Intelligent Design the Future: Recent Episodes
Discovery Institute
The ID The Future (IDTF) podcast carries on Discovery Institute's mission of exploring the issues central to evolution and intelligent design. IDTF is a short podcast providing you with the most current news and views on evolution and ID. IDTF delivers brief interviews with key scientists and scholars developing the theory of ID, as well as insightful commentary from Discovery Institute senior fellows and staff on the scientific, educational and legal aspects of the debate.
One of the seminal books of the modern intelligent design movement is Darwin’s Black Box, written by biochemist and professor Michael J. Behe. In 2026, that book turns 30. On this episode of ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid talks to Dr. Behe about the book's impact and the staying power of its arguments. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.Source
We’re asleep an average of about 26 years of our life! Most people have a sense that sleep is important, but many of us aren't sure exactly why. Why is sleep so crucial to survival? And how did the processes of sleep emerge in living things? Could a gradual Darwinian process be responsible, or are the systems involved another instance of intelligent design? On this episode of ID The Future selected from the vault, host Andrew McDiarmid begins a conversation with Dr. Eric Hedin about the origin and intelligent design of sleep. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 2 in a separate episode!Source
Today's episode of ID The Future comes from our sister podcast Mind Matters News. Today, guest host Pat Flynn welcomes Dr. Robert Marks and Dr. Michael Egnor to the show to critique Integrated Information Theory (IIT), a popular mathematical model that attempts to explain consciousness through computational complexity.Source
It's the book that helped launch the biochemical challenge to Darwinian evolution. It has been hailed as one of the most influential books on science in our lifetime. And this year, it celebrates thirty years in print! On today's ID the Future, host Andrew McDiarmid invites you to join him as he reads selections from Darwin's Black Box, authored by biochemist Michael J. Behe. And don't miss Andrew's two-part conversation with Behe about the impact of the book. Look for that in separate episodes of ID The Future.Source
Is it possible to integrate the evidence for intelligent design into full-length high school biology and chemistry courses? Of course! Are such courses currently available to homeschool students? Absolutely! Discovery Institute Academy offers innovative online science courses for homeschool students taught from the perspective that nature reflects intelligent design. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes the instructors of DI Academy’s biology and chemistry courses, Kristin Marais and Summer Edwards, to give us a fresh look at this year’s classes.Source
Is there clear and present scientific evidence that life and the universe were purposefully designed? On this ID The Future, we highlight Dr. Stephen Meyer's recent conversation with Piers Morgan on Piers Morgan Uncensored. This is Dr. Meyer's second interview with Morgan. Last time, he talked about scientific evidence for the existence of God. This time, he explores science, faith, and the very origins of the cosmos with Piers. Meyer unpacks some of the evidence explored in the new documentary film The Story of Everything. From the digital code embedded in our DNA to the precise fine-tuning of the universe, Meyer argues that the most “common sense” explanation for our existence isn’t blind, purposeless processes – it’s intentional design.We're grateful to the producer of Piers Morgan Uncensored for permission to share this conversation on ID The Future.Source
Today's episode of ID The Future comes from our sister podcast Mind Matters News.The age of AI is upon us and is already changing the way we conduct our lives. What is the optimal division of tasks between humans and machines? On this episode of Mind Matters News, host Robert J. Marks welcomes psychologist Dr. Joe McDonald to the podcast to explore the relationship between cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence (AI).Source
If theistic evolution doesn’t work, and Darwinian evolution is scientifically inadequate, what alternative framework better explains the origin of life and the universe? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his two-part conversation with Father Michal Chaberek and Steve Greene, authors of a new book called Creation or Evolution? A Catholic Dilemma.In Part 1, the discussion centered on why evolution became a dilemma for many Catholics. Part 2 explores the obvious follow-up questions: what does modern science actually reveal? Does the evolutionary story satisfy the evidence? And if not, what is the more adequate explanation? Fr. Chaberek and Greene review just a few of the many lines of scientific evidence suggesting that a Darwinian process in wholly incapable of producing life as we know it.Source
To reconcile faith and science, is it enough to say God could have used evolution? Many Christians are attracted to this idea, and it is now treated as the quasi-official Catholic position. But can this view, known as theistic evolution, really harmonize Scripture, theology, and modern science? Or is there a better approach?On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid begins a two-part conversation with Father Michal Chaberek and Steve Greene, authors of a new book called Creation or Evolution? A Catholic Dilemma.This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.Source
Vitalism is the age-old idea that living things possess a vital force – some fundamental element that generally does not exist in non-life. As a Darwinian paradigm took hold of the natural sciences in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, vitalism fell out of favor. But as writer and teacher Daniel Witt reports on this classic episode of ID The Future from the vault, a willingness to flirt with vitalism seems to be growing in certain scientific circles.Source
If our minds are the product of a blind and aimless process, what reason do we have to believe what we think? But if we can be rational because a rational intelligence designed life and the universe, how does that change how we should think about thinking? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his conversation with science teacher and writer Rebekah Valerius about an essay she recently wrote unpacking the argument from reason and its implications for Darwinism, materialism, and atheism. In Part 2, Valerius shows why a Darwinian process cannot be responsible for our powers of reason. She also offers the argument from reason as a lens to better understand modern technology like artificial intelligence. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Source
Before we can ask whether the universe is designed, we should first ask if we can trust the minds we’re using to investigate it. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes to the show science teacher and writer Rebekah Valerius to discuss an essay she recently penned unpacking the argument from reason and its implications for Darwinism, materialism, and atheism. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.Source
Progress is an appealing idea, but what happens when we do not all desire the same things? On this ID The Future, we mark the 60th anniversary of the death of British writer C. S. Lewis as host Andrew McDiarmid concludes a conversation with Dr. John West about Lewis's prophetic warnings to us about science and scientism. Dr. West explains how scientism harms real scientific progress and leads to moral relativism. And he discusses how we can bring science back into alignment with older, deeper human truths. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation.Source
No amount of small, blind, and gradual changes to the steam engine could ever have produced the internal combustion engine. To get to that fundamentally new type of engine, an infusion of new information was required. That analogy can be applied to the origin of biological life too. The spectacular order, complexity, and design we see in life could not have been achieved gradually by a process that lacked foresight. On today's ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes mathematician Granville Sewell to the podcast to share some of his compelling arguments for intelligent design. We might think that mathematicians are focused on incredibly complex ideas and equations, way above the everyday thoughts of the rest of us. But as Sewell points out, mathematicians are trained to value simplicity, and complex problems can often be solved in simple ways. Sewell's straightforward, yet profound arguments for intelligent design are worth memorizing and sharing with your friends, family, and associates.Source
Failed ideas tend to eventually crumble under the weight of contrary evidence. Is modern evolutionary theory heading for the same fate? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid speaks to biochemist Michael J. Behe about his core arguments for intelligent design and his recent experience sharing them at an Ivy League school. Behe, a professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University and author of Darwin's Black Box, recently presented some of his ID arguments to faculty, students, and post-docs at Cornell University. Behe reveals how his talk was received and shares some of his key insights highlighting the problems with Darwinian evolution.Source
What happens when science leaves human values behind? Or when governments become beholden to scientists? On this classic ID The Future out of the vault, we mark the 60th anniversary of the death of British writer C. S. Lewis as host Andrew McDiarmid begins a conversation with Dr. John West about Lewis's prophetic warnings to us about science and scientism. Dr. West discusses what scientism is, what happens when science neglects deeper human truths, and how Lewis warned against the rise of technocracies. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.Source
Did God use evolution to create life? On this ID The Future, we’re sharing the second half of a recent conversation with Dr. Casey Luskin that originally aired on the Truthful Hope podcast. Casey is critiquing theistic evolution, the view that God used evolutionary mechanisms to create life. In today's episode, he continues by next addressing the inadequacy of natural selection and random mutation to generate biological complexity. Luskin also points out that even non-ID scientists have expressed skepticism about the explanatory power of neo-Darwinism. All this makes it very hard to justify the position of theistic evolutionists, who claim God uses evolution to create life. In reality, the more we learn about the complexity and design of life, the less adequate neo-Darwinism is as an explanation. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Source
Some people attempt to reconcile belief in God with the standard evolutionary account of life's origins by combining the two. Theistic evolution is the view that God used evolutionary mechanisms to create life. But does this view stand up to scrutiny? Today, Dr. Casey Luskin critiques this perspective in the first half of a conversation that originally aired on the Truthful Hope podcast.The conversation kicks off with some clarity over terms, including what is meant by “evolution.” The theistic evolution perspective, also sometimes called evolutionary creation, accepts the standard scientific evolutionary account—the same view held by atheists—and simply adds the theological claim, "but this is how God did it". Critically, these proponents reject the idea that design can be empirically or scientifically detected in nature. As Luskin highlights, the central scientific problem with theistic evolution is that it inherits all the numerous scientific problems associated with the standard evolutionary account. This first half of the conversation rounds out with examples of those problems, specifically from the issue of the origin of life. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Source
If the phrase "Bayesian calculus" makes you run for the hills, you're not alone! Bayesian logic can sound intimidating at first, but if you give it a little time, you'll understand how useful it can be to evaluate the evidence for design in the natural world. On this ID The Future, Dr. Jonathan McLatchie gives us a beginner's guide to Bayesian thinking and teaches us how it can be used to build a strong cumulative case for intelligent design, as well as how we can use it in our everyday lives. Enjoying the podcast? Leave a written review at Apple Podcasts to help new listeners find the show!Source
Here's an experienced scientist who thinks YOU should have the power to settle the question of design in nature, not the scientific experts. Why? Because the majority of scientific authorities are committed scientific materialists, a view that hinders unbiased scientific inquiry by forbidding explanations outside the material realm. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his conversation with recently retired bio-scientist Dr. Michael Kent. In Part 2, Dr. Kent continues to unpack the scientific discoveries of the last century that have changed the debate over design in nature and made materialism an increasingly irrational view of the history of life and the universe. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Source
What you believe about the origin of life and the universe affects everything you do. So it's crucial that you decide for yourself whether the design that's evident in nature is the product of a designer or the outcome of a blind, unguided process. Today on ID The Future, retired bioscientist Dr. Michael Kent explains how we can take back important scientific decisions that belong to us and not to a scientific elite largely guided by materialist assumptions. Kent also reviews some of the top evidence for intelligent design, including the revolutionary discoveries that the universe had a beginning and is finely tuned for human life. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 2 in a separate episode.Source
Is the world a good place? Is truth relative? Can beauty be defined? On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, host David Klinghoffer speaks with Dr. Ann Gauger, Director of Science Communication and a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, about her article “The Transcendental Treasury of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness” at Science & Culture Today. These abstract concepts don’t derive from the material world, yet we feel impoverished without them; they’re foundations of a life worth living. Materialistic evolutionary explanations for truth, beauty, and goodness are out there, but they fall flat upon closer inspection. Some of them even reduce these qualities to mere illusion. Gauger holds that truth, beauty, and goodness are hallmarks of a designed world. Meditating on them can promote a spirit of gratitude, an important part of a healthy, happy life.Source
In 1984, three scientists dared to probe the mystery of life's origin by putting the prevailing theories of prebiotic and chemical evolution to the test. One of those men was engineer Walter Bradley. Today, Dr. Robert J. Marks joins host Andrew McDiarmid to share some of his personal anecdotes and professional insights about Dr. Bradley, a scientist, humanitarian, and trailblazer in the world of intelligent design who passed away this summer at the age of 81. A Distinguished Fellow of the Discovery Institute, Bradley taught mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University, Baylor University, and the Colorado School of Mines. His book, co-authored with chemist Charles Thaxton and geochemist Roger Olsen, deeply influenced prominent figures in the intelligent design research community like Stephen Meyer, Douglas Axe, and Jay Richards and helped to catalyze a new generation of inquiry into life’s beginnings. The Mystery of Life's Origin was re-released in 2020 as a new, expanded second edition. Source
Every day your body must solve hundreds of hard engineering problems simultaneously, or else you’ll die. These problems involve multiple coordinated, integrated systems that have to come online, not gradually, but all at once and at just the right time and place. Can an evolutionary process explain the development of these systems? You be the judge. On today's ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes Steve Laufmann, co-author with Dr. Howard Glicksman of the new book Your Amazing Body, a fresh, abridged version of their previous book Your Designed Body. In this discussion, Laufmann brings his engineering background to bear on the marvels of human anatomy, showing us how the human body is not just functional but brilliantly designed. We’ll explore how engineering intersects with biology, how an engineer and a physician worked together to lay out this evidence, and what the new streamlined book can offer readers.Source
Experiments on the living unborn. Organ harvesting. Reckless biotech. Radical environmentalism. These are not horror stories playing at your local movie theater. They're playing out in labs, hospitals, and institutes across America. On this episode of ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid speaks with bioethicist Wesley J. Smith about frightening abuses of science being done in the name of progress. In this unnerving exchange, Smith discusses examples of biotechnology that are advancing faster than our ethical considerations, including synthetic human embryos, genetic engineering, and fetal farming. He unpacks recent attempts by environmental activists to give rights to non-living things like rivers and oceans. He explains the difference between animal rights and animal welfare, while exposing the animal rights campaign as an anti-human movement that inhibits human flourishing. Smith also discusses the latest fronts in the gender ideology crusade, and how the rush to affirm gender dysphoria in children is causing tremendous harm to our society. And before the nightmare ends, Smith explains the pernicious push from evidence-based medicine to "science-based medicine," a strategy that encourages censorship and totalitarian governance of the scientific enterprise.Source
For decades, British professor and author Neil Thomas was a card-carrying Darwinist. It wasn't until after he retired from academia that he had the repose to think about things objectively. Then one day, in a scientific flash of inspiration, he came to the conclusion that the standard Darwinian story was "rubbish." In the second half of a conversation with Andrew McDiarmid, Thomas continues to explain why Darwinism fails as an adequate explanation for the history of life as he discusses his new book False Messiah: Darwinism As the God That Failed. Over two episodes, Thomas reveals the conceptual flaws and historical roots of the theory, the responses of major early dissenters of the theory, and how modern science is undermining the Enlightenment worldview upon which Darwinism relies. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Source
It might surprise you to learn that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection did not triumph on purely scientific grounds. There are other reasons beyond empirical science that gave it broad acceptance and enduring popularity. On today's ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid unpacks those reasons as he begins a conversation with professor emeritus and author Neil Thomas about his new book False Messiah: Darwinism As the God That Failed. Over two episodes, Thomas discusses the conceptual flaws and historical roots of the theory, the responses of major early dissenters of the theory, and how modern science is undermining the Enlightenment worldview upon which Darwinism relies. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 2 in a separate episode.Source
When one person stands up to lies or oppression, others can become emboldened to do the same. On this classic episode of ID the Future, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor discusses his article about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn, the great Soviet dissident and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, penned the short essay "Live Not By Lies" in 1974, just before he was arrested and exiled from Russia. It was his advice, or even strategy, for living under totalitarianism. Solzhenitsyn’s basic advice is simply not to participate with lies, and to refuse to speak what one does not believe. It’s unnervingly relevant counsel to us in America today, where “cancel culture” and other silencing tactics, long foreshadowed in the intelligent design debate, are spreading to the broader culture. As Egnor relates, sometimes it takes a single person to stand firm before others will do the same. "There are orders of magnitude more of us than of them," Egnor says. "That is people who feel as we do: who support academic freedom, who support human dignity, who support freedom of speech and freedom of religion...the only way they control us, the only way they oppress us, is with our cooperation."Source
What can science tell us about the existence of God? A lot more than you may think! Since the 16th century, a scientific worldview has been brewing called materialism that sought to explain all of life and the universe through unguided chance processes, and in doing so, ridding humanity of any need for God. But the worldview of materialism is increasingly at odds with the latest scientific discoveries of the last hundred years. On today's episode, join host Andrew McDiarmid as he continues his conversation with engineer Michel Bollore, co-author with Olivier Bonnassies of the book God: The Science, The Evidence, now available in a new English translation. Published in French in 2021, the book is a #1 bestseller in France, Spain, and Italy and has sold over 400k copies. The book presents a wide-ranging case for the existence of God by drawing on discoveries across physics, cosmology, biology, and human consciousness. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Editor’s note: This interview is sponsored by Palomar Editions, publisher of God, the Science, the Evidence. However, Discovery Institute staff were responsible for the editorial content of this posting.Source
Does God exist…or not? It’s a simple, compelling question. What can science tell us that would help us get an answer? For the last 150 years, many have assumed science has ejected God from the picture, a quaint relic of a less enlightened past. But what if that view has become a relic itself? Scientific discoveries of the last hundred years suggest there is bountiful evidence of intelligent design in nature, from the simplest living cells to distant galaxies.On today's ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid begins a conversation with computer engineer and businessman Michel-Yves Bolloré, who is co-author with Olivier Bonnassies of the book God: The Science, The Evidence.In Part 1, Michel explains how this materialistic worldview developed and how it gave the illusion of challenging the foundations of belief in God. Michel also discusses the difference between evidence and proof, and discusses how his book builds a strong case for theistic belief by presenting numerous, converging, and independent lines of evidence. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.Source
What happens when a world-class mathematician and Christian thinker takes on one of the most hotly debated questions of our time—can the book of Genesis be reconciled with modern science? In this episode of ID the Future out of our vault, host Jay Richards welcomes Oxford University’s Dr. John Lennox to discuss his book Seven Days That Divide the World.Lennox argues that science and faith are not enemies but allies in our quest for truth. He offers a careful reading of the Genesis creation account, showing that it need not be in conflict with what we learn from physics, cosmology, and biology. With wit, humility, and clarity, Lennox challenges both materialist skepticism and overly rigid interpretations of Scripture, urging listeners toward a view of reality that can honor Scripture as well as the findings of science.Source
In a universe of non-living space and matter, life is incredibly rare. And in order to stay alive, humans and other organisms have to overcome a myriad of engineering challenges. Just how is this done? And more to the point, is an evolutionary process capable of producing the solutions to these many challenges? On today's episode, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his conversation with Dr. Howard Glicksman, co-author with engineer Steve Laufmann of the new book Your Amazing Body. The book explores some of your body’s greatest marvels, including how your hearing and vision work, how you coordinate your movements, and — perhaps the greatest miracle of them all — how you developed from a single cell at conception. In Part 2, Dr. Glicksman dives into some examples of the countless challenges life must overcome. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Source
Is the human body a cosmic accident, or is it the handiwork of a master engineer? Today on ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid begins a two-part conversation with physician Dr. Howard Glicksman, co-author with engineer Steve Laufmann of the new book Your Amazing Body, a fresh, abridged version of their previous book Your Designed Body. In Part 1 of the conversation, Dr. Glicksman begins by contrasting unguided material causes (Darwinism) with intentional intelligent causes, emphasizing that intelligent design better explains the intricate, interdependent coherence found within the human body. He argues that Darwinian evolution only describes how life looks, failing to explain the complex functional capacity, control systems, and engineering principles required for life to actually work and survive. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 2 in a separate episode. Visit www.idthefuture.com for more episodes!Source
Can viewing life as designed enhance scientific research? Today, host Andrew McDiarmid speaks with physicist Dr. Brian Miller about the fruitful research that can result when engineering principles are applied to the study of biological systems. Dr. Miller is part of a group that brings together engineers, scientists, and scholars to demonstrate how engineering principles, patterns, and tools can deepen the understanding of biology. The group hosts an annual Conference on Engineering in Living Systems, hosted by the Discovery Institute, that highlights new insights and research projects in this bold new approach to the study of life. Here Dr. Miller gives the lowdown on current research as well as this year's conference.Source
Is the soul a myth? Does your mind really just boil down to brain function? On today's ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid speaks with journalist Denyse O'Leary about surprising findings out of neuroscience that shatter materialist assumptions. O'Leary is co-author with Dr. Michael Egnor of The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon's Case for the Existence of the Soul. In this conversation, O'Leary reports on recent findings about the origin of consciousness, the challenge that near-death experiences present to materialism, and why the only way to move past materialism is to reject it fully as a model. Source
Do we have to choose between science and God? Absolutely not, says philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer. In fact, theistic ideas about nature actually inspired the rise of modern science. On today’s ID the Future from the archive, Return of the God Hypothesis author Stephen Meyer and radio host Michael Medved discuss the arguments presented in a series of short videos featuring Dr. Meyer that explore the increasingly strong scientific case for intelligent design and for the idea that the universe is the product of a transcendent mind. Source
On this ID The Future, Dr. Michael Egnor reads the Introduction to his new book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon's Case for the Existence of the Soul, now available from Worthy Books. In this reading, Dr. Egnor shares his journey from being a medical student who believed science could explain everything, including how consciousness emerges from the brain and whether we have a soul, to a neurosurgeon who questioned the conventional materialist view. He discusses how years of operating on and examining patients with brain damage led him to wonder how large parts of the brain could be removed without affecting a person's mind or their ability to think, reason, believe, and desire. His personal story, including a profound experience in a hospital chapel during a family crisis, became a turning point that challenged his atheism and led him to believe that the immaterial aspects of our minds are real and that nature is an open system, not a closed one.Source
Before the positive case for intelligent design can be received effectively, the case against the Darwinian evolutionary mechanism must be clearly laid out. One man who was instrumental in this initial "ground clearing operation" was biologist Dr. Jonathan Wells, our friend and colleague who passed away in 2024. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes Dr. Jay Richards back to the podcast to share his memories of Dr. Wells and discuss the significance of Wells's life and work. Source
On this ID the Future from the archive, host Jonathan Witt speaks to molecular biologist and professor Dustin Van Hofwegen about his research into the engineered complexity in microbial life. Hofwegen shares his research on the famous decades-long E. coli evolution experiment conducted by Richard Lenski, which showed the sudden appearance of an ability to utilize citrate after many generations. However, Van Hofwegen's own experiments demonstrated that this "evolutionary innovation" actually points to the intelligent design built into living systems instead of an undirected process like natural selection. Source
For decades, we’ve thought the control center of life lies in DNA. But a new scientific framework is emerging that challenges that idea, and suggests that vast portions of the genome are immaterial and lie outside the physical world. Today, physicist Dr. Brian Miller shares his perspective on the cutting-edge, potentially revolutionary research of mathematical biologist Dr. Richard Sternberg on the immaterial aspects of the genome. In this exchange, Dr. Miller shares several examples of the immaterial nature of life. These ideas point towards the earliest stages of the next great scientific revolution and have significant implications for the intelligent design debate.Source
On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid is thrilled to welcome back renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor to continue discussing his new book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon's Case for the Existence of the Soul. The book tackles provocative ideas, making a case that the human soul exists and that the mind is immortal. In this compelling conversation, we unpack some of the powerful arguments and evidence Dr. Egnor has marshaled. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation.Source
On this classic ID The Future out of the vault, biochemist Dr. Michael Denton discusses the implications of recurring animal body plans, arguing that they are predetermined types that point away from purely mechanistic processes. He observes that structures like the insect body plan were fixed long ago and haven't changed. He argues they are better understood as instances of predetermined type rather than collections of historical adaptations. This predetermination, he suggests, is the product of laws of form, which he finds inexplicable on a mechanistic view of nature. Source
On this ID The Future, we're sharing a conversation that first aired on Mind Matters News, another podcast from the Discovery Institute that focuses on the intersection of artificial and natural intelligence. In this episode, guest host Pat Flynn welcomes engineer Dr. Eric Holloway and professor Robert J. Marks to discuss the information cost of creativity. The conversation is based on a chapter in the recent volume Minding the Brain, authored by Dr. Holloway and Marks. This conversation originally aired on the Mind Matters News podcast. Visit mindmatters.ai/podcast for more.Source
We usually think of life as the most natural thing there is – blooming plants, flowing water, the cycles of nature. But what if that perspective is fundamentally challenged by the very laws of physics that govern our universe? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes physicist Dr. Eric Hedin to the podcast to discuss the compelling idea that life is the most "unnatural" thing in the universe. Dr. Hedin contends that the complex, organized nature of life defies the natural tendency of matter and energy towards disorder and equilibrium, suggesting that life requires something only an intelligent designer could provide. Source
When scientists originally studied the chimp genome, they used the human genome as a template. This scaffolding technique gave birth to the popular claim that chimp and human genomes are only 1% different. But new research has now blown the 1% myth out of the water. On today's ID The Future, geologist Dr. Casey Luskin speaks with host Dr. Emily Reeves about this explosive new finding and what it means for the debate over evolution.Source
On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes Kristin Marais and Summer Lile, two passionate instructors from the Discovery Institute Academy, to discuss their high school biology and chemistry courses, uniquely taught from the perspective that nature reflects intelligent design. These courses offer a complete, sequenced curriculum and include readings, handouts, videos, pre-recorded instructor lectures, and hands-on wet labs designed to be done at home. Live classes and one-on-one teacher drop-in sessions are also available. In this exchange, both teachers discuss what students will learn in their class and how intelligent design concepts are integrated throughout course content. Learn more and register at discoveryinstitute.academy.Source
Is your mind more than just your brain? Does the soul actually exist? These questions have been pondered for millennia. What does the latest scientific research suggest? On this ID The Future, renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor begins a conversation with host Andrew McDiarmid about his new book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon's Case for the Existence of the Soul. Egnor makes a powerful case that our capacity for thought, reason, and free will points to something beyond mere brain function. After defining important terms, Egnor begins exploring the compelling evidence he has gathered across four decades of practice in neurosurgery. Along the way, Dr. Egnor also boldly challenges the Darwinian view of the mind's evolution, arguing that abstract thought and free will are immaterial and could not have arisen through natural selection. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.Source
On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, Andrew McDiarmid talks with science historian Michael Keas about pioneering mathematical astronomer Johannes Kepler, based on Keas’s book Unbelievable: 7 Myths About the History and Future of Science and Religion. Kepler studied theology before turning to math and science, and it was his belief in God that guided his extraordinary discoveries. Kepler is one of several great scientists of early modern science whose convictions about God's nature inspired their groundbreaking investigations.Source
