Editing Stephen C. Meyer (section)

=== Intelligent design ===
After the 1987 ''[[Edwards v. Aguillard]]'' Supreme Court ruling affirmed the ''Aguillard v. Treen'' decision against teaching [[creation science]], [[Charles Thaxton|Thaxton]] as academic editor of ''[[Of Pandas and People]]'' adopted [[intelligent design]] wording.{{sfn|Witham|2005|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=llzwy_Ft1DQC&pg=PA221  221]}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/articles/9018_90__matzke_2006_the_story_10_3_2006.asp |title=NCSE Resource – 9.0. Matzke (2006): The Story of the Pandas Drafts |access-date=2007-11-14 |author=Nick Matzke |author-link=Nick Matzke |year=2006 |publisher=[[National Center for Science Education]] |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071013214505/http://ncseweb.org/resources/articles/9018_90__matzke_2006_the_story_10_3_2006.asp|archive-date = 2007-10-13}}</ref> Meyer recalls the term coming up at a June 1988 conference in Tacoma organised by Thaxton, who "referred to a theory that the presence of DNA in a living cell is evidence of a designing intelligence."<ref name=neocreo>{{cite news |author=William Safire |title=On Language: Neo-Creo |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/magazine/21ONLANGUAGE.html?position=&ei=5090&en=f2de0d764cc7e0e8&ex=1282276800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1132902202-gyP0H4EZfG7IeNHPMWlcBw |work=The New York Times |date=August 21, 2005 }}</ref> [[Phillip E. Johnson]] was drafting a book arguing against [[Naturalism (philosophy)|naturalism]] as the basis for evolutionary science, and Meyer brought a copy of the manuscript to the conference.<ref name="Stafford 1997">{{cite web | last=Stafford | first=Tim | title=The Making of a Revolution | website=ChristianityToday.com | date=8 December 1997 | url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1997/december8/7te016.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981203133935/http://www.arn.org/johnson/revolution.htm |archive-date=3 December 1998 | access-date=16 May 2019}}</ref> He met [[Paul A. Nelson]] who found it exciting to read,<ref name="Christian Medical Fellowship">{{cite web |last=Nelson |first=Paul A. | title=Intelligent Design: From nucleus |date=Winter 2005 |pages=13–21 | website=Christian Medical Fellowship - cmf.org.uk | url=https://www.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=article&id=1303 | access-date=24 June 2019}}</ref> and the two collaborated on a joint project. Needing a mathematician, they contacted [[William A. Dembski|Dembski]] in 1991. Thaxton has described Meyer as "kind of like" a [[Johnny Appleseed]], bringing others into the movement.{{sfn|Witham|2005|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=llzwy_Ft1DQC&pg=PA221 221–222]}}

Meyer became one of a group of prominent young intelligent design (ID) advocates with academic degrees: Mayer, Nelson, Dembski and [[Jonathan Wells (intelligent design advocate)|Jonathan Wells]].<ref>{{Cite book  | last1 = Pennock | first1 = Robert T. | title = Tower of Babel: the evidence against the new creationism | year = 2000 | publisher = MIT Press | location = Cambridge, Mass.  | isbn = 978-0-262-66165-2 | pages = 29 }}</ref> Meyer participated in the "Ad Hoc Origins Committee" defending Johnson's ''[[Darwin on Trial]]'' in 1992 or 1993 (in response to [[Stephen Jay Gould]]'s review of it in the July 1992 issue of ''[[Scientific American]]''), while with the Philosophy department at [[Whitworth College]].<ref name="forrest">{{harvnb|Forrest|Gross|2004|p=18}}</ref> He was later a participant in the first formal meeting devoted to ID, hosted at [[Southern Methodist University]] in 1992.<ref name="forrest" />

