The Story of Everything: A Cinematic Exploration of Design in Nature | The American Spectator

A new movie, The Story of Everything, opens in over 1,000 theaters nationwide April 30.   According to the synopsis posted at the movie web site:

The Story of Everything is a cinematic exploration of the cosmos that reveals the hidden hand behind our universe. From the precise laws that govern the stars to the intricate patterns found in every living cell, the film traces evidence of intentional design throughout nature. Whether examining distant star-forming clouds or the spiral structure of DNA, we discover a consistent signature woven into the fabric of existence.

The new movie is based on the 2021 best seller, Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries that Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe,” by Stephen Meyer, director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture.

The three scientific discoveries of Meyer’s book title are:

1) The Universe Had a Beginning

A great deal of evidence indicates that the universe (space, time, matter, and energy) came into existence from nothing about 14 billion years ago.  Since there were no natural causes before nature came into existence, we cannot hope to ever find a “natural” explanation for this “big bang.”

Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity showed that a beginning was theoretically possible, and other scientists discovered powerful evidence of such a beginning.  But if it is hard to imagine that the universe had a beginning, it is equally hard to imagine that it did not. For example, if the universe were infinitely old, shouldn’t all stars have burned out long ago, as hydrogen fused into helium and heavier elements?  How long ago — a quadrillion years ago?  Why not long before that?

2) The Laws and Constants of the Universe Are ‘Fine-tuned’ For Life

The universe that came into being from nothing is not arbitrary but is exquisitely tuned to allow life to exist and flourish. It is now known that the values of many basic physical constants, such as the strengths of the four fundamental forces, the masses and charges of the basic particles of physics, the speed of light, and Planck’s quantum physics constant, had to be almost exactly what they are in order for any conceivable form of life to exist in our universe.

As the late physicist Stephen Hawking wrote, “the remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life.”

3) The Secret of Life Is the Information Within Living Things

Perhaps the best way to get an idea of the incredible complexity of every living cell, and what Meyer means by the “information” contained in living things, is to watch this episode “Secrets of the Cell: with Michael Behe. Or watch some or all of videos 3,4,5,6,10 of the video series produced by Michael Kent, a recently retired bio-scientist from Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque.

Kent’s videos 1 and 2 deal with the other two discoveries discussed in Meyer’s book, the big bang and the fine-tuning of the laws and constants of our universe, and of the initial conditions at the big bang.

In his introductory video Kent says of his “recent discoveries,” which include the three discussed in Meyer’s 2021 book and thus in the new movie:

These are discoveries of science that are not controversial. They are findings of science that are very strongly supported. Scientists may disagree about the implications or the conclusions to make from these findings, but there is little or no debate about the discoveries themselves…. At the core of this debate is the question of how much evidence is needed for one to be convinced of design. For some people, those committed to materialism, no amount of evidence could ever be enough.  But I don’t think that’s true for most people.

The trailer at the movie web site is designed more to stimulate interest than to inform, but a glance at the cast, which includes Stephen Meyer, Michael Behe, James Tour, John Lennox, David Berlinski, and Peter Thiel, makes it clear that this will be a powerful and influential film. Look for it in a theater near you, April 30-May 6.

If you don’t have the time or opportunity to see The Story of Everything but can spare seven minutes, I recommend  A Mathematician’s View of Evolution. This short video makes what I believe to be the strongest argument of all for design, by simply looking at what you have to believe to not believe in intelligent design.

READ MORE from Granville Sewell:

What Science Now Knows — and the Public Rarely Hears

A Mathematician’s View of Evolution

What is the Scientific Theory of Intelligent Design?