On this ID The Future, enjoy the concluding half of a remarkable and candid discussion on the limits of Darwinian evolution and the arguments for intelligent design. The conversation, recorded in 2019, is hosted by Peter Robinson for his program Uncommon Knowledge, and features philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer, mathematician and author Dr. David Berlinski, and Yale Professor of Computer Science Dr. David Gelernter. In Part 2, Stephen Meyer argues there's a "powerful signal of design" in nature. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation.Source
Does the math behind Darwinian evolution add up? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid invites you to enjoy the first half of a remarkable and candid discussion about the limits of Darwinian evolution and the arguments for intelligent design. The conversation, originally recorded in 2019, is hosted by Peter Robinson for Uncommon Knowledge, and features philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer, mathematician and author Dr. David Berlinski, and Yale Professor of Computer Science Dr. David Gelernter. In Part 1, the trio engage in an honest conversation about Darwin, his “brilliant and beautiful” theory, and why it’s time to move past it. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.Source
On this episode of ID the Future from our archive, Dr. Paul Nelson talks with Dr. Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig, retired geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Germany, about randomness in natural selection and why randomness is such a controversial topic.Source
Is the famous “panda’s thumb” evidence of unguided evolutionary processes, or is it a masterpiece of engineering and the result of intelligent design? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his conversation with retired geneticist, Dr. Wolf-Eckehard Lönnig, an intelligent design pioneer who has been offering robust criticism of Darwinian theory and advocating for intelligent design for over 50 years. The topic is Dr. Lönnig's new paper reviewing the debate over the panda’s thumb. Giant pandas have an extra digit, an elongated wrist bone, that aids the animal in walking and manipulating bamboo with great dexterity. Some claim it's a clumsy structure produced by evolutionary processes. It wouldn't win any design awards, but it gets the job done. Others call it one of the most extraordinary manipulation systems in the mammalian world and clear evidence of purposeful engineering. So which is it? Dr. Lönnig helps us answer that question. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation.Source
In 1980, influential paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould wrote that “we can know that evolution has happened by the imperfections and oddities that life shows.” But is that true? And what if we take a closer look at those assumed evolutionary oddities and see instead evidence of engineered elegance? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes retired geneticist Dr. Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig to the podcast to discuss his new paper reviewing the debate over the panda’s thumb. Giant pandas have an elongated wrist bone, the radial sesamoid, that allows them to handle and eat bamboo with great dexterity. Some claim it’s an imperfectly and inefficiently formed structure that is clear evidence of evolutionary processes at work. Others Read More ›Source
On this ID the Future from the archive, hear the second half of Discovery Institute’s John West’s talk given at the 2020 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith, on how Darwinism has corroded Western culture. In this portion he examines the morally poisoning effects of Darwinism on marriage, sexual ethics, and religion, such that virtually anything can be defended as OK, and no particular culture’s ethic is to be preferred over another. Humankind’s spiritual purpose has likewise been eroded. Yet West closes with hope: science in our generation is discovering more and more signs of intelligent design and purpose in nature, and young researchers are learning that materialism shouldn’t be the foregone conclusion of contemporary science. This is Part 2 Read More ›Source
On this ID The Future, science writer David Klinghoffer reads from his new book Plato’s Revenge: The New Science of the Immaterial Genome, now available from Discovery Institute Press. This is a compact book, but it’s the story of a very big idea, and one that has the potential to usher in the next great revolution in biology.Source
You're likely familiar with the genetic revolution — the discovery that physical structures in the cell, including DNA and RNA, shape every organism. But we are now overdue for another and more profound revolution in science, one you've likely heard very little about. 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. On this ID The Future, science writer and Discovery Institute Senior Fellow David Klinghoffer speaks with host Andrew McDiarmid about his new book Plato's Revenge: The New Science of the Immaterial Genome. It's a little book about a very big idea. It also tells the story of the scientist, Dr. Richard Sternberg, who has spent the last two decades bringing together cutting-edge molecular biology, higher mathematics, and commonsense reasoning to flesh out this potentially revolutionary new idea.Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, catch the first half of a public talk by political scientist John West on how Darwinism has poisoned Western culture. In the lecture, delivered at the Dallas Conference on Science & Faith, West explores how Darwin’s purely materialistic theory of evolution has drained meaning from nature, undercut the idea of inherent human dignity, and fueled the rise of scientific racism in the twentieth century. West is author of Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science.This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Look for Part 2 in a separate episode.Source
On this episode of ID The Future, hosts Andrew McDiarmid and Nathan Jacobson continue their conversation with Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger. In this segment, Sanger explains how his philosophy to decentralize the world's knowledge plays into science and truth-seeking in the age of AI. He talks about the shortcomings of large language models and why humans are irreplaceable and essential to increasing our understanding of the world. Sanger also discusses the challenges that online encyclopedias like Wikipedia have faced in accurately and fairly reflecting controversial or important topics. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Check out Part 1 in a separate episode!Source
On this ID The Future, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger joins hosts Andrew McDiarmid and Nathan Jacobson to delve into his personal evolution from longtime skeptical philosopher to belief in God. After falling out of faith in his teens, Sanger became a committed skeptic and agnostic, adhering to the principle of methodological skepticism for decades as he evaluated traditional arguments for the existence of God and found them wanting. And while Sanger was unconvinced by the claims of "new atheists" like Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett, he found himself drawn to the arguments of intelligent design scientists like Stephen Meyer, Michael Behe, and William Dembski. In this first half of a conversation, Sanger recounts his fascinating intellectual journey while unpacking the intelligent design arguments he found most convincing along his journey. This is Part 1 of a two-part interview. Look for Part 2 in a separate episode.Source
On this episode of ID the Future out of the archive, biologist Ann Gauger walks listeners through the triumphs, flaws, and tragedies of Louis Pasteur, the French scientist whose scientific breakthroughs have saved millions of lives, and whose work on microbes sounded the death knell of the idea of spontaneous generation. Dr. Gauger also discusses his pioneering and life-saving work on vaccines, the Christian faith that saw him through the death of his three of his children, and more. Source
Did our universe come from nothing, as some physicists have proposed? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid critiques the audacious claim that our universe popped into existence out of nothing. What is nothing? What isn’t nothing? And how does the universe from nothing claim actually imply intelligent design? McDiarmid shares audio from the Science Uprising video series, as well a portion of an interview with Dr. Stephen Meyer, to help answer these questions. Source
Is origin of life research going round in circles? This is ID the Future, a podcast that isn't afraid to tackle the big questions about evolution and intelligent design. Today, host Eric Anderson chats with physicist Dr. Brian Miller about circular reasoning and other problems in origin of life research. They discuss the work of Stephen Meyer and James Tour, highlighting the information problem and the difficulties in natural chemical synthesis of life's building blocks. Miller analyzes a new paper on the supposed order of amino acid recruitment into the genetic code, critiquing its underlying circular reasoning. Dr. Miller also explains the concept of causal circularity in biological systems and reveals why intelligent design provides a better explanation for the origin of life than an unguided evolutionary scenario.Source
On today’s ID the Future from our archive, historian of science Michael Keas concludes a two-part conversation with science-and-religion scholar Robert Shedinger about his research into the writing and work of 19th century naturalist Charles Darwin. In this segment, Shedinger makes the case that a well-known biography of Charles Darwin, Darwin’s Sacred Cause, is deeply misleading. The book tries to make Darwin seem like a saintly abolitionist. Instead, argues Shedinger, it's closer to historical fiction than the truth. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Visit idthefuture.com for more.Source
On this episode, Dr. Casey Luskin concludes his conversation about the basics of intelligent design with Sam Kleckley, host of the Live Life in Motion podcast. You'll find this interview (including Part 1) particularly helpful if you are new to the science of intelligent design yourself, or you have friends or family who are open to learning more. In Part 2, Dr. Luskin begins by discussing the fossil record and the abrupt appearance of new life forms. He also tackles the often-debated question of the intelligent agent behind the design found in nature. Finally, in the realm of education, he addresses the controversy surrounding teaching evolution and intelligent design in schools. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation.Source
How would you explain intelligent design to someone who has just recently begun looking into it? Perhaps you are new to it yourself, or you have a friend or family member who is curious. Today, Dr. Casey Luskin begins a two-part discussion of the basics of intelligent design with Sam Kleckley, host of the Live Life in Motion podcast. Part 1 presents a nice overview of where and when intelligent design began, how it developed, and why it is such a compelling idea for so many. Luskin also discusses some key lines of evidence for intelligent design, including the complexity of living things at the cellular level and the evidence for the fine-tuning of the universe. This is Part 1 of a two-part discussion.Source
Does the public promotion of Darwin's theory of natural selection match Darwin's own private view of his theory? On this episode of ID the Future out of the archive, historian of science Michael Keas begins a two-part conversation with Robert Shedinger, the Wilford A. Johnson Chair of Biblical Studies and Professor of Religion at Luther College and author most recently of The Mystery of Evolutionary Mechanisms: Darwinian Biology's Grand Narrative of Triumph and the Subversion of Religion. Shedinger reports on the contrast between Darwin's private view of his theory of natural selection and the public view as detailed in his published work. Shedinger also notes the deficiency in evidence for Darwin's proposal, despite claims to the contrary from his followers and evangelizers today. Source
On this ID The Future, we bring you excerpts from a recent gathering to celebrate the life of biologist Dr. Jonathan Wells, who passed away in September 2024 at the age of 82. Dr. Wells was one of the first fellows of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. In 2000, Wells took the science world by storm with Icons of Evolution, a book showing how biology textbooks routinely promote Darwinism using bogus evidence — icons of evolution like Ernst Haeckel’s faked embryo drawings and peppered moths glued to tree trunks. Dr. Wells's achievements in the field of biology are notable. In this episode you’ll get a glimpse into Dr. Wells’s life and character as well as his relentless search for scientific truth. This episode includes eulogies from Dr. John West, Dr. Paul Nelson, Dr. Richard Sternberg, and Dr. Casey Luskin. Learn more about Jonathan Wells at www.jonathanwells.org.Source
Traditional methods in biology have proven insufficient for understanding and accurately predicting complex biological systems. Why? The great majority of biologists are trained to study life from the bottom up, as the result of unguided evolutionary processes. It turns out there are better ways to observe, question, hypothesize, experiment, and analyze a complex system. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes biochemist and metabolic nutritionist Dr. Emily Reeves to the podcast to discuss her co-authored paper on how biologists can apply principles from systems engineering to biology to better approach the study of complex living systems. Dr. Reeves explains how the new methodology works and how it can produce fruitful scientific research.Source
On today’s ID the Future out of the vault, join host and geologist Casey Luskin and historian of science Michael Keas for a lively conversation puncturing a series of anti-Christian myths about the history of science, including the Dark Ages myth, the flat-earth myth, the myth that humanity was rendered insignificant by the discovery of the size of the universe, and the simplistic revisionist history of Galileo and the Inquisition. What about the claim in the recent Cosmos TV series reboot that in abandoning his traditional Jewish faith, seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza was able to provide an improved framework for doing science? As Keas argues, the truth is just the opposite. Spinoza, he says, abandoned a key tenet of Judeo-Christian theology that had proven vital to the birth of science.Source
Host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes science reporter David Coppedge to the show to explore some fascinating examples of intelligent design in the plant world. They look so helpless tied to the soil, but plants and fungi have perfected technologies for spreading themselves far and wide. Coppedge and McDiarmid unpack the ingenious methods plants and fungi use to disperse their spores. The conversation also touches on the engineering principles behind plant root systems, and how studying these natural designs can inspire advancements in human technology through biomimetics.Source
On this episode of ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid interviews Dr. Brian Miller about the Discovery Institute's Summer Seminar Program, which offers a unique opportunity for students and professionals to explore intelligent design across various scientific disciplines. Dr. Miller shares his personal journey from participant to teacher, highlighting the program's impact on his career and the transformative experiences of other past graduates. Miller and McDiarmid also review frequently asked questions about the program, including who is eligible to apply, the costs associated with the program, the focus of the curriculum, and more. Source
On this ID the Future out of the vault, host and geologist Casey Luskin continues his conversation with astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez about the many ways Earth’s place in the cosmos is finely tuned for life. In this second half of their conversation, Gonzalez zooms out to discuss the galactic habitable zone and the cosmic habitable age. Luskin says that the combination of exquisite cosmic and local fine tuning strongly suggests intelligent design, but he asks Gonzalez whether he thinks these telltale clues favor theism over deism? That is, does any of the evidence suggest a cosmic designer who is more than just the clock maker God of the deists who, in the words of Stephen Dedalus, “remains within or behind Read More ›Source
On this episode of ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid continues a series of interviews celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Jonathan Wells, our close colleague and friend who passed away in 2024 at the age of 82 years old. Dr. Wells was one of the first fellows of Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture and made significant contributions to science and to the arguments for intelligent design. Today, evolutionary biologist Dr. Richard Sternberg shares personal anecdotes and insights into Dr. Wells's character, his contributions to biology and epigenetics, and the profound impact he had on those around him.Source
On this episode of ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid invites Dr. Casey Luskin to share some of his memories of our longtime colleague Dr. Jonathan Wells, who recently passed away at 82 years old. Dr. Wells was one of the first fellows at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. In a career spanning three decades, Wells made significant contributions to our understanding of the limits of evolutionary processes and the evidence for intelligent design. In this interview, Dr. Luskin describes the powerful impact Jonathan's work had on him and how it led to meaningful reform in textbooks and classrooms. He also identifies the character traits he most admired in Dr. Wells.Source
On today’s ID the Future out of the archive, astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez, co-author of The Privileged Planet, begins a two-part conversation with host Casey Luskin by providing a rapid survey of some of the growing evidence that Earth is finely tuned in numerous ways to allow for life. He draws a helpful distinction between local fine tuning and universal fine tuning. And he tells us about the many extra-solar planets astronomers have discovered in recent years and how all that new data continues to undermine the misguided assumption (encouraged by the misnamed “Copernican Principle”) that Earth is just a humdrum planet. Far from it, Gonzalez argues. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.Source
On this ID The Future, Dr. Tom Woodward shares more memories of our longtime colleague Dr. Jonathan Wells, who recently passed away at 82 years old. Dr. Wells was one of the first fellows at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, and his contributions over the last quarter century to the intelligent design movement have been formidable. In Part 2, Dr. Woodward kicks off by describing Dr. Wells's skills as a communicator. He also discusses Dr. Wells's mind-boggling insights on the design beyond DNA in every nook and cranny of the cell, layers of information that Wells knew only strengthen the case for intelligent design at the heart of biological life. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Source
On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes Dr. Tom Woodward to the podcast to share some of his memories of our longtime colleague Dr. Jonathan Wells, who recently passed away at 82 years old. In Part 1, Dr. Woodward tells the story of Jonathan’s efforts to fight the battle over textbook misinformation with his 2000 book Icons of Evolution. When the book first came out, National Center for Science Education director Eugenie Scott said that Icons of Evolution would be a “royal pain in the fanny” for the evolutionist community. She was not wrong! Woodward talks about the reverberations caused by the book's release and the waves of textbook reform it has brought about. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.Source
On this episode of ID the Future out of our archive, evolutionary biologist Dr. Richard Sternberg, a research fellow at the Biologic Institute and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, speaks about his mathematical and logical work showing the difficulty of identifying genes purely with material phenomena. It turns out DNA doesn’t have all that’s needed to direct the development of organisms. In recent decades, evidence of a vast richness of information beyond DNA has been discovered, revealing new layers of information density and irreducible complexity not known about before. Source
On this episode of ID The Future, philosopher of biology Paul Nelson continues to share his remembrances of our longtime colleague Dr. Jonathan Wells, who passed away in 2024 at 82 years old. Dr. Wells was one of the first fellows at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, and his contributions to the intelligent design movement over the last quarter century have been monumental. In Part 2 of the conversation, Dr. Nelson shares another adventure he had with Jonathan, this time at the University of Chicago in the early 2000s. He also discusses the qualities that made Wells such a remarkable man, including his bravery and loyalty. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation.Source
On this episode of ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes philosopher of biology Paul Nelson to share some of his remembrances of our longtime colleague Dr. Jonathan Wells, who passed away in 2024 at 82 years old. Dr. Wells was one of the first fellows at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, and his contributions to the intelligent design movement over the last quarter century have been monumental. In the first half of the conversation, Dr. Nelson takes listeners back to a famous meeting in the history of the modern intelligent design movement. He also shares some humorous stories of his adventures with Jonathan Wells at events in the United States and China. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.Source
On today’s ID the Future from the vault, Casey Luskin continues his conversation with host Eric Anderson about the myths surrounding human origins. Luskin rebuts the popular claim that the human and chimp genomes are 98-99% similar and therefore surely resulted from Darwinian common descent. He also throws shade in the argument that humans and chimps share junk DNA similarities. The problem? So-called "pseudogenes" are turning out to have functions. Listen in as Luskin unravels this popular myth, one thread of evidence at a time.Source
Can we train AI models to help us detect evidence of intelligent design? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes science reporter and former NASA engineer David Coppedge to the podcast to talk about scientists who are doing just that: using artificial intelligence to make design inferences. Here, Coppedge tells us about a group of scientists who are training an AI model to search through imaging data to identify possible instances of human-made geoglyphs in the Nazca Plain in Peru. It's another intriguing example of intelligent design in action in the everyday world around us.Source
Did meaning and purpose arise from a bottom-up Darwinian process to give us an evolutionary advantage? Or is the universe infused with meaning and purpose for a deeper reason than survival? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid and Dr. Emily Reeves explore whether meaning and purpose can emerge from an unguided evolutionary process. They also discuss the machine metaphor in biology and how it can help us understand and explain living systems.Source
What is wrong with the standard evolutionary story of human origins? On today’s ID the Future from the archive, host Eric Anderson begins a two-part conversation with geologist Dr. Casey Luskin to discuss why evolutionary models of paleo-anthropology, genetics, and evolutionary psychology fail to account for human origins. Dr. Luskin contributed a chapter on the topic in the 2023 book Science and Faith in Dialogue, which also features chapters from Stephen Meyer, Guillermo Gonzalez, James Tour, Marcos Eberlin, and others. In Part 1, Luskin describes his experiences in South Africa while earning a PhD in Geology from the University of Johannesburg. During his time there, Luskin had many opportunities to study various hominid fossils. Here he explains why he is Read More ›Source
What's the best explanation for the origin of complex life? And while skepticism is healthy, can perpetual skepticism prevent us from moving closer to the truth? On this ID The Future, enjoy the second half of a stimulating conversation between philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer and historian of science and Skeptic Magazine founding editor Michael Shermer. The conversation was hosted by comedian and podcaster Bryan Callen on The Bryan Callen Show. In Part 2, Meyer and Shermer both address where they think complex life comes from. They also discuss the mind-body problem and debate the merits of skepticism. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. We're grateful to the producers of The Bryan Callen Show for permission to share this exchange on ID The Future!Source
Humans seem to be drawn in a certain direction toward truth and beauty. Is that an accident of nature? Or is there a higher truth prompting it? On this ID The Future, we're pleased to share the first half of an engaging conversation between philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer and historian of science Michael Shermer about science, God, the origin of information, and the nature of mind. The conversation was hosted by comedian and podcaster Bryan Callen on The Bryan Callen Show. In Part 1, Meyer and Shermer discuss arguments for design, the Big Bang, the origin of information, and the role of mind in the universe. This is Part 1 of a two-part interview. Look for Part 2 in a separate episode of ID The Future. We're grateful to the producers of The Bryan Callen Show for permission to share this conversation on ID The Future!Source
On this episode of ID The Future from the archive, John West, Associate Director of the Center for Science & Culture and author of Walt Disney and Live Action, talks about how science is portrayed in Walt Disney’s films and theme parks. Disney’s worldview was an interesting blend of 19th century morals with a 21st century vision for science and technology. A futurist, Disney was given to techno-utopianism and his works tended to reflect this, but they have also offered warning messages about the dangers posed by both science and technology. John West explores these interests both in Disney’s exhibits and his film works. Dig DeeperSource
Most people know Hawaii is famous for its beaches. But did you know it’s also home to one of the world’s leading stations for monitoring the atmosphere? On this ID The Future, self-taught citizen scientist Forrest Mims talks to host Andrew McDiarmid about the history and significance of the world-famous Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. He also shares some of his own experiences and adventures there over the last quarter century. In this episode, Mims reminds us of his dust-up with Scientific American, a controversy that would ultimately launch his career as an atmospheric scientist. He introduces us to some of the pioneering explorers and scientists who set the stage for atmospheric science in Hawaii, including Archibald Menzies, Charles Wilkes, Read More ›Source
We were saddened to learn of the recent loss of our friend and colleague Tom Gilson. You may have heard Tom occasionally hosting episodes of the podcast. And if you're a long-time listener, you've been listening to his work regularly. For several years, Tom sound engineered this podcast, taking raw audio files and producing a polished finished product. His reliable, professional work, coupled with his extensive knowledge of the arguments for intelligent design, made him an ideal candidate to work with. On this ID the Future from the archive, Tom offers honest advice to opponents of intelligent design on how to improve their persuasive strategy.Source
On this ID The Future, enjoy the second half of an intimate conversation between philosopher of science and bestselling author Stephen Meyer and one of his dearest friends and longest-standing colleagues: Dr. David Berlinski. In Part 2, Berlinski discusses the books he has written, his career in teaching, and some of his memorable experiences critiquing the Darwinian paradigm. Don't miss the first half of the conversation, available in a separate episode. Learn more about Dr. Berlinski at davidberlinski.org.Source
On this ID The Future, philosopher of science and bestselling author Stephen Meyer invites us to join him for an intimate conversation with one of his dearest friends and longest-standing colleagues: mathematician, writer, and thinker Dr. David Berlinski. The occasion for the exchange was a recent gathering of Discovery Institute supporters and colleagues in Cambridge, England. In Part 1, Berlinski shares the harrowing story of how his parents survived the Holocaust and immigrated to New York, how he learned mathematics, and when he began to take an interest in the mathematical challenges to Darwinian evolution. Source
On today’s ID the Future from the archive, veteran radio host Michael Medved interviews biologist Michael Behe about Behe’s visually stunning YouTube series, Secrets of The Cell. Behe summarizes one of the key messages of the video series, namely that everything from the life-essential blood clotting system to a myriad of crucial protein structures in our bodies increasingly appear to be far beyond the reach of blind evolutionary mechanisms to build. Instead they appear to be the work of planning and purpose, which is the purview of mind. Learn more about Behe's series and the compelling evidence for intelligent design.Source
At Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, we love connecting teachers and students with ID resources andencouraging them to follow the evidence wherever it leads. On today's ID The Future, you'll hear from a group of 10th grade biology students at a private school in North Carolina as they share their experience of learning about the evidence for intelligent design. Their teacher is a graduate of our CSC summer seminar program, where she learned in depth about the scientific evidence for intelligent design. Inspired to bring what she learned to her students, she used the Discovering Intelligent Design textbook with her 10th grade science class to offer a more complete and compelling biology course.Source
Let's talk about your digits. No, not your phone number - your fingers and toes, those dangling things on the ends of our hands and feet! Ever wondered how they form during embryonic development? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes back Dr. Jonathan McLatchie to discuss the incredible process of apoptosis that shapes our fingers and toes, and why the operation is better explained by intelligent design than a stepwise evolutionary process.Source
On today’s ID the Future out of the vault, Stairway to Life co-author Rob Stadler and host Eric Anderson delve deeper into Challenge to Origin of Life: Energy Harnessing, an episode of the Long Story Short intelligent design video series. Could the first cell have been much simpler than any current cell, making it easier for it to emerge through blind natural forces on the early Earth? Stadler and Anderson surface one big problem with that idea: in experiments to make relatively simple cells even simpler, the cells inevitably become less robust and adaptable. These simpler cells must be coddled to survive. But the first cell on earth would have been anything but coddled. Tune in to learn more!Source
The urge to help people kill themselves has intensified in recent decades, even to the point of pushing the reluctant towards death. How did we reach this place? On this ID The Future, historian and author Dr. Richard Weikart joins veteran radio and podcast host Dr. Jerry Newcombe to discuss how the evolutionary ethic has undermined the value of human life, the topic of his latest book, Unnatural Death: Medicine’s Descent From Healing to Killing.Source
How much do you know about intelligent design? How would you define the term? And are you prepared to defend intelligent design to friends, family, or associates who may be critical of the theory? On this episode of ID The Future, Dr. Casey Luskin brings to bear decades of experience as an attorney and ID theorist on the front lines of the evolution debate to give you the basics you’ll need to confidently discuss and defend intelligent design with others. Source
On this ID The Future out of the vault, Origin-of-life specialist Rob Stadler joins host Eric Anderson to discuss a special problem facing all naturalistic origin-of-life scenarios: energy harnessing. To be viable, a cell must have sophisticated machinery, including ATP synthase, to turn raw energy into constructive energy. But how could prebiotic chemicals harness raw energy on the way to evolving into a viable self-reproducing cell without first having the sophisticated machinery to harness raw energy and convert it to useful work? Are the energy sources that have been proposed for chemical evolution realistic? Rob Stadler explains. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.Source
Zombies are make-believe, but zombie science is very real — and it threatens not just science but our whole culture. On this ID The Future, we’re sharing a conversation between Dr. Jonathan Wells and Hank Hanegraaf on the Hank Unplugged Podcast. This interview originally aired in 2018 shortly after Dr. Wells published Zombie Science, his highly anticipated follow-up to Icons of Evolution. With the recent passing of Dr. Wells, Hank and his team have re-released the interview with some words of tribute to this icon of the intelligent design movement. Enjoy this hour-long conversation as Dr. Wells unpacks more icons of evolution and explains how to defeat zombie science.Source
In 2004, Smithsonian Institute scientist Dr. Richard Sternberg was cancelled for daring to publish a paper by Dr. Stephen Meyer supportive of intelligent design in a peer-reviewed journal. On this ID The Future, writer and teacher Daniel Witt joins us to reflect on the controversy. Witt explains the rhetorical strategies Darwinists have used to deride intelligent design. He also reports on an encouraging trend of scientists willing to stand up to the censors and bullies who get in the way of pursuing the evidence where it leads. Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, philosopher of science Paul Nelson concludes his talk with host Andrew McDiarmid on what it takes to converse effectively with scientists who are trapped in a naturalistic framework — that is, researchers who draw their conclusions from naturalism’s authority rather than following the evidence wherever it leads. Nelson urges us to keep the third party in the conversation: nature herself. Dr. Nelson explains how.Source
In June 1860, just seven months after Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, three men hotly debated the merits of Darwin's argument at a meeting of the British Association. Biologist Thomas Henry Huxley and botanist Joseph Hooker defended Darwin's theory. English bishop, speaker, and writer Samuel Wilberforce critiqued it. And though he was a man of the cloth, Wilberforce did not build a theological case against Darwin. Rather, he evaluated the argument for natural selection on scientific grounds, exposing its "loose statements and unfounded speculations" by weighing it "in the simple scales of logical examination." On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid treats you to excerpts from Wilberforce's powerful critique, published as a review a month after the debate in Quarterly Review.Source
