Stephen Meyer’s debate with UC Berkeley paleontologist Charles Marshall back in November was unusual and valuable in several different ways. You may remember that Dr. Marshall had reviewed Dr. Meyer’s book, Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design, critically but respectfully in the pages of Science. The encounter on British radio stood out for its graciousness and substance. Its length too — it runs to an hour and half.

In a video conversation above, Meyer reflects on the Marshall debate. He explains how Marshall’s defense of Darwinian theory on the original of animal life involved a persistent pushing back of the Cambrian enigma into the mists of pre-Cambrian history, something that may seem superficially to deflect Meyer’s challenge but in reality does nothing of the sort.

You’ll find the debate itself easily accessible here.

It’s not easy to persuade a leading Darwinian scientist to let you argue with him, in real time. Normally, they won’t allow anyone who isn’t an ally, or otherwise known to be harmless, to question them deeply. When they do, as here, the results are telling.