Leader in the Voice for Intelligent Design

How does the concept of intelligent design relate to your work?

Many features of living organisms are more easily understood if one assumes that they are designed. A design-based paradigm would be good for biology in at least two respects: (a) biologists would not have to waste time trying to explain how organisms originated by random variation and survival of the fittest; and (b) a design-based paradigm would encourage the sort of top-down thinking which alone is capable of discovering the laws of embryonic development (as classical embryologists acknowledged, the end-point of development remains constant even though the intervening pathways may vary, suggesting that a reductionistic approach will not work).

What opportunities or opposition has your interest in intelligent design presented?

The opposition which I have encountered so far has consisted mainly of more-or-less polite disagreements at public lectures and academic conferences. I was, however, denied a college biology teaching position because (according to non-biology faculty members at the same college) I advocate taking a broader approach to biological issues than Darwinian reductionism permits. For example, I believe that if Darwinian arguments AGAINST design are allowed in the science classroom, they should be balanced with a presentation of the evidence FOR design.