Imagine a large area with gentle rolling hills and valleys, or perhaps a rugged terrain complete with steep mountains and impassible gullies. Now imagine those scenes plotted out in a three-dimensional graph. What your picturing may look similar to the virtual fitness landscapes biologists generate to visualize the variation in population for some species. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes Dr. Brian Miller to discuss evolutionary fitness landscapes and how they bolster the conclusion of design in living things. Dr. Miller also discusses how fitness landscapes relate to the work of bio-engineer Stuart Burgess and to the arguments made by Dr. Stephen Meyer about epigenetic information at the heart of life. Source
How often do we get to have a respectful conversation with someone who disagrees with us? On this ID the Future out of the archive, philosopher of biology Paul Nelson continues sharing with host Andrew McDiarmid about pursuing intelligent design theory in a science culture committed to naturalism. "In the bouncing of opinions off each other and the exchange of views," says Nelson, "truth should emerge." But how do you communicate with scientists and thinkers trapped in a framework of naturalism? Dr. Nelson explains.Source
Rolex is well-known the world over for crafting high-quality, innovative time-pieces. But did you know they also award funds to people with innovative ideas in science and technology? On this ID The Future, Texan engineer, writer, and self-taught scientist Forrest M. Mims recounts his experience of winning a Rolex Award for Enterprise in 1993 for his innovative proposal to track the ozone layer through a worldwide ground-based network that utilized his own homemade ozone instruments. Mims discusses the work that led to the honor, the memorable trip to Switzerland to collect the award, and how the Rolex Award propelled his career in science.Source
Dr. Stuart Burgess has been studying the arrangement, design, and shape of vertebrate limbs and joints for years. He shares what he learns with engineers working in the field of biomechanics. On this ID The Future, Dr. Burgess discusses his new paper on multi-functioning animal joints with host Dr. Brian Miller. Source
Dr. Jonathan Wells was a true giant of the intelligent design research community. As we mourn his recent passing, we also celebrate anew his considerable contributions to the arguments for intelligent design and the debate over evolution. On this episode of ID The Future out of the vault, Dr. Wells continues a conversation with Tom Woodward on The Universe Next Door. Dr. Wells explains more of the icons of evolution he details in his popular book and why much of what we hear about evolution is wrong. Listen in as they discuss Darwin's finches, four-winged fruit flies, humans with tails, and more. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation.Source
f the sun didn't power the photosynthesis of green plants, we wouldn't be breathing right now. And without the finely tuned properties of water, Earth would be a frozen, lifeless wasteland. Coincidence? Or is something else at work? On this episode of ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid continues his ongoing series with Dr. Jonathan McLatchie unpacking the many features of our planet and the cosmos that allow for advanced life like ours to exist. Here, the discussion turns to the life-friendly properties of sunlight and water.Source
In his book Darwin’s Black Box, biochemist Michael Behe writes that in order to understand the barriers to evolution, we have to “bite the bullet of complexity.” On this episode of ID The Future, Dr. Jonathan McLatchie is back to help us do just that! In the latest installment of an ongoing series, Dr. McLatchie talks with host Andrew McDiarmid about the remarkable properties of carbon and other non-metal atoms.Source
We were saddened to learn of the recent passing of Dr. Jonathan Wells, a true giant of the intelligent design research community. As we mourn his passing, we are also celebrating anew his considerable contributions to the argument for intelligent design and the debate over evolution. On this episode of ID the Future out of the vault, Dr. Wells begins a conversation on The Universe Next Door with Tom Woodward to talk about his popular book Icons of Evolution. This is Part 1 of a two-part interview.Source
The culture of death wrongly interprets the term compassion to mean “to get rid of” rather than its true meaning, “to suffer with.” On this episode, host Eric Anderson welcomes hospice physician Dr. Howard Glicksman to the podcast to discuss physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, the subjects of Dr. Richard Weikart's recent book Unnatural Death: Medicine's Descent From Healing to Killing. Source
On this episode, we’re pleased to share a recent conversation between astronomer Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez and author and teacher Dr. Ken Boa on the Explorers Podcast. The topic is Dr. Gonzalez’s passion for astronomy and the wonders of the cosmos. Dr. Gonzalez explains how he developed a passion for astronomy at an early age and how it fueled his career. He also discusses his book The Privileged Planet and his recent young adult novel The Farm at the Center of the Universe. Source
On this episode of ID the Future out of the vault, we bring you the last of three short interviews with MIT-trained physicist Dr. Lee Spetner. We were saddened to learn of the recent passing of Dr. Spetner at 91 years old, and we’re sharing these conversations in tribute to his significant contributions to the evolution debate. Host Ira Berkowitz interviews Dr. Spetner in Jerusalem. Together they explore key arguments from Spetner’s books Not by Chance and The Evolution Revolution. Here, Spetner challenges the idea of convergent evolution and explains his non-random evolutionary hypothesis. This is Part 3 of a three-part interview. Listen to Part 1 and Part 2. Dig DeeperSource
On this episode of ID The Future, we’re bringing you the concluding half of a 2019 interview between Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro and philosopher of science Dr. Stephen C. Meyer. The conversation is now five years old, so it's a good time to dust it off and share it with those who may have missed it or forgotten about it. In Part 2, Shapiro and Meyer discuss the origin of life and the origin of information. They also touch on the evidence for fine-tuning in the universe and the problems with the multiverse. This is Part 2 of a two-part interview.Source
On this ID The Future, we bring you the first half of Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro’s 2019 interview with philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer on The Ben Shapiro Sunday Special. This exchange happened five years ago now, and we thought it was a good time to put it out there again for those who may not have heard it yet or don’t remember it. Dr. Meyer considers this one of the best interviews he’s done on the subject of his second solo book Darwin’s Doubt. Shapiro was very well-prepared and asked great questions, resulting in a thought-provoking and thoroughly engaging hour-long conversation. We’ve got the first half of it for you today, followed by the concluding half in Read More ›Source
On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, we bring you the second of three short interviews with MIT-trained physicist Dr. Lee Spetner. We were saddened to learn of the recent passing of Dr. Spetner at 91 years old, and we’re sharing these conversations in tribute to his significant contributions to the evolution debate. Host Ira Berkowitz interviews Dr. Spetner in Jerusalem. Together they explore key arguments from Spetner’s books Not by Chance and The Evolution Revolution. Here, Spetner takes on natural selection, discussing what it can and cannot do. He also explores aspects of population genetics and the constraints the Earth’s history imposes on evolving new species. This is Part 2 of a three-part interview. Listen to Read More ›Source
Many of us have enjoyed a colorful twilight or a stunning sunset. But how often do we think about the science behind these memorable conditions? Forrest Mims has been measuring the Earth's atmosphere for more than 30 years. On this episode of ID The Future, Mims shares with us some of the secrets he's learned from his long-term research. Mims has forged a distinguished scientific career despite having no academic training in science. He is an instrument designer, science writer, and independent science consultant. Mims has published over 60 books, including his latest: Maverick Scientist: My Adventures as an Amateur Scientist. Source
On this episode of ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid reads an exclusive excerpt from the newly revised, rewritten, and updated twentieth anniversary edition of The Privileged Planet. In 2004, astronomer Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez and author Dr. Jay Richards issued a daring hypothesis: that a pattern exists between the requirements for advanced life in the universe and the requirements for fruitful scientific discovery. They argued that this pattern was more conspiracy than coincidence. Now, twenty years later, a new edition of The Privileged Planet brings fresh analysis, new supporting evidence, and a completely revised text. In this episode, McDiarmid reads the Foreword to the 2024 Edition and the Introduction to the book.Source
On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, we bring you the first of three short interviews with MIT-trained physicist Dr. Lee Spetner. We were saddened to learn of the recent passing of Dr. Spetner at 91 years old, and we're sharing these conversations in tribute to his significant contributions to the evolution debate. Host Ira Berkowitz interviews Dr. Spetner in Jerusalem. Together they explore key arguments from Spetner’s books Not by Chance and The Evolution Revolution.Source
In 2004, Dr. Jay Richards and Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez published a bold hypothesis: not only is Planet Earth well-suited for advanced life like ourselves, it’s also finely tuned for scientific discovery. Materialists call it a cosmic coincidence, but the array of evidence Richards and Gonzalez marshal in support of their argument suggests otherwise. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid sits down with Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez to discuss his newly revised, rewritten, and updated twentieth anniversary edition of The Privileged Planet.Source
In 2004, Dr. Jay Richards and Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez published a bold hypothesis: not only is Planet Earth well-suited for advanced life like ourselves, it's also finely tuned for scientific discovery. Materialists put this down to cosmic coincidence, but the array of evidence Richards and Gonzalez marshal in support of their argument suggests otherwise. On this episode of ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid speaks with Dr. Jay Richards about his work on a revised, rewritten, and updated 20th anniversary edition of The Privileged Planet.Source
On this ID the Future episode out of the vault, science historian Michael Flannery concludes his conversation with host Michael Keas about his book Intelligent Evolution: How Alfred Russel Wallace’s World of Life Challenged Darwin. Wallace was co-founder with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution by random variation and natural selection. Unlike Darwin, however, he saw teleology or purpose as essential to life’s history, and a teleological view as essential to the life sciences. According to Flannery, Wallace’s views on the nature of the cell, the special attributes of humans, the irreducible nature of life, and the fine tuning of the universe hold up well today. He and Darwin disagreed on much of this, yet they maintained a mutual Read More ›Source
In 1936, Albert Einstein wrote that "the fact that [the world] is comprehensible is a miracle." But why is the universe comprehensible to us? And is it an evolutionary fluke or a hallmark of design? On this episode of ID The Future, we’re sharing a recent conversation between Dr. Jonathan Witt and author and teacher Dr. Ken Boa. The topic is Dr. Witt's book A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature. In this discussion, Dr. Witt and Dr. Boa discuss the meaning and purpose inherent in our comprehensible universe, with examples from mathematics, literature, architecture, and more.Source
For 25 years, Dr. John D. Wise considered Darwinian evolution the most plausible explanation for life's origin and development. But as he studied the latest evidence in molecular biology, genetics, astronomy, and other fields, he began to realize that modern science was confirming many of the predictions and arguments of intelligent design. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid talks with professor and author Dr. John D. Wise about his surprising journey from atheism to Christianity.Source
On this episode of ID the Future out of the vault, science historian and host Michael Keas talks with fellow science historian Michael Flannery about his book Intelligent Evolution: How Alfred Russell Wallace’s World of Life Challenged Darwin. Flannery tells of Darwin’s involvement in the Plinian Society, a “freethinkers” group at Edinburgh University in Scotland where he studied medicine as a teenager. It was there that he first encountered radical philosophical materialism, the worldview that laid the philosophical foundation for his work in evolution. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.Source
On this episode of ID The Future, we’re sharing the second half of an interview between philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer and author and radio/podcast host Justin Brierley. The interview delves into the main arguments of Dr. Meyer’s most recent book Return of the God Hypothesis, but it also serves as an update on the status of intelligent design and the growing interest in design arguments in both academia and the public square. In part 2, Meyer refutes the multiverse hypothesis and explains why naturalistic theories of the origin of life fall short. We are grateful to Justin Brierley for permission to share this interview on ID The Future. Catch more of Brierley's interviews at justinbrierley.com.Source
On this episode of ID The Future, we’re sharing the first half of an interview between philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer and author and radio/podcast host Justin Brierley. The interview delves into the main arguments of Dr. Meyer’s most recent book Return of the God Hypothesis, but it also serves as an update on the status of intelligent design and the growing interest in design arguments in both academia and the public square. In Part 1, Meyer and Brierley discuss the current status of intelligent design. They also jump into some of the discoveries Meyer lays out in his book. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 2 next!Source
On today’s ID The Future out of the vault, host Robert Crowther welcomes philosopher of science Paul Nelson to explore an intriguing tension in the thinking of famous scientist and science popularizer Carl Sagan. Though Sagan was a committed Darwinist and agnostic, he embraced certain ideas consistent with the theory of intelligent design. Could Sagan's methods for detecting extra-terrestrial intelligence be used to make design inferences in the natural world? Listen in as Dr. Nelson discusses this intriguing idea. Source
A confluence of conditions conspired to bring metals to Earth and make them accessible to humans. Can a Darwinian process take the credit? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes a two-part conversation with Dr. Eric Hedin, professor emeritus of physics and astronomy at Ball State University in Indiana. Dr. Hedin describes the conditions within ourselves and the conditions within our environment that were finely tuned to allow for our successful utilization of metals. He also speaks to what our use of metals reveals about the moral character of human nature, and why metals remain vital to us today. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Don't miss Part 1!Source
Humans have successfully utilized metals for millennia, and trace amounts of metals are crucial to our survival. Is that coincidence or something more? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid begins a two-part conversation with Dr. Eric Hedin, professor emeritus of physics and astronomy at Ball State University in Indiana. Dr. Hedin tells the fascinating story of the origin of metals, the finely tuned set of conditions that allow for our use of metals, and the crucial role metals play in our survival. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 2 next!Source
On this ID the Future out of the vault, host Andrew McDiarmid sits down with historian and philosopher of science Michael Keas to discuss a recent article at Times Higher Education, “My Precious! How Academia’s Gollums Guard Their Research Fields.” The article looks at how scientific progress is being impeded by a culture in which scientists jealously guard their research instead of sharing it. Keas says the problem seems to have gotten worse in recent years but isn’t a new one. He illustrates with the story of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. Source
On this episode, Dr. Richard Weikart reads selections from his new book Unnatural Death: Medicine’s Descent From Healing to Killing. Dr. Weikart is Emeritus Professor of History at California State University Stanislaus and a Senior Fellow with the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture. He is author of From Darwin to Hitler, Hitler’s Ethic, Hitler’s Religion and The Death of Humanity.Dr. Weikart begins with a portion from the book’s Introduction, which sets the stage and defines some key terms used in the book. Weikart concludes with an excerpt from Chapter 3: Euthanasia Meets Eugenics, where he gets into the influence of Darwinism on eugenics ideology and how it shaped attitudes toward euthanasia and assisted suicide in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Source
If we believe there is no qualitative distinction between animals and humans, are we more likely to protect human life or devalue it? On this episode of ID The Future, host Eric Anderson talks to historian Dr. Richard Weikart about his latest book, Unnatural Death: Medicine's Descent From Healing to Killing, now available from Discovery Institute Press. The book is a wide-ranging history of euthanasia and assisted suicide from Ancient Greece to today. How did we get to the point we are at today, and how do we turn the tide to promote the sanctity of human life? Tune in to find out.Source
On this episode of ID the Future out of our vault, biophysicist Kirk Durston completes a three-part series on three categories of science: experimental, inferential, and fantasy science. Fantasy science makes inferential leaps so huge that virtually none of it is testable, either by the standards of experimental science or by those of the historical sciences, which reason to the best explanation by process of elimination. This is Part 3 of a three-part interview. Source
Materialist philosopher Bertrand Russell once wrote that "only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation…be safely built.” But is this worldview of scientific materialism in line with what science has revealed to us in the last century? On this episode of ID The Future, we’re pleased to share a recent conversation between Dr. Melissa Cain Travis and author and teacher Dr. Ken Boa on the Explorers Podcast. The topic is beauty, harmony, and truth in the sciences. We are grateful to the producers of the Explorers Podcast for permission to re-broadcast this conversation.Source
On this episode, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes astrophysicist Guillermo Gonzalez back to the program to read and discuss his poem "Totality: A Celestial Theater," written to commemorate the total solar eclipse that occurred in April 2024. You may already be familiar with Gonzalez's popular book The Privileged Planet, co-authored with Dr. Jay Richards, unpacking the arguments for our privileged place in the cosmos. You might also have heard about his new young adult novel The Farm at the Center of the Universe, co-written with Dr. Jonathan Witt. But you likely didn't know this accomplished scientist and author is also a poet! Listen as Gonzalez discusses and then reads his poem aloud.Source
On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, host Andrew McDiarmid continues a three-part conversation with biophysicist and philosopher Kirk Durston. The topic is Durston’s article series unpacking three types of science: (1) experimental science, (2) inferential science, and (3) fantasy science. In this second of three episodes, Durston recaps the three types but focuses on inferential science. He explains how it involves, in the historical sciences, abductive reasoning, which is making an inference to the best explanation. He also explains how such reasoning, rooted in observation, can be used effectively as we consider the best explanation for the origin of biological information. This is Part 2 of a three-part conversation. Listen to Part 1. Look for Part Read More ›Source
Can artificial intelligence be applied to the scientific theory of Darwinian evolution to help us evaluate its strengths and weaknesses? On this episode of ID The Future, host Casey Luskin concludes his conversation with two distinguished PhD scientists who are asking tough questions of Neo-Darwinism: Olen Brown, Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Missouri, and David Hullender, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas, Arlington. In Part 2, Luskin discusses the latest paper from Brown and Hullender arguing that AI has strong but unrealized potential both for assessing and also solving major problems with the prevailing naturalistic account of life's origins. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Source
If there's anything left to salvage from the Neo-Darwinian theory of life's origins, it must first be rescued from dogma. On this episode of ID The Future, host Casey Luskin begins a conversation with two distinguished PhD scientists who are asking tough questions of Neo-Darwinism: Olen Brown, Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Missouri, and David Hullender, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas, Arlington. Luskin unpacks three recent scientific papers written by Brown and Hullender warning that Neo-Darwinism must be updated if it has any hope of surviving as a theory. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.Source
On this episode of ID the Future out of the vault, host Andrew McDiarmid begins a three-part conversation with biophysicist and philosopher Kirk Durston. The pair discuss Durston's article series about three types of science — (1) experimental science, which is generally very trustworthy, with some exceptions; (2) inferential science, which can be trustworthy but often takes huge leaps into the doubtable and dodgy; and (3) fantasy science, which is essentially science fiction masquerading as actual science. This is Part 1 of 3. Look for Parts 2 and 3 the next two Fridays!Source
Are we to credit an unguided evolutionary process for the gift of sleeping and waking? Or are these intricate systems further evidence of design? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his conversation with Dr. Eric Hedin on the intelligent design of sleep. In Part 2, the pair dig deeper into the purpose of sleep and why it’s so essential to living organisms. They also look at why it’s unlikely that a gradual Darwinian process can be credited for the origin of sleeping and waking, and why intelligent design is a better explanation. This is Part 2 of a two-part discussion. Source
We’re asleep an average of about 26 years of our life! Most people have a sense that sleep is important, but many of us aren't sure exactly why. Why is sleep so crucial to survival? And how did the processes of sleep emerge in living things? Could a gradual Darwinian process be responsible, or are the systems involved another instance of intelligent design? On this episode, host Andrew McDiarmid begins a conversation with Dr. Eric Hedin about the origin and intelligent design of sleep. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 2 next!Source
On this ID the Future from the archive, intelligent design pioneer William Dembski unpacks one of his chapters in The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions about Life and the Cosmos, which Dembski co-edited with Joseph Holden and episode host Casey Luskin. Dembski discusses why intelligent design better explains the latest scientific evidence better than blind material processes can. He also talks about ID's cultural implications.Source
Five years ago, Yale University professor of computer science David Gelernter wrote that he was bidding farewell to neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory. Why would he take such a bold step? What convinced him that the neo-Darwinian paradigm no longer satisfied the scientific evidence? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid marks the fifth anniversary of Gelernter's important essay by reading it aloud in full. If you’ve read the essay, this will likely be a good refresher on Gelernter’s arguments. If you haven’t read it yet, by all means enjoy!Source
The biochemical revolution of the last century has revealed powerful evidence of design in living things. Now, scientists are beginning to realize the benefits of studying designed systems through an engineering lens. On today's episode, Dr. Emily Reeves discusses the intersection of biology and engineering with Fred Williams and Doug McBurney, hosts of the Real Science Radio podcast. In this 45-minute chat, Dr. Reeves explains the importance of using engineering principles to understand biological systems. This interview originally aired on Real Science Radio. Source
On today’s ID the Future out of the vault, radio host Michael Medved sits down with bestselling science author Stephen Meyer to discuss the Marvel movie Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Medved isn’t wild about the film, but he uses it as a springboard to dive into what he calls “the madness of the multiverse”—namely, the proposals in physics and cosmology for the idea that our universe is just one of many universes. Meyer explains some of the early motivations among twentieth-century physicists and cosmologists for proposing such an exotic theory. Then he turns to what he says is the main driver for interest in the multiverse in our day—a desire to explain away something that is deeply puzzling on the grounds of atheism: that the laws and constants of physics and chemistry are exquisitely fine tuned for life.Source
Ready to dip a toe in the ocean of biological ingenuity? Dr. Jonathan McLatchie is back, this time to discuss with host Andrew McDiarmid the engineering elegance and irreducible complexity of the process of bacterial cell division. You may wonder why we should care about something so minuscule as bacterial cells. After all, something so insignificant and unseen has little bearing on our daily lives. But if we've learned anything in the biological revolution of the 20th century, it's that consequential things often come in very small packages. And if even the simplest forms of life exhibit stunning complexity and engineering prowess, all the more do we! And that complexity and design demands an adequate explanation. Here, McLatchie describes the remarkable process of cell wall breakage and re-synthesis that allows cell division to take place and explains why it's a big problem for Darwinian evolution.Source
Vitalism is the age-old idea that living things possess a vital force – some fundamental element that generally does not exist in non-life. As a Darwinian paradigm took hold of the natural sciences in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, vitalism fell out of favor. But as writer and teacher Daniel Witt reports, a willingness to flirt with vitalism seems to be growing in certain scientific circles.Source
On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, biochemist and author Michael Denton and host Eric Anderson conclude their conversation about Denton's book The Miracle of the Cell, and about his epiphany of the many remarkable ways that nature’s chemistry is fine-tuned for life. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Source
Do living things evolve right before our eyes? Perhaps the most common evidence put forward to support evolutionary theory is the observation that organisms can adapt. But is this adaptability really a hallmark of a gradual Darwinian process? Or is it evidence of intelligent design? On this ID The Future, host Eric Anderson speaks with Dr. Emily Reeves about the adaptability of the humble guppy fish, a new icon of evolution heralded by biologists as proof positive of Darwinian evolutionary processes at work. In this episode, Dr. Reeves uses guppies to discuss why the adaptability of organisms is actually powerful evidence of design. She also explains how biologists can improve their abilities as scientists by learning more about engineering.Source
If you enjoy the work of Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, including our books, videos, articles, and research, you may wonder how you can get involved. Options include signing up for our weekly newsletter Nota Bene, joining the Discovery Society, and attending our events. But in the last few years, a new way to promote intelligent design at the local level has been, well, growing. It’s called Roots. On this ID The Future, Daniel Reeves, our Director of Education and Outreach, introduces us to this network of grassroots supporters promoting intelligent design in their local communities. Source
On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, host Eric Anderson begins a conversation with biochemist Michael Denton about Denton’s 2020 book The Miracle of the Cell, part of his continuing Privileged Species series exploring nature’s fine tuning for life. New research keeps unveiling ever more ways in which this fine tuning exists, from the cosmos to the atoms of the periodic table, and even to the subatomic level of quantum tunneling. Says Denton: "The miracle of the cell completes the overall fitness paradigm that unites galaxies with atoms in a vast web of fitness for life." This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.Source
Are we common or rare? You can be on either side of the question and still be excited about the search for habitable planets capable of harboring life. On this episode of ID the Future, host and amateur astronomer Eric Anderson concludes his two-part conversation with Bijan Nemati, professional astronomer and expert on exoplanet search technology, to review the history of exoplanet research and share key details about upcoming NASA missions. Nemati is currently one of the lead scientists for the coronagraph instrument on the Roman Space Telescope, slated to launch within the next few years, and is also closely involved in early planning for the next-generation Habitable Worlds Observatory, which will be focused specifically on identifying signs of life on a small selection of exoplanets.This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Don't miss Part 1!Source
One of the most exciting areas of space research is the search for Earth-like planets around other stars. Since the first discovery some 30 years ago, thousands of exoplanets have been identified and catalogued, but the vast majority bear little resemblance to Earth and would not be conducive to even simple life, much less large organisms such as ourselves. However, during the same 30 years, planet-hunting technology has also vastly improved. Where do things stand today, and what can we expect over the next decade as the hunt continues?On this episode of ID the Future, host and amateur astronomer Eric Anderson begins a two-part conversation with Bijan Nemati, professional astronomer and expert on exoplanet search technology, to review the history of exoplanet research and upcoming NASA missions.This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 2 next!Source
On today’s ID the Future from the vault, distinguished British physician and author David Galloway explains why he’s convinced that the human fetal circulatory system is irreducibly complex and therefore beyond the reach of a blind gradualistic evolutionary process. In this second half of his conversation with host and fellow physician Geoffrey Simmons, Galloway also mentions some molecular machines that he’s convinced are irreducibly complex and point decisively to intelligent design. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation.Source
For decades we were told that non-coding regions of our DNA are littered with evolutionary junk. But in recent years, numerous discoveries have revealed that function is the rule, not the exception, in the genome. On this episode of ID The Future, Casey Luskin reflects with host Jonathan McLatchie about his recent debate over junk DNA with Rutgers University evolutionary biology professor Dr. Daniel Stern Cardinale, known as Dr. Dan online. Luskin breaks down the main points he made in his debate as well as Dr. Dan's responses. He and McLatchie conclude with a reminder of why intelligent design is a far superior approach to studying the genome than an evolutionary approach.Source
Does a scientific worldview require atheism? Or are scientific discoveries of the last century pointing back to a God hypothesis? On this ID The Future, Piers Morgan sits down with "one of the most controversial philosophical minds on the planet," Dr. Stephen Meyer, for a lively and wide-ranging discussion about the scientific arguments for intelligent design and the problems with atheism. We are grateful to the producers of Piers Morgan Uncensored for permission to re-post this interview on ID The Future.Source
Today’s ID the Future from the archive brings onto the show Scottish physician David Galloway, author of the 2021 book Design Detected and former president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. In his conversation with guest host and fellow physician/author Geoffrey Simmons, Galloway describes how he found himself in the evolution/design controversy and eventually presented his doubts about Darwin to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 2 next week!Source
On this ID The Future marking the anniversary of President Ronald Reagan's death, we're delighted to share Discovery Institute Vice President Dr. John West's recent conversation with radio host Michael Medved discussing Reagan’s deeply personal argument for intelligent design. During remarks given at a National Prayer Breakfast event in 1988, Reagan shared his argument for intelligent design in unscripted, humorous fashion. But as Dr. West explains, Reagan’s commitment to intelligent design went much deeper than a few off-the-cuff laugh lines. Reagan fought against atheism and materialism in his diplomacy as president and even in his role as a father.Source
On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes comedian and author Evan Sayet to the podcast to discuss the failure of the atheist origin myth, his journey from liberalism to conservatism, and the role of humor in the scientific debate. His latest book, Magic Soup, Typing Monkeys, and Horny Aliens From Outer Space, takes a cuttingly humorous approach to dismantling the origin myths promoted by atheists to explain away the evidence for design in life and the universe. Philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer calls Sayet's book “a rambunctious romp...With his trademark humor, Sayet exposes the absurdities of the materialist superstition of our age.” Come for the laughs, stay for the serious scientific discussion!Source
