Product Details

• Directors: Lad Allen
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Randolph Productions
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 2002
• Run Time: 65 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (128 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00007KLDV
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #245,043 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

289 of 346 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Factual, careful, artful exposition of intelligent design, July 15, 2004

By 

Douglas Groothuis "Douglas Groothuis" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Unlocking the Mystery of Life (DVD)

Having followed the intelligent design movement since its inception, most of the material in this video was not new to me. However, the depictions are apt and really awe-inspiring--especially those in the last one third of the video. When you see a computer simulation of specified complexity at the molecular level, it sticks in your consciousness. Sheer dumb luck could not have done this.

I have seen this presentation three times. Each time I am impressed with the comments of the experts and the care in which the challenging material is presented. The subject is approached in a calm and scientific manner. The audio clips are long enough to explain tough concepts. Especially telling is the interview with Dr. Dean Kenyon, a pretigious scientist and author who eventually gave up on chance and necessity as the parents of human life--and this after defending it in a well-received volume called "Biochemical Predestination." He marvels at the nature of life and argues that a mindless universe could not have generated it.

In an age awash with stupid, pointless, and sensational vidiocy, this video presentation stands out as a unique and important achievement for the young intelligent design movement. One can learn much from it about some things that truly matter.

When I showed "Unlocking the Mystery of Life" to my class at Denver Seminary, the students spontaneously applauded at the end. Just to add an emotive comment, it gives me goosebumps.

But please don't just view this, read about the intelligent design movement: Phillip Johnson, "Darwin on Trial," William Dembski, "Intelligent Design," Thomas Woodward, "Doubts About Darwin," and many others.

Douglas Groothuis

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Evidence is Clear, September 27, 2003

By 

DAVID STRONG (SIU STL Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unlocking The Mystery Of Life [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Although more people would by the VHS Video version, click on the Amazon DVD version for additional reviews.

Unlocking The Mystery Of Life refers back to Darwin's writings of one hundred fifty years ago and leads us through recent discoveries of the complexity of cell functions and components. Along the way we have Dr. Dean Kenyon who in the 1960's had written the definitive work on the chemical version of evolution, that has been widely used in colleges and graduate schools. Kenyon's textbook was "Biochemical Predestination". Given the scientific discoveries in molecular biology and genetics of the last twenty years, Dr. Dean Kenyon and other scientists in this video (Stephen Meyer, Michael Behe, Jonathan Wells, Scott Minnich, Paul Nelson, and William Dembski) have completely discarded Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

Two examples of Darwin Theory's failure given in the video are the thousands of different complex molecular machines that interrelate in the cell's manufacturing processes as well as the detailed programming instructions for those machines.

The video uses computer-generated animation showing the building of these machines from amino acids into proteins, and finally the particular machine structure and function itself. The machine example in the video is a relatively simple one: the bacteria flagellum - specifically, the "outboard motor" assembly that runs the 100 thousand RPM tail of the bacteria.

The "modern" Darwin scientist counter argument of "co-option" is also addressed. These different machines could not have been built slowly over time as Darwin's Theory of "functional advantage" requires a complete and immediate working component. Plus the fact that most of the parts within these machines are unique only to those machines, and could not have been borrowed from another machine within the same cell. This has been termed "irreducible complexity"

... Where did this complete motor assembly come from? From the detailed blueprints of the nucleus' DNA for the proteins (machines) to build these other machines that are needed by the cell.

The next logical and scientific question, of course, is "Where did these final, complete and complex programming instructions come from?"

It's this last question that Darwin Evolutionists refuse to answer, because they have no answer for it. There is no "natural cause" that produces information. A detailed and error-free computer program of billions of instructions doesn't just "show up" on the beach one day. It had to be left there by someone, some mind who had designed it in the first place and remember, that here it's also a part of a complete and independent system (the cell).

Darwin Evolutionists dare not go to the next logical question "So, then WHO IS THE DESIGNER in this "Intelligent Design"? ... and what does that mean to me personally

69 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent in Every Way!, March 6, 2006

By 

Edward J. Vasicek "Author, pastor, columnist" (Kokomo, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Unlocking the Mystery of Life (DVD)

This DVD is great in every way:

1. It makes a compelling case for intelligent design. The "outboard motor" design in the bacterial cell itself makes the point; the DNA replication is absolutely awe-inspiring. The argument of recognizable patterns (with low probability of such patterns occurring by chance) is simple but forceful and consistent with human logic.

2. The production and computer animation are top-notch.

3. It is understandable to the average person, yet challenging to the intellectual.

This DVD has many potential uses:
-provoking the natural evolutionist to consider other options
-opening minds that are stuck in 1970's thinking
-as an apologetic to friends considering the existence of an Intelligent Designer
-as an educational tool to discover the wonders of DNA and even simple life

The DVD lasts about 65 minutes and can easily be divided into shorter segments to view it as a serial. Some extra features at the end highlight the wonder of some creatures found on the Galapagos and interviews with several "intelligent design" scientists.

Of course nothing will move someone who is entrenched and determined not to budge; but to the open minded, this DVD is thought provoking.