A letter from an alum about creating a Origins of Life Biology chair

June 22, 2003

Two items in the June 4 PAW were of particular interest to me.

On the President’s Page, President Tilghman writes of a looming “paradigm shift” in the science of biology, in which “entirely new kinds of questions” will be asked.

Among the Professors’ Picks (Notebook) is one by Andrew P. Dobson h’76, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. With these two bits of information in mind, I recommend that the University create a chair of Origins of Life Biology.

One of the functions of this chair would be to explore the application of information theory to molecular biology. It would include studying the information content of DNA and proteins, and what Michael Behe [biochemist who supports "intelligent design"] calls the irreducibly complex engines within cells.

It should open up the science of the origins of life to the design hypothesis. For too long science has operated under a self-imposed straight jacket of methodological naturalism, in which for a hypothesis or theory to qualify as “scientific” it must invoke only such causes. Yet the intelligent design hypothesis is at least as valid and thought provoking as any that have been proposed under methodological naturalism.

Perhaps some wealthy alumnus or alumna could be found to endow such a chair. Perhaps Michael Behe could he induced to accept appointment to it.

It would make for another riveting President’s Page.

William T. Galey ’38
Falmouth, Maine

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