On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, host Andrew McDiarmid continues his conversation with Robert Waltzer, chair of the department of biology at Belhaven University and co-author of Evolution and Intelligent Design in a Nutshell, on three big problems faced by naturalistic evolutionary theory. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Find more episodes at www.idthefuture.com!Source
For decades, we've been told that only a tiny percentage of DNA is functional and that the vast majority is useless junk. Although this claim never made sense from an engineering standpoint in the first place, it served as a powerful myth to push the narrative that we're simply the result of unguided, undirected natural processes, a long string of mistakes and copying errors that left its imprint in the form of pervasive junk DNA. On this ID The Future, host Eric Anderson and Dr. Casey Luskin unpack the myth of junk DNA and how it has hindered the progress of science.Source
Is there evidence of purpose in the universe? Or is life just a collection of accidental processes that did not have us in mind? On a weekend visit to his grandparents' farm, Isaac is caught between two very different worldviews. He must choose for himself which makes the most sense. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid reads an excerpt from The Farm at the Center of the Universe, a new young adult novel from astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez and author Jonathan Witt.Source
On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, biologist and professor Robert Waltzer talks with host Andrew McDiarmid about Waltzer’s chapter in the Discovery Institute Press volume Evolution and Intelligent Design in a Nutshell. Waltzer’s chapter clarifies some key terms in the evolution/ID conversation that are often misunderstood or misused, including the word “evolution” itself, “change over time,” “common descent,” and “natural selection.” He offers quick definitions and explains some of the confusion surrounding them. This is Part 1 of a two-part interview.Source
There's a wealth of books covering the arguments for intelligent design, and yet one type of book has so far been missing - a young adult novel. That changes with the release of The Farm at the Center of the Universe, a new teen novel from astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez and author Jonathan Witt, now available from Discovery Institute Press. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid sits down with Gonzalez and Witt to discuss how the book came about and what readers can hope to gain from it.Source
International interest in intelligent design is growing. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes back Dr. Brian Miller, this time to discuss his recent participation at a conference on science and faith in Guadalajara and to explain how intelligent design is making inroads internationally.Source
Today’s ID the Future from the vault dives into the controversial realm of artificial intelligence (AI). Will robots or other computers ever become so fast and powerful that they become conscious, creative, and free? Will AI reach a point where it leaves humans in the dust? To shed light on these and other questions, host Casey Luskin interviews computer engineering professor Robert J. Marks, head of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence.Source
The Big Bang theory changed how we understand our universe. But who do we have to thank for it? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his conversation with esteemed cosmologist Jean-Pierre Luminet, who sets the record straight on the real heroes of the Big Bang Theory with his new book The Big Bang Revolutionaries, available now from Discovery Institute Press. In Part 2, Dr. Luminet sheds more light on chief architect George Lemaitre, as well as Alexander Friedmann and George Gamow. He also discusses how the Big Bang model stands up to scrutiny today. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Source
The discovery that the universe had a beginning was one of the most remarkable achievements of 20th century science, sparking a cosmological paradigm shift and a radical new way to understand our world. But the three scientists most responsible for the big bang revolution are largely unknown to the public and underestimated by other scientists in their field. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid begins a conversation with esteemed cosmologist Jean-Pierre Luminet, who sets the record straight on the real heroes of the Big Bang Theory with his new book The Big Bang Revolutionaries, available now from Discovery Institute Press. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 2 next!Source
On a classic episode of ID the Future from the vault, host Dr. John West continues his conversation with Dr. Bill Dembski as they discuss Dr. Dembski's 2014 book Being as Communion: A Metaphysics of Information. Listen in as Dr. Dembski explains 3 central points at the heart of his book: the Tang problem, the problem of no, and transposition. Tang?! What does a breakfast drink have to do with information theory? Tune in to find out!Source
It's one of the rock stars of intelligent design. ID theorists make a fuss over it and rightly so. But even non-ID scientists admit to getting an "awe-inspiring feeling" from the "divine beauty" of the humble bacterial flagellar motor. And why not? It's a marvel of engineering that originated long before human engineering existed. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid asks Dr. Jonathan McLatchie to remind us why this tiny nano-machine is such a big deal.Source
What do you get when you combine the fundamentals of chemistry with intelligent design concepts, taught by an experienced, enthusiastic instructor in an innovative online learning environment? You get Discovery Institute Academy's High School Chemistry, a two-semester, virtual, synchronous, and lab-based course which integrates the fundamentals of chemistry with intelligent design concepts topics where applicable. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid catches up with course instructor Kristen Marais to discuss the successes of the first year and what makes the class unique. Source
If information, not matter, is the basic stuff of reality, how would this change the way we look at the world? On a classic episode of ID the Future from the vault, Center for Science and Culture Managing Director John West sits down with mathematician and philosopher Dr. Bill Dembski to discuss his 2014 book Being as Communion: A Metaphysics of Information. Building on his previous books making a case for intelligent design, Being as Communion presents a metaphysical framework for an informational world that can accommodate intelligent design. In Part 1, Dembski defines information and explains why it's more important than matter.Source
On this ID The Future, we're pleased to bring you a longer-form conversation between philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer and Rice University chemist and professor Dr. James Tour about Sir Isaac Newton and his influence on modern science. Dr. Meyer explains why the scientific revolution occurred when and where it did. He also describes Newton's singular contributions to science and his lasting legacy. This interview originally aired on The Science and Faith Podcast. We are grateful to Dr. Tour for permission to share it.Source
While the West reeled from America's stock market crash of 1929, another crisis was brewing in the field of cosmology. One of the most ambitious scientific theories in history--that the universe had a beginning--was beginning to take shape, ushering in a new cosmological paradigm. But the real heroes of the Big Bang revolution have been largely forgotten. A new book from Discovery Institute Press amends the record and tells the remarkable story. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid reads an excerpt from The Big Bang Revolutionaries, by distinguished astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet.Source
On this ID the Future from the archive, Baylor University computer engineering professor Robert J. Marks hosts Ola Hössjer of Stockholm University and Daniel Díaz of the University of Miami to discuss a recent research paper the three contributed to the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, “Is Cosmological Tuning Fine or Coarse?" Although it's no easy question to answer rigorously, the paper sheds new light on just how finely tuned our universe--and our existence--actually is. In this conversation, Marks, Hössjer, and Díaz unpack the long answer. Source
Classifying organisms is an important function of biology. But if phylogenetics is ultimately based on a floundering theory of origins, how helpful is it to our understanding of living things? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid and paleoentemologist Gunter Bechly unpack some of the major problems with arachnid phylogeny and its implications for the common descent hypothesis.Source
A Washington Post headline recently declared that a "monumental experiment suggests how life on earth may have started." The reality, however, is far more sobering. In this episode of ID the Future, host Eric Anderson sits down with accomplished medical engineer and origin of life author, Robert Stadler, to discuss what this new research actually shows and the relevance to abiogenesis.More episodes and show notes at idthefuture.com.Source
On this classic episode of ID the Future from the vault, we spotlight the book Animal Algorithms: Evolution and the Mysterious Origin of Ingenious Instincts. The author, Eric Cassell, joins host and Baylor computer engineering professor Robert J. Marks to discuss the groundbreaking book and, in particular, the chapters on some of the animal kingdom’s most stunning navigators—the arctic tern, homing pigeons, the monarch butterfly, and the desert ant, among others. Enjoy more episodes and find show notes at idthefuture.com!Source
You may already know about the mounting evidence from physics, chemistry, biology, and related fields that suggests our universe was designed for large multi-cellular beings like ourselves. But did you know there is also evidence that Earth is uniquely fit for human technology? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid speaks with physicist Dr. Brian Miller about the convergence of design parameters that come together to pave the way for human technological advancement.Get show notes and more episodes at idthefuture.com!Source
Scientific censorship is on the rise. Governments are colluding with Big Tech to suppress unfavorable ideas. De-platforming and dismissal campaigns are all the rage. How do we prevent our society from slouching towards totalitarianism? On this ID The Future, host Casey Luskin welcomes science writer and journalist Denyse O'Leary to discuss today's forms of censorship, how it affects the intelligent design community, and most importantly, what we can do about it.Source
On this ID The Future episode from the vault, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor interviews Bernardo Kastrup, a philosopher with a background in computer engineering, about consciousness, evolution, and intelligent design. Did consciousness evolve? What does the evidence suggest? And how do materialists deal with the seemingly immaterial reality that is consciousness? Enjoy this guest episode from Mind Matters, a podcast of Discovery Institute’s Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence.Listen to more episodes at www.mindmatters.aiand idthefuture.com.Source
Scout or soldier? When it comes to our opinions and beliefs, there's a bit of both in all of us. But which mindset is more beneficial? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes Dr. Jonathan McLatchie to discuss the characteristics of a scout mindset and how it relates to the debate over evolution and the evidence for intelligent design. Get full show notes at idthefuture.com.Source
On this ID The Future, we're pleased to share a new discussion between Dr. James Tour and Dr. Stephen Meyer about recent critiques of origin of life research published in the prestigious science journal Nature. The interview originally aired on The Science and Faith Podcast, hosted by Dr. Tour. We are grateful to Dr. Tour for permission to share this interview on ID The Future.Source
Prevailing scientific assumptions often die hard, especially when they fit so neatly into an evolutionary view of the development of life on earth. On this episode of ID The Future from the archive, Dr. Casey Luskin gives host Andrew McDiarmid the scoop on one of the biggest mistakes in science of our lifetime: the concept of "junk DNA." Even if you’ve already heard this episode, listen again, and then share it with a friend! The myth of junk DNA is a major example of why a Darwinian paradigm can slow the progress of science, while a design perspective can open up new avenues for research and discovery. Find additional show notes at idthefuture.com.Source
Curiosity can lead to unexpected adventures. For self-taught scientist Forrest Mims, it inspired a successful career in science and technology. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid reads an exclusive excerpt from Mims’s new memoir Maverick Scientist: My Adventures as an Amateur Scientist. Also: don't miss our two-part interview with Forrest Mims about his memoir!Source
Did Christianity help or hinder the rise of science? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid speaks with Dr. Melissa Cain Travis about her latest online course Science & Christianity: An Historical Exploration. The live 6-week course offered this spring gives a small cohort of students the opportunity to dive into the historical relationship between science and Christianity and the skill to address the distorted historical narratives that persist in the contemporary conversation. Source
On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, host Jay Richards speaks with James Barham about his carefully revised edition of 18th century Scottish Enlightenment philosopher Thomas Reid's lectures on natural theology.Source
Can a successful scientist be self-taught? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his conversation with Forrest M. Mims about his new memoir Maverick Scientist: My Adventures as an Amateur Scientist. Without a college science degree, Mims taught himself the fundamentals of engineering and atmospheric science that fueled an impressive career in science and technology. Listen as he shares more stories from an inspiring career! This interview is also available in video form. See the Discovery Science YouTube channel for links.Source
What does it take to be a scientist? For Forrest Mims, the answer is simple: you just have to do science. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid begins a two-part conversation with a man who has forged an impressive scientific career on curiosity, determination, and a lot of hard work. In the first of a two-part interview, Mims discusses his coming of age in the silicon era, sharing some of his many exploits as a young inventor and amateur scientist. Mims's new memoir Maverick Scientist is now available. More at idthefuture.com.Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, host Eric Anderson interviews biochemist Michael Behe about his book A Mousetrap for Darwin. Behe answers misconceptions about irreducible complexity, responds to the claim that "molecular machines" is a misnomer, and relates surprising confessions he's heard from fellow biologists about evolutionary theory. Source
Does the panda's thumb refute intelligent design? Or is it one of the most extraordinary manipulation systems in the mammalian world, as one respected study has found? On this ID The Future, host Casey Luskin speaks with philosopher Dr. Stephen Dilley about his recent paper evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the iconic panda's thumb argument for evolution.Source
It's not just intelligent design theorists who are calling for a major rethink of biology and origin-of-life research. On this ID The Future, Casey Luskin speaks to host Andrew McDiarmid about two recent articles in the prestigious journal Nature that review major problems with current theories on the origin of life and the source of genetic complexity in living things. Dig deeper with more resources at idthefuture.com.Source
On today’s ID the Future from the vault, host Casey Luskin sits down with Dominic Halsmer, a Senior Professor of Engineering at Oral Roberts University, to discuss Halsmer’s book Hacking the Cosmos: How Reverse Engineering Uncovers Organization, Ingenuity, and the Care of a Maker. They pair discuss the engineering concept known as affordance, reverse engineering of biological systems, and biomimicry.Source
Is modern science a search for truth or a search for power? How can we restore public trust in the scientific enterprise? On this ID The Future, we're delighted to share a recent conversation between bioethicist Wesley J. Smith and philosopher of science Dr. Stephen C. Meyer. In an exchange that lasts just over an hour, Smith and Meyer touch on a variety of topics relevant to the public’s view of the scientific enterprise. This interview originally aired on the Humanize podcast.Source
To understand the limitations of evolutionary mechanisms, we have to "bite the bullet of complexity," as biochemist Michael Behe writes. And to appreciate complexity, we have to experience it. On this ID The Future, Dr. Jonathan McLatchie takes us on a deep dive into the structure and biochemistry of muscles to gain a better understanding of their incredible design properties.Source
On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, host Emily Kurlinski interviews a PhD biochemistry student who tells about her experiences at the annual Center for Science and Culture summer seminar program in Seattle, and how her relationships there developed into a community of friendship, professional connection, and support, inspiring her to choose research as her own career path. Source
On this ID The Future, philosopher Stephen Dilley speaks with scientist and attorney Casey Luskin about theologian Dr. Rope Kojonen's recent proposal on the compatibility of evolution and intelligent design. In previous episodes of this series, Dr. Luskin interviewed colleagues Brian Miller, Emily Reeves, and Stephen Dilley about their contributions to a recent paper critiquing Kojonen's model. Now, Luskin concludes the series with some additional insights of his own. This is the final episode in a series. For more, visit idthefuture.com.Source
Can intelligent design and evolution work together? It's an intriguing idea that is welcomed by some, but does the scientific evidence support it? On this ID The Future, host Casey Luskin speaks with Dr. Emily Reeves to discuss her contribution to a recent paper critiquing theologian Dr. Rope Kojonen's proposal that mainstream evolutionary biology and intelligent design have worked in harmony to produce the diversity of life we see on earth. This is part of a series of interviews on this topic. Dig deeper with more resources and episodes at idthefuture.com.Source
Would our world be a better place if scientists were in charge? On this ID the Future from the archive, author and philosopher Jay Richards hosts bioethicist Wesley J. Smith to discuss a tweet from Physics-Astronomy.org. The tweet read, “Imagine a world ruled by scientists, not politicians.” The pair discuss the consequences of such a form of governance, using the response to the coronavirus pandemic as a case in point.Source
Was the universe designed to evolve through natural processes? In a recent book, theologian Dr. Rope Kojonen has argued that evolutionary mechanisms work in harmony with intelligent design to produce the diversity of life we see on earth. But can these fundamentally different processes really work together? On this ID The Future, host Casey Luskin speaks with physicist Dr. Brian Miller to explore why Kojonen's theory fails on scientific grounds. This interview is part of a series responding to Kojonen's proposal. Catch other episodes in the series at idthefuture.com or through your favorite podcasting app.Source
Can evolution and intelligent design work together in harmony? Or is that wishful thinking? On this ID The Future, host Casey Luskin concludes his conversation with philosopher Dr. Stephen Dilley about a recent proposal to marry mainstream evolutionary theory with a case for intelligent design. Dr. Dilley outlines the scientific problems with Kojonen's proposal and explains why it contradicts our natural intuition to detect design. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Be sure to catch Part 1, and look for more interviews with others on this topic soon.Source
Do humans project mathematical order onto nature? Or was it there all along? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his conversation with Dr. Melissa Cain Travis about her recent book Thinking God’s Thoughts: Johannes Kepler and the Miracle of Cosmic Comprehensibility.
In Part 3, we look at how Kepler's ideas and work can inform the scientific enterprise today. Many scientists recognize the mystery of cosmic comprehensibility, including such respected voices as Albert Einstein, Sir Roger Penrose, and Paul Davies. Materialists remain agnostic or put it down to chance. But there's a more satisfying explanation, says Travis. "Centuries ago, Kepler already held the trump card. Science itself...can't be explained within the framework of scientific materialism." Genuine human rationality - the very thinking that helped fuel the enormous success of the natural sciences - would not exist if a naturalistic account of the human mind were correct. To get an intellectually satisfying answer for the cosmic comprehensibility we enjoy as humans, we have to think outside the materialist box. Travis explains how we can do that using Kepler's tripartite harmony of archetype, copy, and image. It turns out Keplerian natural theology is more robust than ever before and can help us make sense of the mysteries of our age, including the multiverse, the limits of AI, transhumanism, and more.
This is Part 3 of a 3-part discussion. Source
Why is the cosmos intellectually accessible to us? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid continues his conversation with Dr. Melissa Cain Travis about her recent book Thinking God’s Thoughts: Johannes Kepler and the Miracle of Cosmic Comprehensibility.
In Part 2, Travis illuminates Kepler's university years to show us how his study of mathematics and astronomy complemented his interest in theology. We learn about obstacles he overcame during his education and how an unexpected appointment to assist imperial mathematician Tycho Brahe jump-started his career as an astronomer and gave him the tools he needed to develop and advance his revolutionary ideas. Travis unpacks Kepler's major works, from Mysterium Cosmographicum to his magnum opus Harmonices Mundi. She also tracks for us the progression of Kepler's ideas to show us how he became a key figure in the transition from ancient astronomy to a true celestial physics.
This is Part 2 of a 3-part discussion. Source
Is intelligent design an argument from ignorance? Is it a modern version of creationism? Can its claims be backed up by experimental results? On this ID The Future from the vault, Dr. Stephen Meyer debates Keith Pannell, a chemist at the University of Texas at El Paso and host of the NPR affiliate KTEP program Science Studio. Pannell also brings on biologist Ricardo Bernal as a co-host. We often say that Darwinists are reluctant to debate advocates of intelligent design, but here are two who deserve a tip of the hat. Pannell and Bernal tow the standard materialist line, but they're civil and give Meyer room to make his case. And as always, Meyer delivers. The discussion was likely an education for these two Texas scientists. Meyer patiently explains how intelligent design is different from creationism in epistemology as well as methodology. He notes that intelligent design uses the same historical methods of reasoning that Charles Darwin pioneered in the Origin of Species. Pannell is convinced that intelligent design is an argument from ignorance. Not at all, says Meyer. It's a positive case based on our uniform and repeated experience as well as on everything we know about the nature of information. The interview was occasioned by the anniversary of the Dover trial, a topic which comes up in the conversation. Wasn't the debate over intelligent design over after Dover? Not even close, says Meyer. We don't look to federal judges to settle deep, imponderable scientific questions. There are different disciplines for that. Meyer rounds out the discussion by elucidating on molecular machines and the type of information that contemporary Darwinian theory is given credit for without justification.Source
On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid kicks off a three-episode discussion with Dr. Melissa Cain Travis about her recent book Thinking God's Thoughts: Johannes Kepler and the Miracle of Cosmic Comprehensibility. A fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, Dr. Travis serves as Affiliate Faculty at Colorado Christian University's Lee Strobel Center for Evangelism and Applied Apologetics, where she teaches courses in the history and philosophy of science. In Part 1, learn why Kepler was instrumental in transforming classical astronomy into a true celestial physics. Like others before him, Kepler perceived a remarkable resonance between the rational order of the material world, mathematics, and the human mind. In response, he developed a three-part cosmic harmony of archetype, copy, and image to explain this unity. Travis unpacks his tripartite harmony for us.But that's not all. To give us a richer appreciation for Kepler's work, Travis also traces the intellectual pedigree of Kepler's ideas all the way back to the ancients, from pre-Socratic philosopher Pythagoras through the Early Christian era, the Middle Ages, and on through Kepler's own university years. It's a fascinating journey that shows how long humans have pondered the design of the universe and the uncanny connection between the natural world and the mathematics that lie at the heart of it. Kepler's revolutionary discoveries in natural philosophy and his unique insights into natural theology have inspired generations of scientists and philosophers. As we continue to discover new evidence of design in life and the universe, Travis argues that Kepler's work is as relevant today as ever.This is Part 1 of a 3-part discussion.Source
On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, host and biologist Ray Bohlin interviews biophysicist Cornelius Hunter, author of Darwin’s God, about an article in the journal Science concerning a virus invasion of E. coli bacteria. The article subtitle announces “Natural Selection Caught in the Act,” and suggests that an impressive instance of unguided evolution has been directly witnessed. Not so fast, Hunter says. The results were intelligently designed (by the lab scientists), he notes, and the changes are less impressive than they may appear at first glance. Hunter also explains protein-protein binding and counters evolutionist Dennis Venema to argue that the way the vertebrate immune system drives change is not at all analogous to the evolutionary process of random mutations and natural selection. Moreover, Hunter says, the mammalian immune system is itself an enormous challenge for evolutionary theory. Unfortunately, it's common for studies such as this one to be hyped up by the scientific community and the establishment media. "Evolutionists are driven by non-scientific factors, non-scientific influences," says Hunter. "There is a desire for the theory to be true in spite of the science, not because of the science."Source
On today’s ID the Future, host Michael Medved talks with Human Zoos film director John West about a recent Washington Post series exposing how the Smithsonian Institution collected hundreds of brains from indigenous peoples as part of an early-20th century effort to promote Darwinian racism. The motivation for the brain collection was to document how some people were supposedly lower on the evolutionary ladder than others. As West notes, many of these brains are still stored in steel vats at a non-public Smithsonian facility in Maryland. Tune in as West and Medved explore this disturbing topic and how it all ties into Darwin’s theory of evolution. And to watch the segment from the Human Zoos documentary detailing this gruesome collection and the man behind it, Aleš Hrdlička, click here. Source
Influenced by a long line of materialist thinkers, Charles Darwin proposed the mechanism of natural selection as a substitute for God. But how does his theory’s explanatory power measure up to recent scientific discoveries? On this ID The Future, physicist Brian Miller discusses the resurgence of natural theology in modern science with Pat Flynn, co-host of the Philosophy for the People podcast. Natural theology advances arguments for God based on reason and the discoveries of science. It’s an ancient pursuit that fell out of favor in the 19th century as a materialist account of life’s origins took center stage. But scientific findings of the last century point to mind, not a mindless process, as the likeliest explanation for a life-friendly universe. As a result, the pendulum is swinging back to teleology, ushering in a new heyday for natural theology.
In addition to giving an historical overview of natural theology, Dr. Miller and Flynn also discuss fundamental problems in origin of life studies that demand a better explanation than materialists can offer. Miller speaks plainly about the problem: “Here’s the fundamental challenge,” he says. “All natural processes tend to create greater disorder (entropy)…The origin of life requires chemicals to go into a state of both high order and high energy. That never happens without help!”
This is Part 1 of a 2-part discussion.
With thanks to Pat Flynn and the Philosophy for the People podcast for permission to share this interview. Source
Are the hard sciences the only source of truth about reality? On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, host Michael Keas begins a conversation with philosopher J. P. Moreland about Moreland’s book Scientism and Secularism: Learning to Respond to a Dangerous Ideology. As Moreland explains, scientism is the belief that only the hard sciences can provide any reliably true knowledge. It's a claim that also gets applied to other disciplines outside science as well, suggesting that claims of reality in any field of human knowledge cannot be known one way or another. “It’s in the drinking water,” Moreland says, but it’s also self-refuting, and therefore irrational — and very damaging besides. Moreland gives examples. This is Part 1 of a conversation. Source
When scientists claim they have simulated early earth chemistry to create life from non-life, are they being honest? This episode of ID The Future is the fourth and final installment in a series of conversations between philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer, author of Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, and Dr. James Tour, a world-leading synthetic organic chemist at Rice University. Dr. Tour has recently been engaged in a series of back-and-forth responses to attacks on his work from YouTube science communicator Dave Farina. This has given Tour a new opportunity to critique experts in the field of abiogenesis and allows an interested public to better evaluate both sides of the argument.
In Part 4, Meyer and Tour evaluate the work of chemist Bruce Lipshutz; specifically his work designing surfactant molecules that enable amide/peptide bonds. By itself, Lipshutz’s work developing synthetic techniques for doing chemistry in water is interesting and has value. But for those tempted to think that his work validates chemical evolutionary theories of the origin of life, Tour has bad news. Peptides don’t form in aqueous environments like water. A realistic prebiotic environment would not be capable of producing the reactions necessary to form proteins. And Lipshutz acknowledges this. In their conversation, Tour and Meyer discuss how Lipshutz applies hands-on chemistry that bears no resemblance to the likely conditions of a prebiotic earth. If anything, the work of Lipshutz and others in origin of life research is actually simulating the need for intelligent agency to move simple chemicals in a life-friendly direction. Says Meyer, "Even the modest movement they get towards life seems to be intelligently designed at each step of the way, and even the vocabulary will sometimes reveal that: ribozyme engineer, designer surfactants. Very curious!"
Watch the series on video at Dr. Meyer's YouTube channel: @DrStephenMeyer Source
Left to their own devices, the natural result of physics and chemistry is death, not life. So how are we still breathing? On this ID The Future, host Eric Anderson concludes his conversation with physician Howard Glicksman about some of the remarkable engineering challenges that have to be solved to produce and maintain living organisms such as ourselves. Glicksman is co-author with systems engineer Steve Laufmann of the recent book Your Designed Body, an exploration of the extraordinary system of systems that encompasses thousands of ingenious and interdependent engineering solutions to keep us alive and ticking. In the “just so” stories of the Darwinian narrative, these engineering solutions simply evolved. They emerged and got conserved. Voila! But it takes more than the laws of nature to keep us from dying.
In Part 1, Glicksman discussed how two laws of nature - diffusion and osmosis - must be innovated by living systems to avoid cell death. In this episode, Glicksman provides another example: how we regulate the flow of water and blood through our bodies without the excess leakage or shrinkage that can lead to cell death. The protein albumin is crucial. Along with helping to transport minerals and hormones, albumin vitally maintains blood volume by regulating the water flow in and out of the capillaries. How does our liver know how to make albumin, or how much of it to make? Can a gradual Darwinian process be credited with these essential innovations? Or do they bear hallmarks of design? Listen in as Dr. Glicksman explains this remarkable system, just one of many engineering feats our bodies perform every day to keep us alive. Source
On this episode of ID the Future, host Andrew McDiarmid continues his series with Nancy Pearcey discussing the arguments of her 2018 article "You Guys Lost! Is Design a Closed Issue?". Here, Pearcey explains what historians know, but few of the rest of us do: If anything, Charles Darwin’s science grew out of his naturalistic philosophy, not the other way around. "He started with a philosophical conviction," says Pearcey, "and then started looking for a theory to validate it." Pearcey also discusses one of Darwin's fiercest defenders, his “bulldog” T.H. Huxley, who liked Darwinism more for its philosophy than its science. And even Darwin admitted the evidence wasn’t all it could or should be. A closer examination of Darwin's ideas, and his frank and honest acknowledgements about his own theory, shows he wasn't nearly as dogmatic as many of his followers. This is an important thing to remember as we continue to evaluate the legacy of Darwin's arguments today. Source
Scientists agree that our universe is finely tuned for the existence of life. But is the fine-tuning a happy accident or the result of foresight? On this ID The Future, host Brian Miller continues his conversation with Rabbi Elie Feder and Rabbi Aaron Zimmer, hosts of the Physics to God podcast. Feder has a PhD in mathematics and has published articles on graph theory. Zimmer has training in physics, and has studied mathematics, philosophy, and psychology. Both men also have extensive rabbinical training. Through their podcast, Feder and Zimmer invite both secular and religious listeners on a journey through modern physics as they offer rational arguments for an intelligent cause of the universe.
