Biochemist Emily Reeves is one of the rising young stars in the world of intelligent design research. She spoke recently about the revolution — that is the right word — taking place in biology with the application of engineering and design thinking. Systems biology, as Dr. Reeves describes the new field, offers “a clearer description of life” than materialist reductionism does. Why? Because while Darwinian scientists do a fine job of sitting around and theorizing, “Engineers more easily recognize impressive design because they have actually tried to build stuff.”

Reeves neatly captures the nexus between intelligent design and systems biology. When looking at life through these new eyes we see:

• “Hierarchical integration requires foresight.” 

• “Signaling networks require top-down design.” 

• “Emergent properties require irreducible complexity.”

Nor is it only scientists with known sympathies for ID who are recognizing this. Reeves cites, among others, computer scientist Jim Esch who compared living systems with human-engineered ones and found that the living systems were far more sophisticated: “Silicon-based technology cannot come close to the kinds of integration seen at the bacterial scale, for example.” Such observations cry out for an inference to intelligent purpose. Please watch and share: