism was hardly scientific at all but, instead, overwhelmingly theological. Strange to say, in an exchange with Stephen Meyer at The American Spectator, journalist John Derbyshire likewise brought for- ward the charge of “occasionalism.”5 At a certain point, criticisms of the theory of intelligent design get so ridiculous and abstracted from reality that you throw up your hands in wonder.