Kenneth R. Miller

Kenneth R. Miller (b. 1948) is an American cell biologist, Professor of Biology at Brown University, and a practicing Roman Catholic who has become one of the most visible defenders of the compatibility of Darwinian evolution with belief in God. Trained at Brown and the University of Colorado, Miller is widely known as a co-author of standard secondary-school biology textbooks and as a leading scientific witness against intelligent design, most notably in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (2005), where his testimony helped persuade the court that ID is not science.

In Finding Darwin's God (1999) Miller argues that evolution by natural selection is fully established science and that intelligent design rests on misrepresentations of biology, while contending that quantum indeterminacy leaves conceptual room for divine action without violating physical law. He develops similar themes in Only a Theory (2008) and The Human Instinct (2018), defending evolutionary naturalism in science while rejecting metaphysical naturalism. His position has drawn criticism from both sides: Michael Behe and William Dembski reject his treatment of irreducible complexity, while Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne argue that his theistic framing is unsupported by the science he otherwise defends. Within philosophy of religion, Miller is read as a popular exponent of theistic evolution closer to the science-religion mainstream associated with Francisco Ayala and the BioLogos circle.