Plato's Revenge: The New Science of the Immaterial Genome

by David Klinghoffer

First there was the genetic revolution—the discovery that physical structures in the cell, including DNA and RNA, shape every organism. Now, says evolutionary biologist Richard Sternberg, we are overdue for another and more profound revolution. Recent findings reveal that genetic and even epigenetic sources alone cannot account for the rich dynamism of life—not even close. Some other informational source is required.

The idea was anticipated 2,400 years ago in Plato’s Timaeus, and periodically revisited in the ensuing centuries. Sidelined by scientific materialism, it is now reasserting itself on the strength of cutting-edge molecular biology, higher mathematics, and commonsense reasoning. In Plato’s Revenge, science writer David Klinghoffer takes Sternberg’s profound explorations and weaves them into a lively and accessible account of a most remarkable At every moment, we owe our lives to a genome that is more than matter, and to an informational source that is immaterial, transcomputational, and beyond space and time.

Genres: Science, Philosophy

170 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 28, 2025

Reviews

[Bob Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating look at the vast gaps in Darwinian Evolution's ability to explain neither the origin nor the processes of life. A must-read for anyone with an interest in the growing importance of the Intelligent Design movement.

[Brian Brawdy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading for the pleasure of stopping and thinking

I enjoyed this book: I thoroughly enjoyed how it made me repeatedly pause and think! Sometimes, your mind just goes quiet.

[Alan Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you avoid different ways of thinking, whether as a college student in your studies or as an adult watching the news, adhering to sources of information that corroborate what you want to believe, it’s quite conceivable never to be in danger of altering your mind about anything major.

As it would at the Smithsonian a few years later, the Darwinist curse word "creationist" continued to surface as a term of abuse, used to frighten and keep skeptics in line. Darwinists certainly hope that by using the term, their audience will consider the early chapters of Genesis as if they were a newspaper story and attempt to force science to fit that specific reading of the Bible.

As evolutionary garbage, or junk DNA left over from evolution's blind trial-and-error process of creating new biological forms, evolutionists dismissed the great majority of the genome. They were wrong.

[Glen Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scientific philosophy

I think you Wouk need to expand the book to include more explanation of Plato’s forms. This was very thought provoking. I found the idea behind the splicesosome and ribosome very intriguing. Hard to wrap your mind around it all. I would recommend it. It is a short read.