Metamorphosis: The Case for Intelligent Design in a Nutshell Chrysalis

by David Klinghoffer

Publisher:

Discovery Institute Press

, 2011

Overview

Butterflies are the latest icon of intelligent design. They dazzle us with their beauty and charm. Many of us intuitively grasp that something in the fluttering shape of a Monarch, Yellow Swallowtail, Gossamer-Winged Blue, or Cloudless Sulpher butterfly hints at depths of purpose and design in nature, gesturing wordlessly toward a meaning that infinitely transcends its small and delicate self. Can our intuition about butterflies be confirmed in scientific terms?

Yes, it can.

The magnificent new Illustra Media documentary, Metamorphosis, documents the case for intelligent design based on the wonders of butterfly metamorphosis and migration. In this companion book, scientists, philosophers, and historians expand on the scientific arguments suggested in the film, offering the first comprehensive explanation of the science that substantiates our intuition about what a butterfly means.

Including contributions by world-renowned butterfly expert Bernard d’Abrera and by science historian Michael Flannery, Metamorphosis: The Case for Intelligent Design in a Nutshell Chrysalis is highlighted by a detailed essay by Drs. Ann Gauger and Paul Nelson. In “Stranger than Fiction: The Riddle of Metamorphosis,” Gauger and Nelson comprehensively lay out the scientific evidence for intelligent design from the life, death, and transformation of the caterpillar. They tell us what Darwinian evolutionists say in response to the challenge raised by Metamorphosis and why, in contemporary scientific terms, the Darwinian reply falls short.

Key Features

• Expands on the scientific arguments suggested in the Illustra Media documentary
• Includes contributions by world-renowned butterfly expert Bernard d’Abrera and by science historian Michael Flannery
• Explores what Darwinian evolutionists say in response to the challenge raised by Metamorphosis

Contents

• “About this Book: A Still Small Voice” by David Klinghoffer
• ”Reviewing Metamorphosis: The Case for Intelligent Design in a Nutshell Chrysalis” by David Klinghoffer
• An Interview with Lad Allen, Producer and Director of Metamorphosis
• “Stranger than Fiction: The Riddle of Metamorphosis” by Paul Nelson and Ann Gauger
• “Mimicry and Protective Resemblance: A Philosophical Appreciation” by Bernard d’Abrera
• “What Is It About Butterflies that Drives Men to Doubt Darwin? Bernard d’Abrera, with a Note on His Curious Encounter with the Smithsonian Institution” by David Klinghoffer
• “‘The Grand March of Nature’: The Evolution of Alfred Russel Wallace’s Intelligent Design” by Michael A. Flannery
• “Magic Masks of Mimicry: Vladimir Nabokov as Darwin Doubter” by David Klinghoffer
• “Darwin vs. Beauty: Explaining Away the Butterfly” by Jonathan Witt

Praise for the Print Edition

Metamorphosis is dazzling, insightful, and thought-provoking, with the power to open closed minds. For those of us who love science but decry scientism, this film affirms what we see everywhere from the latest discoveries in molecular biology to the long-understood twenty universal constants that, in their exquisite balance, make life possible: intention, meaning, and an intricacy that confounds all theories portraying nature as a consequence of dumb forces.

—Dean Koontz, author

Product Details

• Title: Metamorphosis: A Companion Book to the Film
• Author: David Klinghoffer
• Publisher: Discovery Institute Press
• Print Publication Date: 2011
• Logos Release Date: 2013
• Pages: 85
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Intelligent design (Teleology); Religion and science
• Resource ID: LLS:MTMRPHSSCSNTLLG
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-12T04:41:03Z

About David Klinghoffer

David Klinghoffer is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and the author of six books including, with Senator Joseph Lieberman, The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath and the spiritual memoir The Lord Will Gather Me In: My Journey to Jewish Orthodoxy.