Stephen Meyer had a very interesting conversation with Jonathan Pageau, who himself has a fascinating niche as an interviewer, author, thinker about Biblical symbolism, and Orthodox Christian icon carver. They review the key points of Return of the God Hypothesis and discuss, among other things, panpsychism (the idea that mind is “fundamental and ubiquitous in the natural world”) as an alternative to intelligent design. Meyer allows that panpsychists are “getting warm.” 

They also consider why at the current cultural moment ID is breaking into the mainstream as perhaps never before. Pageau thinks it could have something to do with aftereffects of everything that accompanied Covid. It’s certainly true that the scientific and medical “experts” undermined their own pre-pandemic authority so that many people are willing to take a more skeptical look at what prestige science says about other subjects, including evolution. See, “Where Darwinism Breaks Down,” below.

Under the interview on YouTube there’s a lengthy and notable pinned comment from University of Toronto cognitive scientist John Vervaeke. He takes issue with Dr. Meyer on fine-tuning, Shannon information, Thomas Nagel, and more. Another commenter says, “You have to read The Design Inference by William Dembski, he addresses most of these concerns.” Pageau himself responds to Professor Vervaeke, “How about a three-way discussion with Meyer? I am not a scientist, but I think that could be interesting if we did it in a way that is not too technical.” 

Dr. Vervaeke seems to take him up on it, responding to Pageau, “Yes my friend. I texted you about this.” Now that’s a promising idea. I hope it happens.