Darwinism: Scientific Inference or Philosophical Preference?

At Southern Methodist University in March 1992, scientists and philosophers gathered to examine the conceptual basis of Darwinian evolution. Titled Darwinism: Scientific Inference or Philosophical Preference? this symposium became a landmark exchange between Phillip E. Johnson and Michael Ruse, as well as between respective supporters of intelligent design and Darwinian naturalism. Notably, it brought together for the first time Michael Behe, William Dembski, and Stephen Meyer, who in subsequent years became leading proponents of intelligent design. Matching papers and rebuttals, participants debated whether unguided material processes can explain life’s complexity and whether philosophical bias limits scientific openness to design. The proceedings, first published in 1994 as Darwinism: Science or Philosophy? marked the intellectual coalescence of what quickly would become the Intelligent Design movement. This 2026 republication restores the symposium’s original title and context, inviting readers to reconsider this pivotal moment in the modern dialogue over the nature and limits of science.

Stephen C. Meyer received his Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge. A former geophysicist and college professor, he now directs Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture in Seattle. He has authored Signature in the Cell, a (London) Times Literary Supplement “Book of the Year,” Darwin’s Doubt, a New York Times best seller and Return of the God Hypothesis, a U.S.A Today best seller.

William A. Dembski holds doctorates in mathematics and philosophy. A founding senior fellow with Discovery Institute, he has written extensively on intelligent design, including The Design Inference (Cambridge, 1998). His work has supplied intelligent design with a rigorous mathematical underpinning. The author and/or editor of more than 30 books, he has published in the peer-reviewed mathematics, philosophy, theology, biology, and engineering literature.

Jon Buell (1939–2020) headed the Foundation for Thought and Ethics (FTE), a Dallas-based publisher providing credible educational alternatives to the materialistic worldview prevalent in American culture. He commissioned Charles Thaxton’s The Mystery of Life’s Origin (Philosophical Library, 1984) and published Dean Kenyon’s Of Pandas and People (1993) as well as William Dembski and Jonathan Wells's The Design of Life (2008). In 2016 FTE became an imprint of Discovery Institute Press.