In the conclusion to their discussion, Feder and Zimmer explain why the cosmological constant is one of their favorite examples of fine-tuning. They also share the importance of exploring the teleological causes, or purposes, of natural phenomena. To help listeners grasp the difference between efficient causes and teleological causes, they give the example of a carpenter who builds a table. Is the carpenter the cause of the existence of the table? Or is the idea of the table in the carpenter's mind the cause? Or both? Using modern physics, say Feder and Zimmer, an objective justification for the purpose of the universe can be made. Enjoy this provocative and illuminating discussion! Don't miss Part 1 of the conversation, available here: https://idthefuture.com/1787/ Source
Do you recognize the number 1/137.035999206? It might seem arbitrary, but if the fine structure constant were any higher or lower than it is, you might not exist! On this episode of ID The Future, host Brian Miller kicks off an engaging conversation with Rabbi Elie Feder and Rabbi Aaron Zimmer, hosts of the Physics to God podcast. Feder has a PhD in mathematics and has published articles on graph theory. Zimmer has training in physics, and has studied mathematics, philosophy, and psychology. Both men also have extensive rabbinical training. Through their podcast, Feder and Zimmer invite both secular and religious listeners on a journey through modern physics as they offer rational arguments for an intelligent cause of the universe. In Part 1 of a two-part discussion, Feder and Zimmer share their background and the inspiration for their podcast. They also explain their focus on the constants of physics - specific numbers and values built into the laws of nature that are the same everywhere. What do these numbers mean? How are they measured? Why are they important? Do they hint at design, or are they "magic numbers that come to us with no understanding," as noted physicist Richard Feynman put it? A physicist himself, Miller is the perfect host to unpack the efforts of Feder and Zimmer. It's time to get more intimately acquainted with the strange and wonderful numbers that hold our universe together! Source
Is the Cosmos one big happy accident? Are science and religion mortal enemies? On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, Casey Luskin talks with Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Jay Richards about distortions and outright falsehoods presented in the 2014 reboot of the Cosmos TV series. Dr. Richards discusses how Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey presents science and religion as enemies by misrepresenting the lives of key figures in the history of modern science. "If you're going to tell that story of the warfare between Christianity and science, you absolutely have to have a martyr," says Richards. Both Copernicus and Galileo died peacefully, so the show spends an unusual amount of time animating the story of Dominican friar and mystic Giordano Bruno and his persecution by the Catholic Church. The problem? Bruno isn't a central character in the story of modern science, and he was executed for alleged theological crimes, not scientific ones. Richards goes on to discuss the show's misrepresentation of scientific giant Isaac Newton and even of the monotheistic ideas of the ancient Chinese philosopher Mozi. "What you get is the sense that religion and Christianity were either an enemy of science or at best they were incidental beliefs to early modern science that made no difference to scientific discovery. It's just not true." Source
On this ID The Future, we're pleased to share Daily Wire host Andrew Klavan's recent interview with Dr. Casey Luskin. Klavan loves science, but he smells a rat when famous scientists like Richard Dawkins use their displaced authority to make proclamations about science's relationship with religion. So after reading Luskin's recent Daily Wire article about progressives and their long history of banning intelligent design from the classroom, Klavan invited Luskin on his show to help his viewers better understand the theory of intelligent design and the reality of the evolutionary paradigm.
Luskin starts with the meanings of evolution and the questions that guide intelligent design researchers. He cites plenty of examples of design from biology and cosmology. Klavan then asks how badly people get censored for considering design perspectives in their work. Luskin explains, using the case of physicist Eric Hedin and his treatment at Ball State University as an example. Luskin rounds out the conversation by explaining how intelligent design uses the scientific method to detect the hallmarks of design in both living systems and the universe at large. "Science never gives us, under any conditions, absolute certainty," Luskin notes. "What it can allow us to do, though, is we can use the methods of historical sciences to infer the best explanation for a given situation given what we know about how the world works." Source
When left to their own devices, the laws of nature tend toward death, not life. So what does it take for life to exist? On this ID The Future, host Eric Anderson talks with physician Howard Glicksman about some of the remarkable engineering challenges that have to be solved to produce and maintain living organisms such as ourselves. Glicksman is co-author with systems engineer Steve Laufmann of the recent book Your Designed Body, an exploration of the extraordinary system of systems that encompasses thousands of ingenious and interdependent engineering solutions to keep us alive and ticking. In the "just so" stories of the Darwinian narrative, these engineering solutions simply evolved. They emerged and got conserved. Voila! But in this chat, Anderson and Glicksman explain that it takes more than the laws of nature to keep us from dying. "Chemicals on their own don't have any desire or tendency to turn into living organs," says Anderson. "They tend to degrade, they tend to break down, they tend to go back to their basic constituents." Glicksman and Anderson discuss examples, including how the human body handles friction, heat transfer, and the crucial task of maintaining chemical balance at the cellular level. And where does all this essential innovation come from? Glicksman points to an intelligent cause that transcends matter and energy. Source
On this classic episode of ID the Future, host Eric Metaxas continues his conversation with biologist and professor Dr. Douglas Axe. The subject is Axe’s book Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life is Designed and his account of how he lost his position at a Cambridge research lab because of the implications of his research findings. Axe discusses the polarized atmosphere in science today, driven by an unreasonable commitment to materialism. He describes the prevailing attitude this way: "Either you're with us and on board on these issues or you are anti-science. That is a very unhelpful position for scientists to be taking." Axe also talks about the reliability of our built-in design intuition and the implications of living in a designed universe. Metaxas notes that though many adopt a Darwinian narrative of life, few are prepared to follow the logic of an accidental cosmos all the way. This is Part 2 of a two-episode interview. Listen to Part 1 here: https://idthefuture.com/1780/ Source
Have scientists made life in a laboratory? Two-thirds of the public think the answer is yes. What do you think? This episode of ID The Future is the third installment in a series of four conversations between philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer, author of Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, and Dr. James Tour, a world-leading synthetic organic chemist at Rice University. Dr. Tour has recently been engaged in a series of back-and-forth responses to attacks on his work from YouTube science communicator Dave Farina. This has given Tour a new opportunity to critique experts in the field of abiogenesis and allows an interested public to better evaluate both sides of the argument.
In Part 3, Meyer and Tour continue their critique of the claims of chemist Lee Cronin, including his experiments on the formose reaction, autocatalysis, his attempts to conjure up lipids in oil, and more. Along the way, Tour explains how he got into the debate in the first place, providing some background on his interactions with Farina and how it led him to call out experts in the field. Tour and Meyer are careful to remind us just what life is and what it takes to build it. And on several occasions, you’ll enjoy Meyer’s insight into the big picture. These simulation experiments, says Meyer “are actually showing the difficulty of making life-relevant molecules…via an undirected process.” In other words, origin of life researchers are doing sophisticated chemistry with multi-million dollar equipment that can only be done in a modern lab! In the process, they’re showing us just how implausible chemical evolutionary theories actually are.
This is Part 3 of a 4-part series. Watch the video versions of these conversations at Dr. Meyer's YouTube Channel: @DrStephenMeyer Source
On this ID The Future, Liberty McArtor, host of the Know Why Podcast, interviews Jonathan Witt on the compatibility of science and faith, both past and present. Witt is Executive Editor at Discovery Institute Press, as well as a Senior Fellow and Senior Project Manager with Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture. His latest book, co-written with Finnish bio-engineer Matti Leisola, is Heretic: One Scientist's Journey from Darwin to Design. In his conversation with McArtor, Witt describes the unique time and place that helped inspire the rise of modern science. "They had the Judeo-Christian worldview," Witt notes, "and that fired the imaginations and ordered the reasoning of those that gave birth to the scientific revolution." Witt also reviews some of the abundant scientific discoveries of the last century that are causing even committed materialists to question or reject the neo-Darwinian explanation. The all-too-common assertion that science and faith are at odds with one another is outdated. Listen in to understand just a few of the reasons why! With thanks to Liberty McArtor and the Know Why Podcast for permission to cross-post this interview. Source
On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, host Eric Metaxas interviews biologist and professor Dr. Douglas Axe on The Eric Metaxas show. Axe is the Maxwell Professor of Molecular Biology at Biola University, the founding Director of Biologic Institute, the founding Editor of BIO-Complexity, and the author of Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life is Designed. Axe shares how he lost his research position in Cambridge during a season of political controversy over Darwinian evolution in the U.K. Axe's research at Cambridge led him to cast doubt on the prevailing ideas about protein evolution, showing that proteins are actually more fragile and less flexible than many claim. In their discussion of his book Undeniable, Axe explains that science is a human enterprise: "Science is not the dispassionate, purely rational, perfect discipline that some people still seem to think it is," says Axe. "The human part of science brings all the baggage and complexity that humans bring to every other discipline in science, and how could it be otherwise." This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Source
On this ID The Future, we continue a four-part conversation series between philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer, author of Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, and Dr. James Tour, a world-leading synthetic organic chemist at Rice University. Dr. Tour has recently been engaged in a series of back-and-forth responses to attacks on his work from YouTube science communicator Dave Farina. This has given Tour a new opportunity to critique experts in the field of abiogenesis and allows an interested public to better evaluate both sides of the argument.
In Part 2, Meyer and Tour discuss the work and claims of origin of life researcher Lee Cronin. They begin with a review of the four classes of molecules before critiquing Cronin’s foremose reaction experiments and his claims to have found a process that’s analogous to cell division. Tour also discusses the importance of chirality, as well as how amino acids behave in aqueous solutions. Turns out that “warm little pond” story we’ve been told for many years is chemically implausible. The discussion rounds out with a reminder of the information problem, something Meyer writes about at length in Signature in the Cell. Have prebiotic chemists made any progress on the sequence specificity problem? None whatsoever, says Dr. Tour.
This is Part 2 of a four-part series of conversations. Watch the video versions of these at Dr. Meyer’s YouTube channel: @DrStephenMeyer Source
Has the accuracy of teaching on evolutionary theory improved in standard biology textbooks in recent years? On this ID The Future, host Daniel Reeves, Director of Education & Outreach at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, speaks with a recent high school graduate named Natalie about her senior year research project. Natalie has had an interest in evolution and intelligent design for years, and she's noticed that textbooks don't always cover important or controversial topics fairly. So when she discovered her school was trialing a new biology textbook, she decided to evaluate the proposed textbook's approach to accuracy and fairness in light of the available scientific evidence. Focusing on the fossil record and genetics, Natalie organized quotations from the textbook into three categories - misrepresented, underdeveloped, or well-aligned - based on how well they conveyed the available evidence. From whale evolution to genetic differences among organisms, Natalie found that more often than not, the textbook was misleading to students in the way it presented or omitted important scientific ideas. "High school students are in such a pivotal time in their life because they're forming their worldview," says Natalie. "And evolution is a theory on the origin of life...that's huge to answering those questions." Natalie encourages her fellow students, and anyone interested in origins, to question and dive deep as they evaluate competing ideas. It's an approach that biologist Jonathan Wells would applaud. Wells dedicated his latest book, Zombie Science, "to the students who will need to discern the truth for themselves." Here's one young scholar who is doing just that. Source
If living things are only the result of chance processes, does human life have any intrinsic value? On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, California State University history professor Richard Weikart, author of several books, including The Death of Humanity and the Case for Life, talks racism past and present, in both Christian and “scientific” secular history. Racism can be found in both arenas, Weikart notes, but Charles Darwin made racial variation — and the claim that certain races were inferior — a key plank in his case for evolution by random variation and natural selection. As a result, many in the 19th century and early 20th century concluded with Darwin that perceived differences between the races were biological, an idea that opened the door more widely to the continued exploitation of human beings. Weikart goes on to suggest that materialistic Darwinism provides precious little support to ground the idea of universal human dignity and rights, ideas with a strong grounding in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
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Listen to Richard Weikart's 2016 debate with Peter Singer on Justin Brierley's Unbelievable radio show by searching the title at Spotify: Is Human Life Intrinsically Valuable? Source
On this ID The Future, we kick off a series of conversations between Dr. Stephen Meyer and Dr. James Tour on the many challenges faced by origin of life researchers. Dr. Tour, a world-leading synthetic organic chemist at Rice University, has recently been engaged in a series of back-and-forth responses to attacks on his work from YouTube science communicator Dave Farina. This has given Tour a new opportunity to critique experts in the field of abiogenesis and allows an interested public to evaluate both sides of the argument. Philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer hosts these engaging conversations. Meyer is author of the 2009 book Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, which explores theories attempting to explain the origin of the first life. So Meyer is the perfect candidate to unpack Tour's expertise and draw out key insights. In Part 1, Meyer and Tour critique the work of origin of life researcher Steve Benner. Along the way, they discuss the basic definition of life, the RNA world hypothesis, the problem with hands-on chemistry, and why the challenges facing origin of life research increase every year as our understanding of the cell grows. "What is being simulated is the need for intelligent agency to move simple chemicals in a life-friendly direction," says Meyer, and researchers "seem utterly blind to the role of their own hand, their own mind, in achieving the results that they get, such as they are." This is Part 1 of a four-part series of conversations. Watch the video versions of these at Dr. Meyer's YouTube channel: @DrStephenMeyer
Learn more about Dr. Tour's work via his YouTube channel: @DrJamesTour Source
Are there ways to reconcile the latest scientific evidence with traditional theological views? On this ID The Future, host Emily Reeves talks to geologist and Center for Science & Culture Associate Director Casey Luskin about his recent paper in the mainstream journal Religions. In "Comparing Contemporary Evangelical Models Regarding Human Origins," Luskin compares eight different models of human origins. Four of the models present an evolutionary mechanism, while the other four models propose non-evolutionary approaches. Luskin explains how each of the models interface with the scientific evidence and with key theological views. "The hope is not necessarily to tell you which model you should adopt," says Luskin, "but to help you understand the models and to get a better feel for them." In doing the research on this issue, Luskin learned that you don't have to jettison traditional beliefs about Adam and Eve in light of the findings of science. He notes that there's a rich diversity of models to explore with an open mind and a willingness to learn. But the landscape of options can get confusing, notes Reeves, so a good first step is understanding all the models. In this interview and in his new paper, Luskin gives us a concise and organized guide to do just that.
Luskin's Religions paper is open-access and free to read here: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/6/748 Source
On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, biochemist and medical doctor Michael Denton continues his conversation with host Sarah Chaffee about his book Children of Light: The Astonishing Properties of Sunlight That Make Life Possible, part of his Privileged Species book series that also includes The Miracle of Man, The Miracle of the Cell, The Wonder of Water, and Fire-Maker. Here, Dr. Denton speaks of the properties of both light and water. From photosynthesis to metabolism to circulation, and even from plate tectonics to the hydrologic cycle, both have exactly what it takes — in “amazingly fortuitous” ways — to make complex organic life possible. The sun, Denton points out, has a fantastic range of electromagnetic radiation, from high-energy gamma rays all the way to long wavelength radio waves. "And in this vast range, there's only one...infinitesimally small band which has the right energy for photosynthesis," an essential prerequisite for human life. Coincidence? When coupled with bountiful evidence of other examples and types of fine-tuning in the universe, we think not. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Source
Does the five-digit design of the whale flipper, curiously akin to the five-digit design of so many different kinds of animal limbs, point to evolutionary common descent? That was Charles Darwin’s argument, and the argument is a staple of high school and college biology textbooks. But no, says distinguished British engineer Stuart Burgess on today’s ID the Future in his conversation with host Eric Anderson. The repeated recurrence of the pentadactyl form is better explained by reference to the idea of common design. That is, a master designer reused the pentadactyl design theme because it achieves an optimal trade-off between strength on the one hand (no pun intended) and suppleness or dexterity on the other. And yes, Burgess says, the giant flipper on a whale needs to be not just incredibly strong but also supple to allow the whale to maneuver adroitly through the water.
This reuse of a good design concept shouldn’t surprise us, Burgess says. Just as human engineers reuse the concepts of the wheel, axle, nut and bolt, or pulley, so too the designer of life reuses shrewd engineering solutions in widely different applications, in each case adapting the design concept for the particular use.
Burgess also rebuts the claim that whales have vestigial pelvic bones from a land-dwelling ancestor. He then moves from the big to the small, pointing to more positive evidence in favor of common design (over Darwinian common descent) in marsupial and placental rats and in a protein machine best known for one job but that has been found to “moonlight” doing a very different job in a very different biological context. Tune in to hear Burgess unpack the full argument.
The conversation took place at the 2023 Conference on Engineering in Living Systems (CELS) in Denton, Texas. Source
The fossil record reveals sudden explosions of new life forms followed by long periods of stasis. Is this evidence to be expected from a gradual Darwinian model? On this episode of ID The Future, host Eric Anderson talks with Casey Luskin on location at this year’s Conference on Engineering and Living Systems (CELS). Luskin discusses three different models of the fossil record - the gradual descent model, the punctuated equilibrium model, and the explosion model. He explains why gradual Darwinian models are built on a lack of data and cannot adequately explain the patterns revealed in the record. He also shows that the sudden appearance of complex organisms and long periods of non-change are exactly what we would expect to find from a design perspective. "These organisms...are designed to change within limits," says Luskin, "and that's why we see stasis." Indeed, the fossil record is consistent with the engineering-based theory of bounded adaptation, the idea that organisms are deeply designed, purposeful, and capable of adapting within their operating parameters. It's an intriguing new way to look at the history of life on earth. Says Luskin, "The only way you're going to be able to generate all the information needed to yield an organism that's alive and functional all at once is through an intelligent cause." Don't miss this intriguing conversation!
Casey Luskin holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Johannesburg, where he specialized in paleomagnetism and the early plate tectonic history of South Africa. He serves as Associate Director of Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture.
Want to dive deeper into the fascinating explosions of plant and animal life in the geologic record? Luskin recommends reading a chapter by Stephen C. Meyer and Gunter Bechly (Chapter 10) on the topic, in Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique. Available here: https://www.discovery.org/b/theistic-evolution/ Source
On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, biochemist and medical doctor Michael Denton explores a “miraculous convergence of properties” for life. The topic is Denton's book Children of Light: The Astonishing Properties of Sunlight That Make Us Possible, part of his Privileged Species book series that also includes The Miracle of Man, The Miracle of the Cell, The Wonder of Water, and Fire-Maker. Here, Denton lets his astonishment flow freely in an interview with host Sarah Chaffee, with topics ranging from the light of the sun to key chemicals here on earth. "The atmosphere lets through just the light we need," says Denton, "and the sun puts out just the light we need. It's a remarkable coincidence...The atmosphere does just what is needed for life on earth." Taken together, it’s an astonishing array of evidence showing how finely tuned Earth is for human life. And the common-sense conclusion, Denton says, is that a designing intelligence is the most adequate explanation for the properties on our planet that make life like us possible. This is Part 1 of a two-part discussion. Source
The groundbreaking recent book Your Designed Body is the focus of today’s ID the Future. Here in Part 2 of a two-part conversation with host Wesley J. Smith, the two authors, systems engineer Steve Laufmann and physician Howard Glicksman, delve deeper into the exquisite, multi-layered fine tuning of the human body. They point to essential systems within systems within systems—irreducible complexity cubed, if you will. They also respond to the charge that aspects of the human body are poorly designed and, therefore, are supposedly better explained by the blind process of Darwinian evolution. Laufmann identifies five common errors that Darwinists make when pushing this bad-design argument. All of the errors involve an ignorance of key engineering principles, he says, one of them being a failure to consider the principle of constrained optimization. This episode is reposted at ID the Future by permission of Wesley J. Smith and the Humanize podcast. Source
Is your body engineered? Or did it evolve through impersonal, random processes over millions of years through natural selection? On this ID The Future, host Wesley J. Smith interviews engineer Steve Laufmann and physician Howard Glicksman about their recent book Your Designed Body. In their book, Laufmann and Glicksman evaluate the causal factors of Darwinism - heritability, random mutation, natural selection, and time - and find that they are both inadequate and incapable of producing the interconnected systems of the human body. "The systems that are required to make the human body work," says Laufmann, "are exactly the kinds of things that engineers design and build." Instead, they explain the body through the lens of engineering, showing that design is the most adequate mechanism currently available to explain how the origin of our amazing human bodies. Says Glicksman: "The more we understand how life actually works, the more the neo-Darwinian narrative becomes impossible." This is Part 1 of a two-part interview, originally airing on the Humanize podcast, a production of Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism. Source
On this classic episode of ID The Future from the vault, host Casey Luskin interviews Phillip Johnson, former UC Berkeley law professor and one of the founders of the modern intelligent design movement. Back in 2007, Johnson was one of the only intelligent design proponents interviewed for and included in PBS's long-running science series NOVA in an episode about the Dover case called "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial." Johnson weighs in with his thoughts about the ruling issued by Judge Jones, about the scientific status of intelligent design, his views on PBS's teaching guide about intelligent design, and the popular claim at the time that intelligent design would inject religion into the classroom.
Johnson was the author of the 1993 bestseller Darwin on Trial, an inspiration to many scientists and scholars in the intelligent design research community. He was an advisor to Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture for many years. He died in 2019. Source
Today’s ID the Future spotlights the new book The Toxic War on Masculinity, by author and scholar Nancy Pearcey, professor and scholar in residence at Houston Christian University. In her conversation with host Andrew McDiarmid, Pearcey argues against the current fashion of seeing masculinity as inherently toxic. She traces the tendency back to Darwinism and explains how the industrial revolution, working hand in glove with secularism, fueled toxic masculinity at the expense of virtuous masculinity. Tune in for the stimulating discussion and to hear what Pearcey offers as an antidote to the war on virtuous masculinity. Source
On this ID The Future, host Casey Luskin talks with Eric Anderson on location at this year's Conference on Engineering and Living Systems (CELS). The two discuss an intriguing new engineering-based model of bounded adaptation that could dramatically change how we view small-scale evolutionary changes within populations of organisms. In presenting his argument for natural selection, Charles Darwin pointed to small changes like finch beak size and peppered moth color as visible evidence of an unguided evolutionary process at work. Many have adopted this perspective, quick to grant the Darwinian mechanism credit for micro, if not macro, evolution. But Anderson and other attendees of the CELS conference are starting to promote a different view. "We need to stop saying organisms are partly designed," says Anderson. "We need to view them as deeply designed and purposeful, active and engaged in their environments, and capable of adapting within their operating parameters." Tune in to get a fascinating glimpse of this novel approach to biology. Source
On today’s ID the Future from the archive, Tom Gilson--author, senior editor with The Stream, and occasional contributor to Evolution News & Science Today--tackles the question of how best to discuss intelligent design (ID) with friends and associates skeptical of the theory. There is so much misinformation about the theory of ID that many well-intended people reject not the actual theory but a silly caricature, a straw man. They don’t realize that ID is not an argument from ignorance but an inference to the best explanation based on positive evidence for design and negative evidence against competing materialistic explanations. It involves abductive reasoning, a standard mode of reasoning in the historical sciences. When in conversation with someone who understands none of this, Gilson suggests using the Socratic method and, in particular, three questions designed to turn down the heat, promote dialogue, and draw the other person into a discovery of the actual theory of intelligent design. Try it with friends, colleagues, and family members! Source
The new book Science After Babel is again in the spotlight here at ID the Future, with its author, philosopher and mathematician David Berlinski, and host Andrew McDiarmid teasing various elements of the work. The pair discuss the puzzling relationship between purely immaterial mathematical concepts (the only kind) and the material world; World War II codebreaker and computing pioneer Alan Turing, depicted in the 2014 film The Imitation Game; and the sense that the field of physics, once seemingly on the cusp of a theory of everything, finds itself at an impasse. Then, too, Berlinski writes, there is the mystery of life itself. If scientists thought that its origin and nature would soon yield to scientific reductionism, they have been disappointed. Life’s “fantastic and controlled complexity, its brilliant inventiveness and diversity, its sheer difference from anything else in this or any other world” remains before us, suggesting, as Berlinski puts it, “a kind of intelligence evident nowhere else.” Get your copy of the book at www.scienceafterbabel.com. Source
On this ID The Future, host Rob Crowther chats with Kristin Marais about her new online chemistry course launching this fall through Discovery Institute Academy. Her chemistry class is a two-semester, virtual, synchronous, and lab-based course which integrates the fundamentals of chemistry with applicable intelligent design concepts and topics. Students will progress through the course with Marais and fellow students together, with ample opportunity for real-time teacher-student engagement and student-to-student engagement. Class meets three times a week via Zoom to discuss content, ask questions, and work on problems together. Students can also utilize optional drop-in sessions after class, as well as the opportunity to set up one-to-one live video sessions with the teacher. "What's a wet lab?" Crowther asks during their discussion. Marais explains that a wet lab involves hands-on physical experiments. Students will conduct both physical and simulated virtual experiments during the state-of-the-art course, from equilibrium labs designed to see reversible reactions to reaction rate labs they'll get to design themselves. This chemistry course is unique among other available chemistry courses because it's connected to the Discovery Institute. As such, Marais will be able to connect students with questions to a global network of scientists and scholars in the intelligent design research community, as well as a mountain of books, articles, videos, and animations to help them learn more about chemistry and science in general.
Learn more and register for the course today at www.discoveryinstitute.academy. Get a discount on registration through June 30th, 2023. Source
On today’s ID the Future from the vault, we’re pleased to feature a cross-post from our sister podcast Mind Matters. Here, host Robert J. Marks begins a conversation with trailblazing mathematician and computer scientist Gregory Chaitin. The two discuss Chaitin’s beginnings in computer science, his growing up in the 1960s a stone’s throw from Central Park, his thoughts on historic scientists in his field such as Leonard Euler and Kurt Gödel, and the story of Chaitin’s thwarted meeting with the famed German-Austrian logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Also touched on: Gödel’s ontological proof for the existence of God and how children can be said to have solved Chaitin’s incompleteness problem! Source
On today’s ID the Future, Science After Babel author David Berlinski continues discussing his newly released book from Discovery Institute Press. In this conversation with host Andrew McDiarmid, Berlinski explores a chicken-and-egg problem facing origin-of-life research, a blindness afflicting some evolutionists focused on human origins, and the mystery of why science almost flowered in ancient Greece, early Medieval China, and in the Muslim-Arab Medieval Empire, but did not, having to await the scientific revolution that swept through Europe beginning in the sixteenth century. Check out the endorsements and get your copy, paperback or e-book, at scienceafterbabel.com. Source
How strong is the evidence for Darwinian evolution? What are the limits of the Darwinian mechanism? How should concepts like evolution and science best be defined? On this episode of ID The Future, we bring to you the first three video lectures from a new online course by molecular and cell biologist Jonathan Wells. In the first brief lecture, Wells explains his own evolution; the evolution of his thinking about evolution, that is. You'll glean some interesting details about Wells's career here. In the second lecture, Wells defines the word evolution by reminding us of its various meanings and uses. He also describes how Darwin's theory of natural selection became the framework that bolstered a materialistic metaphysic that endures today. You'll learn that Darwin's proposal relied less on evidence-based science and more on theological and philosophical arguments. In the third lecture, Wells defines science, and explains what happens when the definition of science is confined to naturalistic explanations only. Every so often, says Wells, enough data accumulates to present a challenge to the prevailing scientific framework. It happened in Newton's day. It happened in Darwin's day. And it may happen again soon, if the mounting evidence supportive of intelligent design is any indication.