In December 1993, [[Bruce Chapman]], president and founder of the Discovery Institute, noticed an essay in the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' by Meyer about a dispute when biology lecturer [[Dean H. Kenyon]] taught intelligent design in introductory classes.<ref name="wilgoren">[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/national/21evolve.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=24bc7c9b16cac8a8&ex=1282276800&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss "Politicized Scholars Put Evolution on the Defensive"], Jodi Wilgoren. ''The New York Times'', August 21, 2005.</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.arn.org/docs/meyer/sm_opendebatelifesorigins.htm |title=Open Debate on Life's Origins: Meyer, Stephen C. |access-date=2007-08-27 |author= Stephen C. Meyer |date= 1993-12-06 |newspaper=Wall Street Journal }}</ref><ref name="Huskinson">{{cite book | last=Huskinson | first=B.L. | title=American Creationism, Creation Science, and Intelligent Design in the Evangelical Market | publisher=Springer International Publishing | series=Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World | year=2020 | isbn=978-3-030-45435-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HH74DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA79 | access-date=17 November 2021 | page=79}}</ref> Kenyon had co-authored ''Of Pandas and People'', and in 1993 Meyer had contributed to the teacher's notes for the second edition of ''Pandas''. Meyer was an old friend of Discovery Institute co-founder [[George Gilder]], and over dinner about a year later they formed the idea of a think tank opposed to [[materialism]]. In the summer of 1995 Chapman and Meyer met a representative of [[Howard Ahmanson, Jr.]] Meyer, who had previously tutored Ahmanson's son in science, recalls being asked "What could you do if you had some financial backing?"<ref name="wilgoren"/> He was a co-author of the "[[Wedge strategy]]", which put forth the Discovery Institute's manifesto for the [[intelligent design movement]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=12-04-018-f | title = The Wedge Breaking the Modernist Monopoly on Science | last = Johnson | first = PE | author-link = Phillip E. Johnson | publisher = Touchstone | year = 1999 | access-date = 2010-10-29 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.antievolution.org/features/wedge.pdf | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070422235718/http://www.antievolution.org/features/wedge.pdf | url-status = usurped | archive-date = April 22, 2007 | title = The Wedge Document | publisher = Discovery Institute | year = 1999 | access-date = 2010-10-29 | author = Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture | author-link = Center for Science and Culture }}</ref>

In 1999, Meyer with David DeWolf and Mark DeForrest laid out a legal strategy for introducing intelligent design into public schools in their book ''Intelligent Design in Public School Science Curriculum''.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.arn.org/docs/dewolf/guidebook.htm | title=Intelligent Design in Public School Science Curricula: A Legal Guidebook | publisher=[[Access Research Network]] |year= 2008 | access-date =2008-05-17}}</ref> Meyer has co-edited ''Darwinism, Design, and Public Education'' (Michigan State University Press, 2000) with [[John Angus Campbell]] and co-edited ''Science and Evidence of Design in the Universe'' ([[Ignatius Press]], 2000) with [[Michael J. Behe]] and [[William A. Dembski]]. In 2009, his book ''Signature in the Cell'' was released and in December of that year.

Meyer has been described as "the person who brought ID (intelligent design) to DI (Discovery Institute)" by historian [[Edward Larson]], who was a fellow at the Discovery Institute prior to it becoming the center of the intelligent design movement.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.waronscience.com/excerpt.php?p=3 | title = The Republican War on Science, Chapter 11: "Creation Science" 2.0 | last = Mooney | first = C | author-link = Chris Mooney (journalist) | year = 2005}}</ref> In 2004, the DI helped introduce ID to the [[Dover Area School District]], which resulted in the ''[[Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District]]'' case where ID was ruled to be based on religious beliefs rather than scientific evidence. Discussing ID in relation to Dover, on May 6, 2005, Meyer debated [[Eugenie Scott]], on ''[[The Big Story (2000 TV series)|The Big Story]]'' with [[John Gibson (media host)|John Gibson]]. During the debate, Meyer argued that intelligent design is critical of more than just evolutionary mechanisms like natural selection that lead to diversification, but of [[common descent]] itself.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.discovery.org/a/2561 | title = CSC - Kansas Debates Evolution: Stephen C. Meyer, Eugenie Scott (transcript)| publisher = Discovery Institute | date= 2005-05-06 | access-date = 2010-10-29 }}</ref>