Picture this: philosopher of science Stephen Meyer discussing reasons for skepticism about evolution with enough new friends to fill Yankee Stadium. Now multiply that by 20. As the delighted staff over at PragerU point out, in just the few days since it was released, Dr. Meyer’s PragerU video, “Evolution: Bacteria to Beethoven,” has been viewed by a million people across several platforms — Yankee Stadium x 20 — and is on track to greatly exceed that.

You haven’t see it yet? You’re in for a treat: 

It’s just 5 minutes in length and it summarizes two very telling problems with Darwinism, respectively the focuses of Meyer’s first two books, Signature in the Cell and Darwin’s Doubt. You can watch it on YouTube, Facebook, or PragerU’s own site. Just on YouTube, it’s racked up 5,000 comments and climbing. That’s an enormous conversation going on, about just that subject which the Darwin enforcers are most anxious that thoughtful adults and young people should not be discussing: whether the evidence for Darwinian evolution is genuinely persuasive.

It Take a PhD, Does It?

Wow, is this ever needed and well timed. I’ll give you an example from my week so far. I had a friend the other day, a member of our synagogue, telling me confidently a couple of days ago about how “evolution” can comfortably be assimilated with Judaism. Christian theistic evolutionists say as much about their own faith. I asked my friend what he meant by “evolution” and told him how Darwinists use the word misleadingly, in a kind of shell game, as if it meant just one thing when in fact it has several different meanings (change over time, microevolution, macroevolution, universal common ancestry, etc.).

My friend waved this away. He informed me that only someone with a PhD can understand such fine distinctions. Really? As Stephen Meyer says in the first words of this video, Darwinian theory (in the sense of: random mutations + natural selection = biological diversity, from bacteria to Beethoven) is what’s taught to us all in high school. Given that, it had better be comprehensible, and subject to debate, by everyone from high school age up.

Well, it is comprehensible and it is debatable. Meyer in these 5 minutes does a superbly lucid job of explaining why scientists who doubt the standard evolutionary story are “appropriately skeptical.” Meanwhile, in an irony that Meyer and others have pointed out, lay people such as my friend doggedly defend “evolution” (whatever meaning you want to give to it), even as scientists are giving it a deservedly critical appraisal! 

Anyone can follow Stephen Meyer in this video. With apologies to my friend, it doesn’t take a PhD. Watch for yourself and see if you agree. Then share it widely with your own friends and family members!

Photo: What appears to be a  full house at Yankee Stadium, by John Dalton [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.