Learn more about Wells's online course at discoveryu.org. Over 40 short video lectures, Wells explains the major concepts of both chemical and biological evolution, and he critically assesses the evidence for evolution offered by genetics, developmental biology, fossils, and more. Wells deals with some of the most popular “icons” of evolution found in standard textbooks, including Darwin’s finches, whales, antibiotic resistance, peppered moths, “junk” DNA, and more. Source
Got a smartphone? As complicated a machine as it is, it doesn't compare to the incredible sophistication found in biological life. On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, we hear from two contributors to the Crossway anthology, Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique, Molecular biologist Douglas Axe and philosopher of science Stephen Meyer explain how Carbon Valley Trumps Silicon Valley, and shouts intelligent design. They compare some of today’s technological marvels to living technology, and show how even “simple cells” far exceed even the best silicon valley has to offer. As Meyer says: "Nobody doubts that natural selection and random mutation is a genuine biological process. What we do doubt is that those mechanisms have the power to generate fundamentally new forms of life." For more from Dr. Axe and Dr. Meyer, watch their short documentary film The Information Enigma. Also catch this article about the nanotechnology inside us, co-written by Meyer and Andrew McDiarmid. Search by the title: The Coolest Tech on the Planet (Hint: It's Inside You!) Source
On today’s ID the Future, host Andrew McDiarmid rings up Science After Babel author David Berlinski in Paris to discuss the philosopher’s latest book. Berlinski is at his cultivated best as the two discuss everything from the biblical Tower of Babel as a metaphor for modern materialistic science, to his friendship with the brilliant and colorful French intellectual Marcel Schützenberger, a world-class mathematician who was self-taught and, as we learn here, came within a hair’s breadth of being swept up in the Chinese Revolution. Berlinski also reflects on the seminal 1966 WISTAR symposium, which laid out some mathematical challenges to Darwinism, challenges that Berlinski says remain unanswered to this day. At the same time, Berlinski gives the devil—here Darwinism—its due. Tune in for this and more, and order your copy of Berlinski’s Science After Babel here. Source
On this episode of ID The Future, plant scientist Richard Buggs speaks to the hosts of the Table Talk podcast about the long-standing claim that science and religion are at odds. Buggs is a professor and Senior Research Leader at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, one of the UK's largest plant science research institutes. He is also Professor of Evolutionary Genomics at Queen Mary, University of London. Contrary to the prevailing view, Buggs says his Christian faith motivates his research, giving him the ability not only to think with different perspectives but also better understand the people groups stewarding natural resources around the world as well as more adequately explain certain processes he studies in nature. Buggs also explains why the term "evolution" can vary between scientists and the public, and he reminds listeners of the current debate among evolutionary biologists themselves about the sufficiency of the current Darwinian mechanism to account for the origin and diversity of life. Along the way, Buggs points out the unconscious bias within his field that favors atheistic assumptions, nothing that more cognitive diversity would improve the scientific landscape and bring more rigor and creativity to the scientific process. For their kind permission to post this informative exchange, we thank Table Talk hosts Jack Timpany and Graeme Johnstone. Source
This year's Conference On Engineering in Living Systems (CELS) happens this month and explores design principles at work in living things. To whet your appetite for the topic, we pulled this ID the Future from the archive. Host Jonathan Witt gives us a behind-the-scenes interview with Dustin Van Hofwegen, a biology professor at Azusa Pacific University in California. The occasion was a previous Conference on Engineering in Living Systems. The two discuss the private event, which brought together biologists and engineers to study how engineering principles and a design perspective can and are being applied to biology — to plants and animals but also to Van Hofwegen’s area of focus, the realm of microbial biology. The two quickly move into a conversation about Van Hofwegen’s article in the Journal of Bacteriology, co-authored with Carolyn Hovde and Scott Minnich, based on research they did at the University of Idaho. As Van Hofwegen explains, the research focused on one of the most ballyhooed evolutionary changes to come out of Richard Lenski’s long-term evolution experiment, a decades-long study of many thousands of generations of E. coli bacteria. Perhaps the biggest evolutionary development in the course of the experiment involved some bacteria beginning to feed in citric acid. Interesting, to be sure, but as Van Hofwegen explains, E. coli already has this capacity; it’s just a matter of switching it on. Van Hofwegen, Hovde, and Minnich demonstrated this through do-or-die experiments with E. coli, which led to the bacteria developing the capacity not in years or decades, as in the Lenski experiment, but in fourteen days, in as little as 100 generations. Van Hofwegen unpacks why this is an embarrassing result for Neo-Darwinism. The pair conclude with discussion of another study on antibiotic resistance with a similar result, that the resistance observed came not by evolving anything new but by tweaking something already present. Source
In today’s ID the Future philosopher Stephen Meyer revisits Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Templeton Prize speech from May 10, 1983, where Solzhenitsyn indicted the West for forgetting God. Meyer argues that Solzhenitsyn’s indictment is more timely than ever. But at the same time, there is today more scientific evidence than ever for the existence of a personal God, Meyer says, and the argument from intelligent design is a powerful means to awaken individuals to the presence of God and to renew culture. Meyer goes on to support those claims with concrete examples. Today’s episode is taken from a talk Dr. Meyer gave at the 2023 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. Meyer is author of the bestselling book Return of the God Read More ›Source
On this ID The Future, host Eric Anderson gets an update on the recent work of Dr. Ann Gauger, Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. Dr. Gauger explains her continuing research into the limits of protein evolution, efforts that are challenging the prevailing assumptions of the role of proteins and mutations in a Darwinian account of life. She also discusses her work on the related waiting times problem, demonstrating the difficulty of Darwinian processes to account for the diversity we see in biology. In addition, Ann shares her journey into researching human origins. After being asked to evaluate the scientific case against Adam and Eve, Ann dove into population genetics to see if monogenesis - the hypothesis that all humans are descended from two first parents - was even a possibility. What she discovered may surprise you. Don't miss this review of Dr. Gauger's fascinating and important research. Source
On this episode, Dr. Jonathan McLatchie takes us on a deep dive into two classic examples of irreducibly complex systems - the bacterial flagellar motor and the process of DNA replication in cell division. He explains the intricacies of each process and shows why each stands up to scrutiny as a true example of irreducible complexity. Along the way, he explains why the RNA world scenario isn't likely to be the answer to irreducible complexity that materialists are looking for. And near the end, be sure to listen to McLatchie explain the "likelihood ratio"of the evidence for irreducible complexity, a top-heavy ratio he says strongly supports a design hypothesis. This is Part 1 of a 2-part interview.Source
Today’s ID the Future from the vault features another installment in James Tour’s hard-hitting and evidence-based YouTube series on abiogenesis. Here, Dr. Tour, a world-leading synthetic organic chemist at Rice University, describes the early Earth primordial soup concept for the origin of first life (OOL) and shows why it’s simplistic, bogus, and doesn’t represent the current science on the issue. He also reviews survey data showing just how misinformed the public is about how far scientists have gotten in creating life in the lab. One critic of Tour protested that the simplistic primordial soup story might be found in highly simplified textbooks for sixth graders but isn’t peddled at higher levels. Tour provides evidence to the contrary.Source
To coincide with James Tour's highly anticipated debate with YouTuber Dave Farina, we pulled this gem out of the archive for your listening pleasure! On this episode of ID the Future, distinguished synthetic organic chemist Dr. James Tour of Rice University takes us back to the basics of origin of life studies. What is abiogenesis? How does it differ from evolution? How is life defined? What are the characteristics of life? What challenges do researchers face in trying to create life from non-life? Along the way, Tour provides a fast flyover of the many grave problems of blindly evolving the first living cell from prebiotic materials. If you enjoy this primer, watch more of Dr. Tour's Intro to Abiogenesis video series on YouTube.Source
In 2009 atheist biologist Richard Dawkins offered a scientific test to decide between Darwinian evolution and intelligent design (ID). The results are in, and as guest Casey Luskin explains on this ID the Future, the evidence has broken strongly in favor of intelligent design. At the time Dawkins presented the test, he was confident that comparative DNA evidence supported Darwin’s tree of life and its idea of universal common ancestry. He made the point in his 2009 book The Greatest Show on Earth and in two interviews. As he put it, “The single most convincing fact or observation you could point to” in favor of Darwinian evolution over against ID “would be the pattern of resemblances that you see when Read More ›Source
On this episode, Dr. Jonathan McLatchie takes us on a deep dive into two classic examples of irreducibly complex systems - the bacterial flagellar motor and the process of DNA replication in cell division. He explains the intricacies of each process and shows why each stands up to scrutiny as a true example of irreducible complexity. Along the way, he explains why the RNA world scenario isn't likely to be the answer to irreducible complexity that materialists are looking for. And near the end, be sure to listen to McLatchie explain the "likelihood ratio"of the evidence for irreducible complexity, a top-heavy ratio he says strongly supports a design hypothesis. This is Part 1 of a 2-part interview.Source
On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, Andrew McDiarmid talks with science historian Michael Keas about pioneering mathematical astronomer Johannes Kepler, based on Keas’s book Unbelievable: 7 Myths About the History and Future of Science and Religion. Kepler studied theology before turning to math and science, and it was his belief in God that guided his extraordinary discoveries. Kepler is one of several great scientists of early modern science whose convictions about God's nature inspired their groundbreaking investigations.Source
On today’s ID the Future, scientist and Stairway to Life co-author Rob Stadler and host Eric Anderson examine a recent PNAS paper on origin of life, “An RNA Polymerase Ribozyme that Synthesizes Its Own Ancestor.” A superficial look at the paper—and the paper’s title in particular—might give the impression that the laboratory findings behind the paper render the blind evolution of the first self-replicating biological system appreciably more plausible. Not so fast, says Stadler. Listen in as he and Anderson highlight various ways the laboratory work in question is wildly unrealistic. And for a video exploring the many problems involved in blindly evolving the first self-replicator, check out a new Long Story Short animated YouTube video, created with input from Read More ›Source
On this episode of ID The Future, host Jay Richards concludes a two-part conversation with Ann Gauger about her newly edited volume God's Grandeur: The Catholic Case for Intelligent Design. Part 1 of their discussion focuses on the philosophical and theological arguments for intelligent design presented in the book. Gauger holds that Darwinism has no adequate explanation for natural beauty or the ability of human beings to appreciate beauty for its own sake. She also argues that we have no reason to expect human uniqueness or intelligibility in the universe outside a design paradigm. This is Part 2 of a conversation. Visit GodsGrandeur.org to learn more and download a free chapter! Source
Today's ID The Future coincides with the release of a new online course from biologist Dr. Jonathan Wells on the evidence for and against Darwinian evolution. On this blast from the past from 2006, Casey Luskin interviews Wells about evolution, intelligent design, scientific revolutions and historian of science Thomas Kuhn.Source
Today’s ID the Future takes a look at how scientists from MIT and Johns Hopkins University are picking up clever engineering tricks by studying the feather design of the Namaqua sandgrouse. Ordinary bird feathers are already a master class in ingenious design, but as Jochen Mueller and Lorna Gibson show in a recent Royal Society Interface paper, the males of this desert-dwelling sandgrouse from southwestern Africa “have specially adapted feathers on their bellies that hold water, even during flight, allowing the birds to transport water back to the chicks at the nest.” Episode guest Brian Miller details the ingenious design of these feathers and tells how they are inspiring human inventions, one of which could help desert communities collect water Read More ›Source
On this episode of ID The Future, host Jay Richards begins a two-part conversation with Ann Gauger about her newly edited volume God's Grandeur: The Catholic Case for Intelligent Design. Part 1 of their discussion focuses on the scientific case presented in the book. Gauger reviews compelling biological evidence for design in the DNA code, molecular machines, the differences between humans and animals, and even the intriguing possibility that the entire human race came from two original parents. This is Part 1 of a conversation. Visit GodsGrandeur.org to learn more and download a free chapter! Source
On this episode from the archives, physicist Eric Hedin continues his conversation with host Eric Anderson. Today, the logical problems with scientific materialism, a brief flyover of how scientists discovered the universe had a beginning, and an interesting theological question. This is the second half of a conversation.Source
On today’s ID the Future, Oxford’s John Lennox, Lehigh University’s Michael Behe, and Darwin’s Doubt author Stephen Meyer continue a probing conversation with host Peter Robinson on what they see as the growing evidence for intelligent design and the scientific and philosophical problems with Darwinian materialism. In this second half of their discussion, the foursome touch on everything from the genetic code and molecular biological machines to design reasoning, the history and philosophy of science, and what Meyer refers to as “Darwin’s other doubt.” Tune into to catch the many fascinating twists and turns in their conversation. And for additional stimulating content from Peter Robinson, head over to the “Uncommon Knowledge 2023” playlist on YouTube. This interview appears here with Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future, Uncommon Knowledge’s Peter Robinson sits down with Michael Behe, John Lennox, and Stephen Meyer, three of the leading voices in science and academia on the case for an intelligent designer of life and the universe. In this wide-ranging conversation in Fiesole, Italy, they explore the growing problems with modern evolutionary theory and the increasing amount of evidence, uncovered by a rigorous application of the scientific method, that points to intentional design of the physical world. The conversation appears here with the generous permission of Peter Robinson and the Hoover Institution.Source
Eric Hedin was canceled at Ball State University for allowing students to probe the boundaries of science. On this episode, he shows us how to examine science's limits ourselves and explains why it's important.Source
Today’s ID the Future spotlights the richly stimulating new book, God’s Grandeur: The Catholic Case for Intelligent Design. Edited by biologist Ann Gauger, the anthology explores the evidence for intelligent design from a Catholic perspective, with contributions from an impressive range of Catholic scientists, philosophers, and theologians, including Gauger; internationally renowned paleontologist Günter Bechly; philosopher Jay Richards; molecular biologist Michael Behe; Rector of the European University in Rome Fr. Pedro Barrajón, LC; Aquinas and Evolution author Michael Chaberek; philosopher J. Budziszewski; professor of neurosurgery Michael Egnor; and noted Dante scholar Anthony Esolen. Listen in as Gauger gives a quick flyover of the book’s content, tells how she found her way into the intelligent design fold, and explains why Catholics should Read More ›Source
Plant galls are novel forms that benefit the intruding insect, not the plant. Do these structures falsify Darwinism, as Darwin himself suggested they might? Retired geneticist Dr. Wolf-Ekkehard Lonnig explains.Source
A design intuition is present in all of us, argues Dr. Douglas Axe in his book Undeniable. Learn how it can inform a new approach to biology.Source
On today’s ID the Future, physicist and engineer Brian Miller continues his two-part conversation with host Casey Luskin about an exciting paradigm emerging in biology wherein organisms and their parts are approached as near-optimally engineered systems. Under this framework, the scientist seeks to better understand biological structures in the same way one might try to unravel the workings of some unfamiliar advanced human technology one came across in a field. This design-centric paradigm is reshaping multiple areas of biology. One involves our understanding of biological mutations. While some mutations are indeed random, as the neo-Darwinian paradigm assumes, some appear to be the product of what is known as preprogrammed phenotypic plasticity, as if a thoughtful designer had programmed various species Read More ›Source
More biologists are returning to the use of design-based assumptions, tools, models, and language to study the natural world. Dr. Brian Miller explains why in Part 1 of a conversation with Casey Luskin.Source
Learn how C. S. Lewis went from a passionate, angry atheism based on nature's cruelty and waste to a believer in intelligent design.Source
What happens when someone tries to present to the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) Charles Darwin’s top arguments against his own theory? Herman Bouma, founder of the National Association for Objectivity in Science, knows from personal experience. As he relates to host Casey Luskin on this ID the Future, he recently had a poster presentation on the topic accepted for an NSTA conference, but then a defender of Darwinian orthodoxy rushed in and spiked it. Bouma describes the censored presentation and the Kafkaesque back and forth he says he had with the organizer, who ultimately shut him down. Bouma warns of what has been described as the “Censorship Industrial Complex,” but he also says he hasn’t given up trying to Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future, distinguished synthetic organic chemist James Tour of Rice University explains why the goal of synthesizing life from non-life in conditions similar to those of the early Earth appears further away than ever. It’s not an illusion, he explains. The illusion was how close OOL researchers thought they were 50-70 years ago. They were never close, and the more we learn about how mind-bogglingly sophisticated even the simplest cells are, and how the complexity is essential for biological life, the more we realize just how far we are from constructing a plausible scenario for the mindless origin of the first life. Tour points out that even granting a great deal of intelligent design in the form Read More ›Source
The famous long-term evolution experiments led by Richard Lenski lose their luster when filtered through Michael Behe's extraordinary insight: that Darwin's mechanism is a process that breaks down more than it builds up. Source
On today’s ID the Future, science-and-religion scholar Robert Shedinger makes the case that a well-known biography of Charles Darwin, Darwin’s Sacred Cause, is deeply misleading. Specifically, the book by Adrian Desmond and James Moore holds that Darwin was significantly motivated in his scientific work by abolitionist sentiments; and Shedinger says, not so fast. He had spent considerable time reading Darwin’s correspondence and had seen no evidence of this thesis, so he reread Darwin’s Sacred Cause, this time tracking down all the key citations the book offered as evidence, and a pattern soon emerged. The sources the authors cite didn’t actually support their thesis. Some were totally irrelevant. Some were cited completely out of context. In other cases, the authors gave Read More ›Source
Does the public promotion of Darwin's theory of natural selection match Darwin's own private view of his theory? Find out in this conversation with Robert Shedinger.Source
Michael Aeschliman on a strong line of thinkers critiquing scientism, including C.S. Lewis, Blaise Pascal, Jonathan Swift, and others.Source
On today’s ID the Future, join host and geologist Casey Luskin and historian of science Michael Keas for a lively conversation puncturing a series of anti-Christian myths about the history of science, including the Dark Ages myth, the flat-earth myth, the myth that the discovery of how big the universe is rendered humanity insignificant, and the simplistic revisionist history of Galileo and the Inquisition. What about the claim in the recent Cosmos TV series that in abandoning his traditional Jewish faith, seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza was able to provide an improved framework for doing science? As Keas argues, the truth is just the opposite. Spinoza, he says, abandoned a key tenet of Judeo-Christian theology that had proven vital to the Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future, Tom Gilson, a writer and editor for The Stream, shares his experiences in high school biology. Important mysteries (i.e., major problems) with evolutionary theory were hurried past and papered over, and yet his biology teacher could take an entire class period to tell Charles Darwin’s life story, and then repeat the same class, virtually verbatim, five more times that same semester. Tune in to hear how the class put Tom Gilson off of biology, but how he now finds the subject fascinating, thanks to the work of intelligent design researchers and the larger community of life scientists. Gilson’s commentary is taken from, and builds on, a recent essay of his, available at Evolution News.Source
Michael Aeschliman explores Lewis’s The Abolition of Man, its defense of natural law, and its bracing takedown of scientism.Source
On this ID the Future host and geologist Casey Luskin continues his conversation with astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez about the many ways Earth’s place in the cosmos is fine tuned for life. In this second half of their conversation, Gonzalez zooms out to discuss the galactic habitable zone and the cosmic habitable age. Luskin says that the combination of exquisite cosmic and local fine tuning strongly suggests intelligent design, but he asks Gonzalez whether he thinks these telltale clues favor theism over deism? That is, does any of the evidence suggest a cosmic designer who is more than just the clockmaker God of the deists who, in the words of Stephen Dedalus, “remains within or behind or beyond or above his Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future, astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez, co-author of The Privileged Planet, provides a rapid survey of some of the growing evidence that Earth is finely tuned in numerous ways to allow for life. He draws a helpful distinction between local fine tuning and universal fine tuning. And he tells us about the many extra-solar planets astronomers have discovered in recent years and how all that new data continues to undermine the misguided assumption (encouraged by the misnamed “Copernican Principle”) that Earth is just a humdrum planet. Far from it, Gonzalez argues.Source
Dr. Richard Sternberg speaks on his mathematical/logical work showing the difficulty of identifying genes purely with material phenomena.Source
Today’s ID the Future features another reading from scholar Olufemi Oluniyi’s new book, Darwin Comes to Africa. In this excerpt we learn how Darwin himself laid much of the groundwork for social Darwinist ideas, primarily in his book The Descent of Man, and how those ideas were energetically developed in the ensuing decades by various mainstream scientists. Oluniyi further details how their work fueled pseudo-scientific racism against black Africans and other indigenous peoples outside the West. To learn more about this neglected corner of modern Western history, and for the good news that the flow of evidence has turned against Darwinism and, with it, social Darwinist principles, pick up Oluniyi’s book here.Source
On today’s ID the Future, host and evolutionary biologist Jonathan McLatchie sits down with software R&D engineer Jonathan Bartlett to discuss Bartlett’s work on the question of when genetic mutations are random versus directed. Bartlett explains that the issue isn’t an all-or-nothing affair. Often a given biological system dramatically limits the search space of possible mutations in useful ways, and then within that much more limited set of possible mutations, random processes are at play. He gives the example of antibody mutations. He argues that many biological systems show considerable evidence of having been beneficially designed for directed mutations. Why, then, are many mutations deleterious? He also has an answer for that. Tune in to learn more. Bartlett’s two peer-reviewed Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future, geologist Casey Luskin continues to unpack his recently published essay against the view that humans evolved from ape-like ancestors via blind Darwinian processes. In this episode he shares his experience of walking into the fossil hall at South Africa’s famous Maropeng Museum and immediately being confronted by a piece of shameless materialist propaganda, a Richard Dawkins quotation prominently displayed as part of a floor-to-ceiling display. The quotation insisted that humans are essentially just DNA survival machines. Luskin says, not so fast, and points out the various ways such a view fails to explain important aspects of human behavior, including altruistic behavior toward non-kin. Luskin and host Eric Anderson also call evolutionary theory to task for being Read More ›Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, Nancy Pearcey, professor and scholar in residence at Houston Baptist University, tells some of the political history of Darwinism, and explains how the same troubling issues persist today. Darwin was one of the first to say, if it isn’t purely naturalistic, it isn’t science. Others, then and now, have suggested that we can keep Darwinian evolution and just trust that God is at work behind the scenes. Pearcey, co-author of The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy, says that the problem with this tactic of wedding Darwinism and theism is that ultimately it turns one’s understanding of God into something that is largely private and subjective.Source
On today’s ID the Future, hear a Nigerian voice-actor reading from the opening pages of Nigerian scholar Olufemi Oluniyi’s new book, Darwin Comes to Africa. In this section from the preface, Oluniyi explores the relationship of Darwinism to Social Darwinism, and some of the ways Social Darwinism fueled and justified horrific ideas and actions among European thinkers and colonizers. Oluniyi tells the story of Russian scientist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov, who, guided by Social Darwinist thinking, “sought to produce a race of super-soldiers for Stalin’s army by impregnating French Guinea women with the sperm of a dead chimpanzee—black African women, mind you, who were presumed to be less highly evolved and thus closer to chimpanzees than were white European women.” As Oluniyi Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future historian Richard Weikart (Cal State Stanislaus) dissects a recent Cambridge University Press book on social Darwinism by Jeffrey O’Connell and Michael Ruse. Weikart, author of Hitler’s Ethic, From Darwin to Hitler, Hitler’s Religion, and The Death of Humanity, says a major shortcoming of the Cambridge UP book is the authors’ attempt to put as much distance as possible between Darwin and eugenics thinking, and between Darwin and Hitler. The new book paints Darwin follower Herbert Spencer as the eugenics-championing bad guy and contends that Darwin and Darwinism had little or no influence on Hitler’s warped master-race ethic. Weikart patiently highlights some key evidence to the contrary, including statements front and center in Hitler’s writing. Did Darwin cause Hitler? No. Would Darwin have approved Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future, scholar John West introduces Darwin Comes to Africa, the new book by Nigerian pastor, theologian, journalist, scholar, and human rights activist Olufemi Oluniyi. The work explores the poisonous influence of social Darwinism on British rule in northern Nigeria in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a poisonous influence felt in Oluniyi’s home country down to the present, he argues. The book project grew out of Oluniyi’s intimate knowledge of Nigerian culture as well as his attendance at the 2017 Center for Science & Culture Summer Seminar program in Seattle, Washington. By the end of that nine-day gathering, he had resolved to write a book about the impact of Social Darwinism on his home country Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future, Casey Luskin rebuts the oft-repeated claim that the human and chimp genomes are 98-99% similar and therefore surely resulted from Darwinian common descent. Luskin cites an article in the journal Science which describes the 98-99% claim as a myth. The original figure was derived from a single protein-to-protein comparison, but once you compare the entire genomes, and use more rigorous methods, the similarity drops several percentage points, and on one account, down into the mid-80s. Additionally, the chimp genomes used in the original comparison studies borrowed the human genome for scaffolding, thus artificially boosting the degree of similarity. What about supposed junk DNA similarities between human and chimp? Why would an intelligent designer put the Read More ›Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, Andrew McDiarmid reads from Marcos Eberlin’s fascinating book Foresight: How the Chemistry of Life Reveals Planning and Purpose. In this excerpt, the distinguished Brazilian scientist highlights the challenge the Venus flytrap poses for evolutionary theory. Dr. Eberlin describes the problem: The Venus flytrap, like all carnivorous plants, has no use for its insect-trapping function unless it also has an insect-digesting function. And vice versa. But the evolutionary mechanism of natural selection selects for current function, not potential future function. Unlike a designing intelligence, natural selection can’t look into the future and plan in that way. So for natural selection to have selected these twin systems, they would somehow have had to evolve together. Read More ›Source
Today’s ID the Future spotlights a new free online ID book from South Africa, Science and Faith in Dialogue, with contributions from Stephen Meyer, Hugh Ross, Guillermo Gonzalez, James Tour, Fazale Rana, Marcos Eberlin, and others. Geologist Casey Luskin joins host Eric Anderson to tell how the new peer-reviewed book came together and to describe the chapter he contributed, “Evolutionary Models of Palaeoanthropology, Genetics, and Psychology Fail to Account for Human Origins: A Review.” Luskin did his PhD in South Africa and had many opportunities to study various hominid fossils. Here he explains why he is convinced that intelligent design far better explains the fossil evidence than does Darwinian evolution.Source
On today’s ID the Future host Andrew McDiarmid brings listeners a couple of fascinating recent articles from Evolution News & Science Today by David Coppedge. The first is “Animals Tune Behavior by Lunar Cycle; but How?” The second article is “Darwin, We Have a Problem: Horse Teeth Are Not Less Evolved.” In the first, some ingenious molecular engineering crops up in widely divergent creatures, giving them some impressive abilities to read lunar cycles. The evolutionists’ go-to explanation is “convergent evolution,” an incantation that fails to explain how something like this could have evolved even once, much less multiple separate times. And in the second, a much-beloved story of ruminant tooth evolution gets a kick in the teeth from a series Read More ›Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, Casey Luskin presents his piece from U.S. News and World Report about a tension at the heart of that curious annual celebration, Darwin Day (February 12). Luskin describes how many contemporary evolutionists lionize Charles Darwin even while rejecting his call for academic freedom and intellectual openness in the debate over evolutionary theory. Luskin recounts an incident where Ben Stein, star of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, was himself “expelled” from the University of Vermont due to his contrarian views on modern Darwinism. Luskin’s original article can be read here.Source
