abiogenesis,
Alfred Russel Wallace,
Allan Bloom,
Anaxagoras,
Brian Miller,
Charles Darwin,
Charles Lyell,
Charles Thaxton,
chemical evolution,
Claude Shannon,
Dean Kenyon,
DNA,
Erasmus Darwin,
Frankenstein,
galvanism,
Guillermo Gonzalez,
Harvard University,
Hubert Yockey,
Intelligent Design,
James Tour,
Jonathan Wells,
Joseph Hooker,
Leslie Orgel,
Lord Byron,
Louis Pasteur,
Luigi Galvani,
Mary Shelley,
Michael Polanyi,
Miller-Urey experiment,
origin of life,
Percy Shelley,
Plato,
Reijer Hooykaas,
RNA,
Roger L. Olsen,
San Francisco State University,
Shannon information,
Signature in the Cell,
Socrates,
spaghetti,
specified complexity,
Stephen Meyer,
The Mystery of Life’s Origin,
The Return of the God Hypothesis,
uniformitarianism,
Walter Bradley,
William Dembski
Editor’s note: We are delighted today to offer a new book from Discovery Institute Press, The Mystery of Life’s Origin: The Continuing Controversy, a greatly expanded and updated version of the book that, in 1984, launched the intelligent design movement. The following is excerpted from Discovery Institute Senior Fellow David Klinghoffer’s historical introduction to the work. Other brand new chapters on the “continuing controversy” about the origin of life are by chemist James Tour, physicist Brian Miller, astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, biologist Jonathan Wells, and philosopher of science Stephen C. Meyer. How does life emerge from that which is not alive? This mystery exercises a peculiar fascination, with the power to elicit remarkable feats of imagination. As the novelist Mary Shelley recalled, her invention of the story of Frankenstein traced back…