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Richard Sternberg: Intelligent Design “Through the Eyes of a Platonist”

David Klinghoffer

Intelligent Design

“I look at the universe through the eyes of a Platonist,” says theoretical biologist Richard Sternberg, talking with host Beatris Rusu on a new ID the Future episode. Dr. Sternberg is among the most fascinating thinkers about intelligent design, tracing his own understanding of design theory to the Platonic dialogue Timaeus. Rusu talked with him about his recent lectures to Discovery Institute’s Summer Seminar on Intelligent Design.

The main theme of Sternberg’s research, to be captured in a planned series of six monographs on what he calls the “immaterial genome,” has been the “gap in data content” separating the material source of biological information as we know it, in DNA, from the finished, operating cell or whole organism: “There has to be something in addition to just the DNA sequences alone that explains development.” Among the implications of this is that the usual Darwinian explanation of how evolution generates biological complexity, through the mutation/selection process, is not just incomplete but wildly inadequate.

“It sounds spooky,” he admits, but “we can know this on logical and mathematical grounds.” Download the podcast or listen to it here. Listen to this all the way through. It’s worth it.

Photo: Richard Sternberg teaching at the Summer Seminar, by Daniel Reeves. 

David Klinghoffer

Senior Fellow and Editor, Evolution News
David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and the editor of Evolution News & Science Today, the daily voice of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, reporting on intelligent design, evolution, and the intersection of science and culture. Klinghoffer is also the author of six books, a former senior editor and literary editor at National Review magazine, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Commentary, and other publications. Born in Santa Monica, California, he graduated from Brown University in 1987 with an A.B. magna cum laude in comparative literature and religious studies. David lives near Seattle, Washington, with his wife and children.

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Beatris RusuDarwinismdevelopmentDNAevolutionID the Futureimmaterial genomeintelligent designmathematicsmutation/selection mechanismPlatopodcastRichard SternbergSummer SeminarsTimaeus