On today’s ID the Future, host Peter Robison continues a lively conversation with Douglas Murray, author of The War on the West, Tom Holland, author of Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, and Stephen Meyer, author of Return of the God Hypothesis. Here in the concluding part of the interview, the four consider English Victorian poet Matthew Arnold’s elegiac depiction of the West bereft of religious faith. What does this retreating “sea of faith” mean in practical terms for Western culture, and what path, if any, is there to a renewal of Western culture? Can we embrace the Christian ethical framework without belief in God, miracles, and the afterlife? Meyer warns that attempting to borrow some form of Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future, Uncommon Knowledge host Peter Robinson talks with historian Tom Holland, journalist Douglas Murray, and philosopher of science Stephen Meyer about the decline of theistic faith in the West. Here in Part I of the conversation, the men consider possible causes for the decline of theistic faith. According to Meyer the decline has occurred in the face of increasing scientific evidence for the existence of God. So what gives? Tune in to hear their stimulating exploration of the question, and what each sees as the appropriate response. This material is used by permission of Peter Robinson and the Uncommon Knowledge podcast.Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, host Andrew McDiarmid continues his conversation with historian of science Michael Keas about Keas’ ISI book Unbelievable: 7 Myths About the History and Future of Science and Religion. In Chapter 4 of the work Keas explodes the myth that Giordano Bruno was a martyr for science, as science popularizers such as Neil DeGrasse Tyson make him out to be. Bruno was indeed burned at the stake in 1600 for disagreeing with the Church — which Keas heartily agrees was a bad move on the Church’s part. But Bruno was executed not for his view that we live in a vast universe with vast numbers of planets. Rather, he was burned for his religious Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future distinguished nanoscientist James Tour explains to host Eric Metaxas why the origin-of-life community is further than ever from solving the mystery of life’s origin, and how the public has gotten the false impression that scientists can synthesize life in the lab. Tour explains that origin-of-life scientists aren’t even close to intelligently synthesizing life from non-life in the lab. The problem, Tour says, is that some leading origin-of-life researchers give the impression they are right on the cusp of solving the problem. Not so, Tour says. He offers the analogy of someone claiming, in the year 1500, that he has the know-how to build a ship to travel to the moon, when no one yet knows Read More ›Source
Today’s ID the Future features the first part of a conversation between James Tour and Socrates in the City host Eric Metaxas on Tour’s astonishing work in nanotechnology and on the topic “How Did Life Come into Being?” Tour is the T. T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Computer Science, and Professor of Materials Science and Nanoengineering at Rice University. He is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading nano-scientists. This event took place at the River Oaks Country Club in Houston, Texas, and is presented here with permission of Eric Metaxas. Here in Part 1, Tour explains some of the inventions coming out of Tour’s Rice University lab, including molecular cars and astonishing graphene Read More ›Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, host Andrew McDiarmid talks with science historian Michael Keas about Keas’ revealing work from ISI Books, Unbelievable: 7 Myths About the History and Future of Science and Religion. “Scientists do love a good story,” says Keas. “Turns out there are plenty of stories we shouldn’t believe, myths about science and Christianity supposedly at war with each other.” He also discusses a future-oriented ET myth that functions as a substitute for traditional religion. Listen in to learn more about Keas’ fascinating and informative book.Source
On today’s ID the Future philosopher of science Paul Nelson discusses a new paper in Nature making waves in the scientific community, “Papers and Patents are Becoming Less Disruptive over Time.” According to Michael Park and his fellow researchers, the rate of groundbreaking scientific discoveries is declining while the percentage of consolidating (or incremental) science is coming to dominate. Is the spirit of groundbreaking scientific discovery withering, and if so, why? Nelson notes a 1997 book by John Horgan, The End of Science. Nelson credits Horgan for seeing the trend a generation ahead of the Park paper, but Nelson breaks with Horgan on the diagnosis. Horgan posits that groundbreaking science is declining because we have already made most of the Read More ›Source
Today’s ID the Future puts atheist Richard Dawkins’s book Outgrowing God under the microscope and reveals multiple ways his argument smashes up against contrary scientific evidence. Walking us through the critique are author and Mama Bear Apologetics founder Hillary Morgan Ferrer and her co-host, Amy Davison. Dawkins invokes the beautiful order evident in the murmuration of bird flocks as evidence that complexity can evolve from simple algorithmic rules. But Ferrer explains why the phenomenon of bird murmuration doesn’t even begin to approach what we find when sophisticated engineering order emerges in the growth of embryos. Ferrer also considers the challenges of re-engineering sperm thermoregulation to move from how it works in marine life to how it works in land animals. Read More ›Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, Jorn Dyerberg, the Danish biologist and co-discoverer of the role of omega-3 fatty acids in human health and nutrition, talks with host and physicist Brian Miller about finding irreducible complexity in cells, and how it takes many enzymes and co-enzymes working together for life-essential metabolism to work in every living cell. This poses a problem for neo-Darwinism, Dyerberg explains, since if these enzymes showed up one at a time, and evolved via one or two small mutations at a time, as Darwinian gradualism posits, then “over these eons, the other enzymes would just be sitting there waiting for the next one to come,” and waiting around without any function that might explain Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future, author and engineer Steve Laufmann delves into the theory of biological design he develops in Your Designed Body, his new book co-authored with physician Howard Glicksman. Laufmann explains how his engineering background has helped him further develop design theory and, with help from Glicksman, apply it to the human body. In exploring the causal capacities of intelligent design, Laufmann spotlights four elements: (1) intentional actions, which in turn require mind, agency, and foresight; (2) adaptive capabilities, which involve, among other things, control systems that employ sensors, logic, and effectors; (3) design properties (e.g., modularity); and (4) degradation prevention. The last of these features is implemented by engineers to get a system to last longer. In Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future, Your Designed Body co-author and systems engineer Steve Laufmann continues his conversation with host and neurosurgeon Michael Egnor. In this episode, Laufmann reviews four causal factors involved in Darwin’s theory of evolution, and explains why they lack the power to generate life’s great variety of forms. To dive deeper into his argument, check out Laufmann’s new book co-authored with physician Howard Glicksman.Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, hear a segment from Discovery Institute Vice President John West’s talk given at the Dallas Conference on Science and Faith, on how Darwinism has corroded Western culture. Here he examines the morally poisonous effects of Darwinism on marriage, sexual ethics, and religion, such that virtually anything can be defended as OK, and no particular culture’s ethic is to be preferred over another. Humankind’s spiritual purpose has likewise been eroded. Yet West closes with hope by pointing to moving examples of science in our generation uncovering more and more signs of intelligent design and purpose in nature. As West further notes, a new generation of researchers, including at least one Fulbright scholar, are Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor hosts systems engineer Steve Laufmann, author with physician Howard Glicksman of the new book Your Designed Body. Egnor makes the surprising confession that his medical library is full of engineering texts because at some point he discovered that engineering texts, and engineering principles, often shed more light on human physiology than did his physiology books. Egnor, then, is extraordinarily well prepared to interview Laufmann about the amazing engineering of the human body. Tune in for Part 1, and stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3.Source
On this ID the Future, astrophysicist Bijan Nemati delves further into why intelligent design matters to him and into the exciting work he’s doing for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman space telescope, slated for deployment in three or four years. That telescope and his contribution to it, as it so happens, tie directly into the popular science documentary he participated in, The Privileged Planet. Nemati describes how the instrument his company is building for the telescope is designed to aid in the search for earth-like planets beyond our solar system and why the list of criteria for planetary habitability is longer than many people suppose.Source
On this classic ID the Future we hear commentary on the singularity from distinguished cosmologist Frank Tipler, co-author of The Anthropic Cosmological Principle. The singularity in question isn’t the supposed future singularity imagined by transhumanists, but the evidentially well-supported singularity at the foundation of the Big Bang. The equations are clear, says Tipler, as are their implications: among its many arresting features, the Big Bang singularity had an existence outside of space and time, was intrinsically infinite, and was not subject to any laws of physics. Atheists today still resist this conclusion, Tipler says, but only this conclusion has experimental support, and the negative implications for atheism are hard to miss. This episode is drawn from bonus material from the YouTube film series Science Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future, astrophysicist and intelligent design proponent Bijan Nemati shares the first part of his story of science and faith. Those who follow Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture may know Nemati from his appearance in the popular ID documentary The Privileged Planet. Born and raised in Iran, he moved to the United States shortly before the Iranian revolution, became an atheist in college, but eventually found his way to a strong religious faith, in part through his exposure to the scientific evidence for intelligent design, first in biology and then in cosmology. Along the way he landed a high-level job with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and became a leading expert in space interferometer telescopes Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future from the vault, systems engineer Steve Laufmann further explores physician Howard Glicksman’s 81-part Evolution News series on the human body’s sophisticated architecture. Here in Part 2 of the discussion, Laufmann explains the engineering concept of coherence and the challenge it poses for evolutionary gradualism. It’s all about maintaining function at every creative stage along an adaptive continuum, he says, and once we understand just how many of the body’s systems and subsystems require various other systems and subsystems in order to function at all, we begin to see the monster bootstrapping problem Darwinism faces. Laufmann describes the prospect of blind evolution successfully launching a complete and functional body plan as “impossible squared.” But we do Read More ›Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, Tod Butterfield interviews systems engineer Steve Laufmann about physician Howard Glicksman’s 81-part Evolution News series, The Designed Body. Listen in as Laufmann reflects on the body’s fight against equilibrium, the Goldilocks principal, and more. Then pick up the new book by Laufmann and Glicksman, Your Designed Body, which delves deeper into the exquisite engineering necessary for the operation of the human body.Source
December 27, 2022 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Pasteur, the French scientist whose scientific breakthroughs have saved millions of lives, and whose work on microbes sounded the death knell of the idea of spontaneous generation. On this episode of ID the Future, biologist Ann Gauger walks listeners through the triumphs, flaws, and tragedies in the life of this extraordinary individual. In the nineteenth century, it was widely believed that the spontaneous generation of life from non-life was common and unremarkable, since it was thought that spontaneous generation of worms, mold, and other life forms occurred all the time in rotting meat and dirty rags. Pasteur constructed an experiment demonstrating that these “spontaneously” arising worms and such Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future Your Designed Body author and physician Howard Glicksman takes a deep dive with Philosophy for the People podcast host Pat Flynn into Glicksman’s new book, co-authored with systems engineer Steve Laufmann. As Glicksman puts it, he and Laufmann look not just at how the human body looks but at what it actually takes for it to work and not die, and what this implies for evolutionary theory. Begin by piling up the layers of complexity in the human body—the layer upon layer of complex interdependent systems. Then ask hard questions about whether any blind and gradual evolutionary process could have kept our evolutionary ancestors alive at every generational stage as all this was gradually engineered Read More ›Source
On this classic ID The Future, John West, author of Walt Disney and Live Action: The Disney Studio’s Live-Action Features of the 1950s and 60s, talks about Walt Disney’s life-long fascination with evolution. By exploring various messages embedded in Disney’s theme parks and animated features, from the Magic Skyway created for the 1964 World’s Fair to the 1948 animated film Fantasia, we see Disney’s recurring contemplation of evolution. Fantasia, in particular, provides an extended depiction of evolutionary history along with imaginatively rendered reflections on rationalism, materialism, and animism. At first blush Fantasia’s “Rite of Spring” seems to promote Darwinian materialism, but as West explains, a closer look reveals considerable nuance and ambiguity. On the Magic Skyway, animatronics were used to tell stories of ages past, Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future, philosopher of science Stephen Meyer, theologian Vern Poythress, engineer Stuart Burgess, and biologist Jonathan McLatchie answer questions about science and faith posed at the Westminster Conference on Science and Faith, held in the greater Philadelphia area. The session is moderated by Discovery Institute Vice President John West, and the conference jointly sponsored by Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and Westminster Theological Seminary. Panelists: Dr. Stuart Burgess has held academic posts at Bristol University (UK) and Cambridge University (UK), and published over 180 scientific publications on the science of design in engineering and biology. He also has received many national and international awards for design, including from the Minister of State for Trade and Read More ›Source
On today’s ID the Future, biologist and intelligent design researcher Ann Gauger tells host Eric Anderson the rest of her story about how she was drawn into the intelligent design movement. The two discuss everything from the challenges she faced making it in a male-dominated field to the evidential power of beauty in the natural world. But how did she end up in the ID movement? After stepping out of a promising career as a research scientist to focus on her family and meeting the needs of an autistic child, she assumed that her life as a scientist was behind her. But then several years later she began reading the work of Darwin skeptics and intelligent design trailblazers—Phillip Johnson, Jonathan Read More ›Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, systems engineer Steve Laufmann joins host Tod Butterfield to discuss an article he wrote for Evolution News and Science Today in which he spotlights how biology is becoming increasingly engineering-centric. Laufmann describes how his work as a systems engineer relates to the red hot field of systems biology, the significance of the fact that “the value of the system as a whole is derived largely from the relationship of the parts,” and the extreme improbability of a well-engineered biological system of systems assembling by way of purely blind processes. Laufmann is author, with physician Howard Glicksman, of the groundbreaking new book, Your Designed Body.Source
On this ID the Future, Your Designed Body author and physician Howard Glicksman again sits down with host and professor of neurosurgery Michael Egnor to further explore Glicksman’s new book, co-authored with engineer Steve Laufmann. Here Glicksman gives a quick flyover of what they explore in fascinating depth in the book, namely the irreducible complexity of that extraordinary systems of systems that is the human respiratory system. As Glicksman explains, there are individual systems that are irreducibly complex, and these are joined together into a higher-level system of systems that is also irreducibly complex, marked by causal circularities and coherent interdependencies at every turn. Without all of it guided by various highly precise control mechanisms, no life. Darwinian gradualism is Read More ›Source
On this ID the Future, host Eric Anderson sits down with biologist and intelligent design proponent Ann Gauger to hear her story of how she got into the intelligent design movement and how the evidence for design has shaped her life. It begins with a lonely girl on a Kansas military base who at one point loses her Christian faith but also discovers the wonders of nature, and friendship, when she is given a horse and begins taking it for long rides in the countryside. Her intellectual journey takes her to MIT, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the University of Washington, and eventually into the Catholic church, where she explores becoming a nun until a conversation with echoes from the Read More ›Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, Steve Laufmann critiques an article by Nathan Lents, “The Botch of the Human Body.” The article purports to show that so-called “design errors” in the human body prove it wasn’t designed. Laufmann describes five ways Lents’ argument is a “bizarre blend of ignorance and arrogance.” For instance, Lents often ignores something basic to engineering—the necessity of design tradeoffs. For a more in-depth response to Lents and to others making similar bad-design arguments for mindless evolution, see Laufmann’s new book, co-authored with physician Howard Glicksman, Your Designed Body.Source
On today’s ID the Future, Your Designed Body co-author and physician Howard Glicksman talks with host and neurosurgery professor Michael Egnor about Glicksman’s new book, co-authored with systems engineer Steve Laufmann. Glicksman walks through a series of systems in the human body that are each irreducibly complex, and are each part of larger coherent interdependent systems. As Glicksman puts it, the human body is “irreducible complexity on steroids.” How could blind evolutionary processes, such as neo-Darwinism’s joint mechanism of natural selection working on random genetic mutations, build this bio-engineering marvel? Your Designed Body makes the case that it couldn’t. It’s not even close. What is required instead is foresight, planning, and engineering genius. Source
On this ID the Future, intelligent design scientist Casey Luskin sits down with Summit Ministries podcast host Dr. Jeff Myers to explain the heart of intelligent design theory and why it should matter to Christians and to anyone who prizes a culture committed to the view that life is meaningful and human beings more than matter in motion. Luskin also makes a quick case against evolutionist attempts to explain the origin of exquisite molecular machines like the bacterial flagellum motor, and he offers some advice for pro-ID college students facing professors hostile to anything that challenges mainstream evolutionary theory. Source
On today’s ID the Future, radio host Michael Medved spotlights Your Designed Body, the new book from Discovery Institute Press by systems engineer Steve Laufmann and physician Howard Glicksman. Laufmann joins Medved on the show to offer a quick flyover of the book and to explain why he sees the human body as not only designed but designed by a master engineer, light years ahead of our best human engineers. Laufmann says that the human body is an interdependent system of systems that poses grave challenges for the Darwinian mechanism of gradual evolution by natural selection, but more than this, when the human body is studied using well-established engineering principles, we find that it anticipates numerous advanced engineering concepts and Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future takes us to a conference in Turin, Italy, where scholar John West speaks about the roots of intelligent design, roots that stretch back to ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. In his talk, West also makes the case that design thinking was crucial to the rise of modern science, and he traces how Darwinism has eroded design thinking, fueled scientific racism, and undermined belief in human exceptionalism. West celebrates some of Italy’s contributions to Western civilization but also calls attention to Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso, who championed various racist ideas undergirded by Darwinian thinking, disturbing work that West learned more about when he visited the Cesare Lombroso Museum in Turin. On the bright side, there has been Read More › Source
On this classic ID the Future, Robert J. Marks interviews Roger Olsen, co-author of the groundbreaking book The Mystery of Life’s Origin. In the work’s epilogue the authors suggested that a designing intelligence stands as the best explanation for the origin of life. And with a revised and greatly expanded new edition of the book now available, Olsen says that more than thirty-five years of additional research from the origin-of-life community have left their conclusions stronger than ever. Olsen is now an environmental scientist, and in a latter part of the interview, he tells a hair-raising story about his work abroad trying to protect families and communities from the ravages of environmental pollution. Source
On this ID the Future, philosopher of biology Paul Nelson further explores AlphaFold 2, a cutting edge computer program from Google’s DeepMind designed to rapidly suss out important secrets in the realm of proteins, indispensable molecular biological workhorses that come in thousands of different shapes and sizes. Nelson enthuses about the AlphaFold 2 but also explains why he is convinced that AlphaFold’s creators have hit a series of immovable obstacles. The watchword here—orphans. Tune in to learn what these mischievous orphan proteins are about, and what they suggest for AlphaFold, evolution, and intelligent design. Source
Today’s ID the Future spotlights AlphaFold, an artificial intelligence program in the news for its impressive breakthroughs at predicting a protein’s 3D structure from its amino acid sequence. Philosopher of Biology Paul Nelson walks listeners through the importance of this “amazing breakthrough,” as he describes it in a recent Evolution News article; but don’t uncork the champagne bottles just yet. The reason, according to Nelson, is that while proteins, protein sequences, and protein folding promise to reveal much that is still mysterious in molecular biology, we now know that biological information involves far more than just an organism’s proteome—that is, far more than the full suite of proteins expressed by an organism. Nelson uses analogies to manmade machines and cognates Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, host Robert J. Marks interviews chemist Charles Thaxton about a seminal 1984 book he co-authored, The Mystery of Life’s Origin, foundational to the intelligent design movement. The main body of Mystery was generally praised, Thaxton explains. It was the epilogue that proved controversial. There the three authors reviewed five proposed explanations for life’s origins and suggested that the best explanation was that the first life originated through an act of creative intelligence. Thaxton also tells a little about the recently revised and expanded edition of the book, with new contributions from Stephen Meyer, Brian Miller, James Tour, and others. Source
On this ID the Future, mathematician William Dembski and host Eric Anderson explore whether design detection tools shed any light on the recent chess scandal involving world chess champion Magnus Carlson and American grandmaster Hans Moke Niemann. Did Niemann cheat in a match where he beat Carlson, as some have claimed? There is no smoking gun in the case, so how might one determine if cheating occurred? At first glance the problem might seem far removed from the design detecting rules and tools Dembski laid out in his Cambridge University Press monograph The Design Inference. But actually there is some intriguing overlap. Is there a way to dig into the chess data and determine whether Niemann secretly used a computer chess engine to Read More › Source
On this ID the Future, mathematician and philosopher William Dembski shares with host Eric Anderson about a revised and updated edition of Dembski’s pioneering 1998 Cambridge University Press book, The Design Inference. Dembski says he stands by that work and his early contributions to intelligent design theory, but adds that he has learned a lot more in the intervening years, particularly from his work with Robert J. Marks and Winston Ewert at the Evolutionary Informatics lab. Lessons from that and other work, Dembski explains, will enrich the new edition. What light do these design-detecting methods shed on modern evolutionary theory? Tune in as Dembski explains. Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, Nancy Pearcey, author of numerous books, including The Soul of Science (co-authored with Charles Thaxton) and Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality, challenges the common belief that Darwin’s leading early supporters were convinced of the main pillars of his theory. Many in the nineteenth century were already primed to accept a theory of evolution, but not necessarily by natural selection. As Pearcey explains, some of Darwin’s chief supporters had grave doubts about natural selection’s role, and some of them believed that God or a “vital force” guided evolution. But Darwin would have none of it. And what do evolutionary scientists think today? The disagreements persist and, if anything, have Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future brings listeners distinguished German paleontologist Günter Bechly’s fascinating story of how science and philosophy moved him from atheism to theism, with host Andrew McDiarmid providing a beautiful reading of the essay where Bechly relates his journey, “A Long Surrender: A Scientist’s Arduous Path from Hard Atheism to Faith.” As he explains, he did not surrender his atheism quickly or easily, but only after long study and much resistance. The final two-and-half minutes of the reading recount Bechly’s journey after he became a non-specific theist. There are many stories of the evidence for intelligent design bringing individuals to a general belief in a cosmic designer. In Bechly’s case, and as he explains in final part of his Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, Michael Medved interviews biologist Michael Behe about Behe’s visually stunning YouTube series, Secrets of the Cell. Behe summarizes one of the key messages of the video series, namely that everything from the life-essential blood clotting system to a myriad of crucial protein structures in our bodies increasingly appear to be far beyond the reach of blind evolutionary mechanisms to build. Instead they appear to be the work of planning and purpose, which is the purview of mind. Meanwhile, even many mainstream evolutionists are growing skeptical of neo-Darwinism, Behe says, as biologists continue to uncover more and more layers of cellular sophistication. The emerging field of metagenomics, he says, is a case in point. Medved also Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, Professor Emeritus Michael Flannery (U of Alabama-Birmingham) continues discussing evolutionist Kenneth Miller’s book The Human Instinct: How We Evolved to Have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will. Flannery suggests that Miller’s “theistic evolution” is more precisely Darwinian theism — and that such a marriage is as ultimately hopeless as squaring the proverbial circle. Part 1 is here. Source
Today’s ID the Future continues geologist Casey Luskin’s presentation about how Earth is fine tuned in numerous ways for life, a talk he gave at the 2022 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. Here in the second half, he highlights the many ways Earth’s precise mix of atmospheric gases is strikingly fit for life. On top of that (or rather, beneath that), Earth’s active geology and water-rich surface—unique in our solar system—are masterful at helping maintain our life-friendly atmosphere over long ages. Luskin argues that these and other finely tuned characteristics of planet Earth strongly suggest intelligent design. He then offers an additional design argument, this one aesthetic in nature, and then takes questions from the audience. Part 1 of his talk Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future geologist Casey Luskin explains how Earth contains many intricate geological processes required for life. He argues that, taken together, this points to intelligent design rather than dumb luck. This episode is the first half of a talk Dr. Luskin presented at the 2022 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. Stay tuned for Pt. 2 and a Q&A with his original audience. Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, host Mike Keas interviews Professor Emeritus Michael Flannery (U of Alabama-Birmingham) about evolutionist Kenneth Miller’s book The Human Instinct: How We Evolved to Have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will. Miller is prominent as a science educator and supporter of neo-Darwinian theistic evolution. Flannery, a historian of science, argues that Miller’s attempt to defend human exceptionalism on neo-Darwinian grounds runs into fatal difficulties, as have similar attempts before. Flannery’s companion article to this episode, “Kudzu Science: Ken Miller’s The Human Instinct,” is here. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast. Source
On today’s ID the Future, biochemist and metabolic nutritionist Emily Reeves tells the story of the systems biology revolution, why it is intelligent-design friendly, and why it is overturning Darwinian reductionism. This presentation was taped at the 2022 Westminster Conference on Science and Faith in the greater Philadelphia area, which was jointly sponsored by Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and Westminster Theological Seminary. Source
On this ID The Future, Return of the God Hypothesis author Stephen Meyer again speaks with radio host Michael Medved about the extraordinarily powerful new James Webb space telescope. One researcher, Eric Lerner, has claimed that what the Webb telescope is seeing many billions of light years away (and therefore, many billions of years in the past) undercuts the Big Bang theory. But according to Meyer, the new photographs coming back from Webb actually further confirm the reality that our universe had a beginning (“the Big Bang”) and that it has been expanding ever since. What these Webb images are forcing a rethink on, Meyer says, is the conventional wisdom among cosmologists on galaxy formation in the early universe. Meyer Read More › Source
On this classic ID the Future, Matti Leisola, the European bioengineer whose story is told in Heretic: One Scientist’s Journey from Darwin to Design, speaks from Finland to a meeting in Dallas, Texas. He describes his intellectual journey, his successful research career, and some of the reasons he made the turn to belief in intelligent design. He also relates some of the irrational reactions he sometimes met with from colleagues, and how he navigated those tense situations. Source
Today’s ID the Future completes a talk by award-winning British engineer Stuart Burgess, who explains how the human ankle and wrist joints offer powerful evidence of engineering genius. Burgess is answering evolutionist Nathan Lents, who has argued that human joints are badly designed and, therefore, evidence against intelligent design and for Darwinian evolution’s blind trial-and-error process. According to Burgess, Lents ignores—and seems to be ignorant of—the many ingeniously engineered features of our joints, leading Lents to make easily refuted claims. For example, Lents says an ankle with fused bones would be a superior design to a healthy human ankle. Not if the person hopes to play squash or tackle any number of other activities that require the suppleness and responsiveness of Read More › Source
On this ID the Future, Stuart Burgess, one of Britain’s top engineers, explains how the skeletal joints in the human body are masterpieces of intelligent design. He also responds to claims by some evolutionists that human joints are badly designed and supposedly evidence of Darwinian evolution’s blind trial-and-error process. This presentation was taped at the 2022 Westminster Conference on Science and Faith in the greater Philadelphia area, which was jointly sponsored by Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, and Westminster Theological Seminary. Here in Part 1, Burgess focuses on the ankle joint, showing that it packs an extraordinary amount of functionality into a small space, beyond anything human engineers have managed to achieve either in prosthetics or robotics. Source
Today’s ID the Future from the vault features “In the Market” radio host Janet Parshall interviewing Jonathan Witt, co-author of Heretic: One Scientist’s Journey from Darwin to Design. Witt and Parshall discuss Heretic, some brave anti-Darwin heretics, and a recent scholarly study claiming to show that greater science education and science literacy encourage acceptance of evolution. Witt highlights what he sees as some glaring problems in the study’s survey and in the way Darwinian evolution is normally taught. Get your copy of the book here. Source
