July 1, 2003

"Unlocking the Mystery of Life" Critique

Unlocking the Mystery of Life, a documentary about the “intelligent design” movement cowritten by Stephen C. Meyer, Director and Senior Fellow of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute, is airing on individual PBS stations across the country.

Because NCSE has received many inquiries about Unlocking, we have added a section to our web site for information and opinions about it. Articles in this section are the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of NCSE.

The first entry is a letter to Maryland Public Television, which aired Unlocking on June 10, from Daryl Domning, Professor of Anatomy at Howard University’s School of Medicine. Domning writes, "Although this program was presented as a science documentary, in fact it was no more than an elaborate infomercial for 'intelligent design' creationism (ID)."

The second entry is from NCSE's Network Project Director Skip Evans, who documents the links between Unlocking's producer, Illustra Media, and Discovery Media, whose stated mission is to "utilize every form of available media to present the reality of [God’s] existence through compelling scientific evidence and academic research."

And the final entry is a brief news article about Unlocking by Robert Park, professor of physics at the University of Maryland, Director of the Washington Office of the American Physical Society, and author of the American Physical Society’s popular "What's New" column. Park's critique is reposted, with his permission, from "What's New" for June 13, 2003.

NCSE will announce further additions to the Unlocking section as they appear.