Today’s ID the Future brings listeners the second half of a panel discussion at the 2022 Center for Science and Culture Insider’s Briefing. This portion begins with bioethicist and Discovery Institute senior fellow Wesley J. Smith making a surprising argument: His own field, bioethics, is at war with true medical ethics. Specifically, its most prominent figures—hailing from elite universities in the United States and Europe—are dedicated to emptying our medical culture of traditional ethical standards that protect human rights and are guided by a commitment to inherent human dignity. Some leading bioethicists see human beings as of no more inherent value than yeast. Smith stands athwart this anti-human trend and urges listeners to wake up and push back. Then John Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future spotlights Darwinian racism, past and present. In this first half of a panel discussion at the 2022 Center for Science and Culture Insider’s Briefing, Darwin Day in America author John West introduces the other panel members, teases an upcoming book, Darwin Comes to Africa, and discusses his experience visiting the Museum of Criminal Anthropology in Turin, Italy, where the work of infamous Darwinian criminologist Cesare Lombroso’s racist ideas about evolution and race are on dramatic display. Then historian Richard Weikart, author of Darwinian Racism, debunks the popular media claim that white nationalist racism in America is a Southern evangelical phenomenon. Weikart shows that the most prominent white nationalists show little if any interest in promoting Christianity, Read More › Source
On this ID the Future, host Joshua Youngkin interviews the author of I, Charles Darwin, Nickell John Romjue, about his unique book in which a time-traveling Charles Darwin returns to the modern day. What would happen if Charles Darwin were to come back today? I, Charles Darwin examines that issue scientifically and culturally. In this conversation, Romjue describes what drew him to the subject and some of the things he did to prepare for writing the novella. ID the Future ran his audio book as a five-part series. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here. And Part 5 is here. To learn more and to purchase the book, visit www.icharlesdarwin.com. Source
On this ID the Future, Discovery Institute senior fellow Andrew McDiarmid explores the roots of the idea that our universe is just one of many universes, an idea stretching back to the ancient atomists and given new life in the modern era, first by physicist Hugh Everett. McDiarmid then looks at how the idea percolated into comic books and from there into popular culture. He caps off the episode with a reading of a recent article about the multiverse hypothesis by Stephen Meyer, author of the recent bestseller, Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe. Meyer shows why some atheist scientists are attracted to the multiverse idea. As he explains, there is Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future biologist Michael Behe and Philosophy for the People host Pat Flynn conclude their conversation (posted by permission here) about some of the best objections to Behe’s central case for intelligent design. One objection Behe and Flynn tackle in this episode: the idea of evolution overcoming the irreducible-complexity hurdle through co-option. That is, maybe the precursors to what would become one of today’s molecular machines, such as the bacterial flagellum motor, co-opted simpler machines being used for other purposes, allowing evolution to build a bacterial flagellum motor one small step at a time over thousands or millions of generations, even though the completed bacterial flagellum ceases to function at all when just one of its many key parts Read More › Source
On this ID the Future, hear the concluding episode of I, Charles Darwin, in which author Nickell John Romjue’s time-traveling Darwin returns to his family home and offers some final reflections on his eye-opening visit to the twenty-first century. Part 1 of the audio series is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here. To learn more and to purchase the book, visit www.icharlesdarwin.com. Source
Today’s ID the Future continues A Mousetrap for Darwin author Michael Behe’s conversation with philosopher Pat Flynn, focused on some of the more substantive objections to Behe’s case for intelligent design in biology. In this segment the pair discuss the bacterial flagellum, the cilium, and the blood clotting cascade, and tackle critiques from Alvin Plantinga, Graham Oppy, Russell Doolittle, Kenneth Miller, and others. This interview is posted here by permission of Pat Flynn. Source
On today’s ID the Future Lehigh University biologist Michael Behe addresses what Philosophy for the People host Pat Flynn considers some of the best objections to Behe’s central intelligent design argument. As far back as the 1996 book Darwin’s Black Box, Behe has argued that certain features in biology are irreducibly complex. That is, they require numerous essential parts, each carefully fitted to its task and integrated with the other parts, in order for the molecular machine or system to function at all. Two examples are the bacterial flagellum motor and the blood clotting cascade. Such systems are, in Behe’s words, irreducibly complex and could not have arisen through any blind and gradual evolution process. The better explanation for their Read More › Source
On this classic ID the Future, hear another chapter from Nickell John Romjue’s fascinating book I, Charles Darwin. Follow along as Darwin, on his visit to the twenty-first century, learns about DNA and the other amazing discoveries of molecular biology that have occurred since he developed his theory, as well as discoveries in physics and cosmology, which have our time-traveling Darwin reconsidering some of his earlier conclusions. Part 1 of the audio series is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. To learn more and to purchase the book, visit www.icharlesdarwin.com. Source
In today’s ID the Future, scholar John West, managing director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, reveals how current debates over whether nature displays evidence of intelligent design echo debates in the first centuries of the Christian church. The early Christians debated the Greco-Roman materialists but also the religious Gnostics of their day; and the ideas the early Christians confronted then confront Christians and other theists still today. Moreover, in some cases, those ideas are being peddled not by outsiders to the faith but by prominent Christians. West’s talk was taped at the 2022 Westminster Conference on Science and Faith in the greater Philadelphia area, an event jointly sponsored by Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, Stairway to Life co-author Rob Stadler and host Eric Anderson delve deeper into Challenge to Origin of Life: Energy Harnessing, the latest video in the Long Story Short intelligent design video series. Could the first cell have been much simpler than any current cell, making it easier for it to emerge through blind natural forces on the early Earth? Stadler and Anderson surface one big problem with that idea: in experiments to make relatively simple cells even simpler, the cells inevitably become less robust and adaptable. These simpler cells must be coddled to survive. But the first cell on earth would have been anything but coddled. It would have had no source of glucose and Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future features another chapter from Nickell John Romjue’s fascinating short novel I, Charles Darwin, in which Darwin is shocked to learn about the impact his theory has had on areas outside of science. Part 1 of the audio series is here. Part 2 is here. To learn more and to purchase the book, visit www.icharlesdarwin.com. Source
Origin-of-life specialist Rob Stadler joins today’s ID the Future to discuss a new Long Story Short science video short. The video investigates a special problem that faces all naturalistic origin-of-life scenarios: To be viable, a cell must have sophisticated machinery, including ATP synthase, to turn raw energy into constructive energy. But how could prebiotic chemicals harness raw energy on the way to evolving into a viable self-reproducing cell without first having the sophisticated machinery to harness raw energy and convert it to useful work? Are the energy sources that have been proposed for chemical evolution realistic? In his conversation with host Eric Anderson, Stadler argues that, no, they aren’t. This isn’t the sort of thing that mindless natural processes can Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future from the vault continues the audio adaptation of Nickell John Romjue’s fascinating novella, I, Charles Darwin. In this episode, Romjue’s Darwin explores what we’ve learned about the fossil record since Darwin’s time on Earth — and it’s not what he expects. Part 1 of the audio series is here. To learn more and to purchase the book, visit www.icharlesdarwin.com. Source
Today’s ID the Future wraps up a debate over evolution and intelligent design between Lehigh University biologist Michael Behe and Benedictine College theologian Michael Ramage. Both Behe and Ramage are Catholic, and they carry on their conversation in the context of Catholic thinking about nature and creation, in particular the work of Thomas Aquinas and contemporary Thomist philosophers. Ramage seeks to integrate his Thomistic/personalist framework with modern evolutionary theory’s commitment to macroevolution and common descent. Behe doesn’t discount the possibility of common descent but lays out a case that any evolution beyond the level of genus (for instance, the separate families containing cats and dogs) cannot be achieved through mindless Darwinian mechanisms and, instead, would require the contributions of a Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future continues the conversation between Catholic intelligent design biologist Michael Behe and Catholic theologian Matthew Ramage. Both agree that nature points to a cosmic designer, but Ramage says he prefers, on aesthetic grounds, the idea that the biological realm has the capacity, gifted by God, to evolve on its own without the need for intervention by God. Behe notes that people have different aesthetic predilections, but it’s the scientist’s job not to figure out how he would have preferred things to have happened in nature, but to discover how they actually did come about. Behe also says that while the sun, moon, and stars do move according to fixed natural laws, it doesn’t follow from this that Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future from the vault presents the beginning of a novella simultaneously fantastical and cheeky, I, Charles Darwin. What would happen if Darwin were to come back today? What would the gentleman of Down House think about the science of the twenty-first century, and how might it confirm or change his views on evolution? In today’s introductory episode of a multi-part series, Darwin finds himself returned from the grave and begins to explore modern London, followed by a return trip to the Galapagos Islands, where he is surprised by what he learns. To learn more and to purchase the book, visit www.icharlesdarwin.com. Source
Today’s ID the Future brings the first part of a friendly debate/discussion between Lehigh University biologist and intelligent design proponent Michael Behe and Catholic theologian Matthew Ramage. Led by Philosophy for the People podcast host Pat Flynn, Behe starts by noting that he is a lifelong Catholic who accepted from childhood that, as he was taught in school, if God wanted to work through the secondary causes of Darwinian evolutionary mechanisms to generate the diversity of life, who were we to tell him he shouldn’t or couldn’t do it that way? Behe says that his skepticism toward Neo-Darwinism arose many years later and stemmed purely from his scientific research. Ramage, who specializes in the work of Pope Benedict XVI, sees Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future features three recent Evolution News essays by Lehigh University biology professor and Darwin Devolves author Michael Behe, as read by host Andrew McDiarmid. In the first, nothing shows the feebleness of Darwinism quite so much as breathless stories about new results that turn out to be much ado about nothing. In this case, it’s some recent speculation about the rise of “lactase persistence” in many human adults. Then it’s onto malaria, much beloved of evolutionists, not for its lethality but as a demonstration of evolution in action. But Behe dissects the latest news story on the topic to show that the touted malaria evolution is, once again, malaria gnawing off the proverbial leg to achieve a Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, philosopher of science Paul Nelson concludes his talk with host Andrew McDiarmid on what it takes to converse effectively with scientists who are trapped in a naturalistic parabola — that is, researchers who draw their conclusions from naturalism’s authority rather than following the evidence wherever it leads. Nelson urges us to keep the third party in the conversation: nature herself. We listen to nature through experiment, he says, and warns against the message from scientists such as CalTech’s Sean Carroll who have suggested that testing is “overrated.” If we listen and test, nature can keep revealing herself in surprising ways, says Nelson, which is what makes science so fun. Source
Today’s ID the Future continues the conversation between neurosurgeon Michael Egnor and neurotheologian Andrew Newberg. In this second and concluding part of their discussion, they further explore what experiments using brain scans reveal about how the brain is affected by meditation and mystical experiences, including near-death experiences. Also, what parts of the brain light up, and what parts go dormant, when someone is “speaking in tongues,” and how does someone who has this experience describe it, and does that description mesh with or clash with what turns up on the brain scans? Tune in to hear Newberg’s answer to this and other issues related to the mind-brain problem and the mystical. This interview is posted here by permission of Mind Read More › Source
It’s hard to know where the brain ends and the mind begins. How can studying our brains give us insight into our minds? On this ID the Future, neuroscientist Andrew Newberg and neurosurgeon Michael Egnor sit down for a chat about all things brain related including neurotheology, methods of studying the brain, and research on how various forms of religious and non-religious meditation actually change the wiring of the brain, including in particular a study Newberg did on Franciscan nuns and what they refer to as “centering prayer.” This interview is borrowed, with permission, from Mind Matters, a podcast of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence. Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, philosopher of biology Paul Nelson continues sharing with host Andrew McDiarmid about pursuing intelligent design theory in a science culture committed to naturalism. As Nelson puts it here, it’s about trying to communicate with scientists who are trapped in a “naturalistic parabola.” That parabola sets the rule and defines the boundaries for science: naturalistic answers only. And it extends to infinity, so no finite number of objections or counter-examples can force naturalistic scientists out of it. Nelson, however, offers an alternative strategy for drawing them out of the parabola. Source
On today’s ID the Future, host John West sits down with physicist and engineer Brian Miller to pitch him questions submitted at the Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. Is the Bible against the pursuit of knowledge about the natural world, or for it? Are microevolutionary changes in various organisms consistently driven by random mutations and natural selection, or instead, are some made possible by pre-programming in the organism, programming that gives the organism a built-in flexibility to adapt to its environment, within limits? If living systems were deliberately engineered, how good of an engineer was the engineer behind living systems? And if so, what are the implications for the evolution/design debate? Also, what do engineering insights regarding optimization processes Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future brings listeners physicist and engineer Brian Miller’s recent lecture at the Dallas Conference on Science and Faith, “The Surprising Relevance of Engineering in Biology.” Miller rebuts several popular arguments for evolution based on claims of poor design in living systems, everything from the “backward wiring” of the vertebrate eye to whales, wrists, ankles, and “junk DNA.” But the main emphasis of this discussion is the exciting sea change in biology in which numerous breakthroughs are occurring by scientists who are treating living systems and subsystems as if they are optimally engineered systems. Some in this movement reject intelligent design for ideological reasons. Others embrace it. But all systems biologists treat these systems as if they are masterfully engineered Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, biologist Ann Gauger discuss panspermia, the topic of a peer-reviewed paper published recently by several very serious scientists. Panspermia tries to sidestep problems in origins biology by suggesting that, to quote the title of an old science fiction movie, “it came from outer space.” And yes, according to this explanation, maybe aliens even sent it our way. Maybe (honest — this is a real theory) the first octopuses came here special delivery, as encapsulated embryos falling from the sky. Anything but intelligent design, for these very serious scientists. Tune in to learn from Dr. Gauger what precisely drove these scientists to such an explanation. Source
In this ID the Future, Stephen Meyer takes a deep dive into the case for not only intelligent design, but also for a designer of the cosmos who is immaterial, eternal, transcendent, and involved. Meyer draws on evidence for design at the origin of life, in the origin of plants and animals, and from the fine tuning of the laws and constants of chemistry and the initial conditions of the universe. He connects all this to the scientific evidence that the universe is not eternal but had a beginning—the Big Bang. What about the main materialistic alternative for explaining this suite of evidence—the idea that there is a multiverse with our universe just being one of the lucky universes with Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, radio host Michael Medved sits down with Cambridge-trained philosopher of science Stephen Meyer to hear some exciting news about the newly active James Webb space telescope, a telescope dramatically more powerful than the already extraordinarily powerful Hubble space telescope. The James Webb telescope was launched by NASA last Christmas and has begun returning a stream of dramatic images. As Meyer explains, thanks to Webb we can now see farther into the distant universe than ever before, and the farther a telescope can see, the further into the past it can see. The James Webb telescope can see far enough to witness galaxies from the very early universe. Meyer says what Webb is revealing, and what Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, catch the first half of a public talk by political scientist John West on how Darwinism has poisoned Western culture. In the lecture, delivered at the Dallas Conference on Science & Faith, West explores how Darwin’s purely materialistic theory of evolution drained meaning from nature, undercut the idea of inherent human dignity, and fueled the rise of scientific racism in the twentieth century. West is author of Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science. Source
On this classic ID the Future, philosopher of science Paul Nelson speaks with host Andrew McDiarmid about pursuing intelligent design theory in a naturalistic culture. Nelson also expresses his appreciation for his University of Pittsburgh mentor Adolf Grünbaum, with whom he shared the kind of friendship that can come from caring deeply about the same things, even if taking different positions on them. Nelson talks about what’s involved in holding a minority position, some of the potential pitfalls that come with holding a majority position, and the danger we can all face of seeking polemical advantage rather than truth. Source
Today’s ID the Future features a recent Michael Medved Show with artificial intelligent expert Robert J. Marks, author of the new book Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will. The occasion for the conversation is an article by Marks about the Tom Cruise movie Top Gun: Maverick. In the article, Marks argues that, strictly in terms of optimal military tactics, the job of the human fighter pilots in the movie would have been better filled by drones. But as sanguine as Marks is about the possibilities for AI in military and other applications, he is among the loudest voices insisting that the AI community tends to overhype AI capabilities. In his conversation with Michael Medved, and in Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, hear the final segment in a five-part conversation between host Casey Luskin and neurosurgeon Michael Egnor. Dr. Egnor discusses how Europe’s Judeo-Christian culture in the Middle Ages and Renaissance laid the groundwork for the rise of science. Egnor goes on from there to address the claim that the rise of atheism has somehow been a boon to science. Not so, Egnor says. Tune in to hear his explanation. Source
Today’s ID the Future continues intelligent design theorist Casey Luskin’s conversation with Apologetics 315 podcast hosts Brian Auten and Chad Gross. Here in Part 2, Luskin give a peek behind the scenes of ID 3.0, the current research program inspired by the intelligent design framework. Luskin is then asked to explain his reservations about theistic evolution, and Luskin points out the evidential, rhetorical, and logical problems he sees with the brand of theistic evolution advocated by Francis Collins and Biologos. What about the future of the intelligent design movement? Luskin says he’s optimistic, both because of the exciting research and publication breakthroughs of late, and because of the many converts he’s seeing to the ID framework. According to Luskin, many of these Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future features Apologetics 315 podcast hosts Brian Auten and Chad Gross interviewing scientist Casey Luskin about the past, present, and exciting future of the intelligent design movement. Here in Part 1, Luskin tells how he got into ID movement, gives the back story on the birth of a promising intelligent design research program known as ID 3.0, and relates how he ended up rushing back from his geology work in South Africa at the front end of the Covid-19 pandemic to rejoin Discovery Institute. From there Auten and Gross push Luskin to provide a clear, easily grasped definition of intelligent design and to explain how it differs from creationism. Luskin also makes the case that intelligent design Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, award-winning neurosurgery professor Michael Egnor joins host Casey Luskin to talk more about his interactions with atheist evolutionary biologist Dr. Jerry Coyne. Listen in as Egnor tells about Jerry Coyne’s efforts against open discourse on intelligent design and evolution—specifically two incidents of censorship, one at Ball State University and the other at the LA County Museum of Natural History. Source
On this ID the Future, host Andrew McDiarmid sits down with historian and philosopher of science Michael Keas to discuss a recent article at Times Higher Education, “My Precious! How Academia’s Gollums Guard Their Research Fields.” The article looks at how scientific progress is being impeded by a culture in which scientists jealously guard their research instead of sharing it. Keas says the problem seems to have gotten worse in recent years but isn’t a new one. He illustrates with the story of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. Brahe, a sixteenth-century Danish astronomer, sat on his astronomical research for years, rather than sharing it with Johannes Kepler, his assistant. Kepler only got hold of it when Brahe died unexpectedly shortly Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, philosopher of science Paul Nelson explores an intriguing tension in the thinking of famous scientist and science popularizer Carl Sagan concerning his agnosticism shading into atheism on the one hand, and on the other hand his embrace of certain ideas consistent with the theory of intelligent design. As Nelson is quick to clarify, if Sagan had lived to see the rise of the contemporary intelligent design movement, he probably would have rejected it, particularly its theistic implications. And yet, Nelson says, Sagan’s thinking and arguments laid out in his Gifford lectures and in his science fiction novel Contact strongly support the idea that intelligent design can be detected. Nelson goes further, saying that if we Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, hear more of professor of neurosurgery Michael Egnor and host Casey Luskin’s discussion on free will. If there is no free will, and humans are merely following our chemical instructions, then how can we recognize evil and good? How can an evolutionist such as Jerry Coyne condemn even something as manifestly heinous as the Nazi holocaust? Egnor explains how Coyne manages it and argues that the attempt doesn’t wash. The best solution is to reject evolutionary materialism and accept what humans recognize at a deep level, Egnor says, namely that we are moral agents capable of freely choosing between good and evil. Egnor further argues that taking Coyne’s approach of denying free Read More › Source
On this ID the Future, Animal Algorithms author Eric Cassell explores an algorithm in the brains of harvester ants that adjusts their foraging strategy based on how available food is in their environment, thereby guiding the harvester ants toward more efficient foraging. Cassell builds off a March 2022 article in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface to explain how the algorithm in the ant’s tiny brain involves a sophisticated feedback control mechanism that includes both positive and negative feedback systems. As he further notes in the episode and in an article at Evolution News, a mathematical model of the harvester ants’ foraging behavior by Stanford University scientists confirms the control algorithm is largely optimized. Cassell’s recent book, Animal Algorithms, Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, professor of neurosurgery Michael Egnor and host Casey Luskin continue their conversation, here discussing Dr. Egnor’s experience in an online debate on free will with evolutionary biologist Dr. Jerry Coyne. Listen in as Dr. Egnor explains why the argument against free will is self-refuting and why he’s concluded that determinism as a theory in physics is dead. Source
On this ID the Future, distinguished German paleontologist Günter Bechly continues unpacking his new argument against modern evolutionary theory. According to Bechly, contemporary species pairs diverge hardly at all over millions of years, even when isolated from each other, and yet we’re supposed to believe that the evolutionary process built dramatically distinct body plans in similar time frames at various other times in the history of life. Why believe that? He suggests this pattern of relative stasis among species pairs strikes a significant and damaging blow to Darwinian theory. In this Part 2 episode, Bechly and host Casey Luskin discuss mice/rat pairs, cattle and bison, horses and donkeys, Asian and African elephants, the Asian black bear and the South American Read More › Source
On today’s ID the future, German paleoentomologist Günter Bechly and host Casey Luskin unpack a recent article of Bechly’s at Evolution News, “Species Pairs: A New Challenge to Darwinists.” There Bechly describes a challenge to evolutionary theory that thus far has been given little attention, namely “the morphological similarity of modern species pairs.” He says this “poses a severe problem for Darwinian theory “because it implies that the macroevolutionary processes that allegedly were at work and common during all periods of Earth history and in all groups of organisms, apparently were totally absent in the origins of all of the millions of living species.” Or as he puts it in a follow-up article on the same topic, “Among the 350,000 Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, brain surgeon and Evolution News blogger Michael Egnor talks with host Casey Luskin about his internet debates with Jerry Coyne and the trends and dynamics he sees in the intelligent design/evolution blogosphere. Dr. Egnor also speaks briefly on the evidence he sees for intelligent design in the brain, what atheist and science writer Isaac Asimov once described as “the most complicated organization of matter that we know.” Egnor says that may be true but that we needn’t look to the brain for confirmation that something in nature required intelligent design. We can find powerful evidence of it in something far humbler. Tune in to listen to his answer, and stay tuned for Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future again features Darwinian Racism author and historian Richard Weikart and radio host Hank Hanegraaff exploring the pernicious impact Charles Darwin and Darwinism have had on modern ethics. Ideas laid out in Darwin’s The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man fueled scientific racism in the United States and Nazi Germany, Weikart says, and undergird the ideas of contemporary white nationalists, who tend to be virulently anti-Christian and pro-Darwin. We can take some comfort from the fact that white nationalists are a fringe movement and that most evolutionists today are anti-racist, Weikart says, but he notes that Darwinian materialism has poisoned mainstream ethics in another way, by devaluing humans generally. This is why someone as mainstream Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, radio host Hank Hanegraaff interviews historian and Center for Science and Culture senior fellow Richard Weikart about his book, Darwinian Racism: How Darwinism Influenced Hitler, Nazism, and White Nationalism. The two look at how Darwinism fueled scientific racism and an aggressive and frequently racist eugenics movement not just in Nazi Germany but, earlier, in the United States, where many leading, even mainstream voices, including Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, top business magnates, and some liberal Protestants enamored of evolutionary theory pushed compulsory sterilization laws, which were passed in Indiana, California, and other states. Weikart shows how these laws were fueled and informed by ideas laid out in Darwin’s The Descent of Man, ideas that also Read More › Source
On this classic ID The Future, biologist Michael Denton discusses the implications of recurring animal body plans, arguing that they are predetermined types undergirding less fundamental “adaptive masks.” Denton questions the ability of a Darwinian process to account for these high-level patterns found in living systems, such as the recurring body plan of insects. Denton suggests instead that these recurrent forms extend from original “primal patterns,” much as argued by such nineteenth-century opponents of Darwinism as Richard Owen and Louis Agassiz. Denton says their arguments were brushed aside by those fixated on a Darwinian/adaptationist model, but never effectively answered. Dr. Denton is author, most recently, of the capstone work in his Privileged Species series, The Miracle of Man: The Fine Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, radio host Michael Medved sits down with bestselling science author Stephen Meyer to discuss the Marvel movie Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Medved isn’t wild about the film, but he uses it as a springboard to dive into what he calls “the madness of the multiverse”—namely, the proposals in physics and cosmology for the idea that our universe is just one of many universes. Meyer explains some of the early motivations among twentieth-century physicists and cosmologists for proposing a multiverse. Then he turns to what he says is the main driver for interest in the multiverse in our day—a desire to explain away something that is deeply puzzling on the grounds of atheism, Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future Return of the God Hypothesis author Stephen Meyer and radio host Michael Medved discuss some hit videos featuring Meyer that explore the increasingly strong scientific case for intelligent design and for the idea that the universe is the product of a transcendent mind. In their discussion, Meyer and Medved focus on how evidence of a cosmic beginning supports Judeo-Christian theism, and how the Judeo-Christian faith undergirded the birth of science. The Stephen Meyer videos that Medved spotlights now have more than 10 million views altogether. You can find them all here. Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, host Sarah Chaffee talks with Center for Science and Culture Research Coordinator Brian Miller about the growing ID underground. Miller says that as many as one-quarter of Harvard post-docs in relevant fields privately express sympathy for intelligent design. And more and more scientists who don’t agree with ID are at least standing up against common sound-bite misrepresentations. In their conversation Miller also reviews what he describes as three “major pillars” of evolutionary theory that in recent years have been “dramatically shaken.” The conversation cues off of Miller’s Evolution News article on the subject. Source
On today’s ID the Future, Miracle of Man author and biologist Michael Denton continues his conversation with host Eric Anderson. Here Denton does a rapid flyover of several more anthropic “coincidences” in chemistry, biochemistry, and Earth science that are fine tuned to allow air-breathing, bipedal, technology-developing terrestrial creatures like ourselves to exist and thrive. The fine tuning, what Denton calls anthropic prior fitness, would seem to require foresight and planning on literally a cosmic scale. The wide-ranging conversation, the final one in a four-part series, gives a flavor for the breadth—if not the depth and richness—of Denton’s new book from Discovery Institute Press, available here. Source
On today’s ID the Future, distinguished British physician and author David Galloway explains why he’s convinced that the human fetal circulatory system is irreducibly complex and therefore beyond the reach of blind gradualistic evolution to have built. In his conversation with host and fellow physician Geoffrey Simmons, Galloway also mentions some molecular machines that he’s convinced are irreducibly complex and shout intelligent design. The occasion for the conversation is Galloway’s new book, Design Dissected. Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, geneticist Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig, former research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, talks with host Casey Luskin about Gregor Mendel’s laws of inheritance, how they clashed with the thinking of Charles Darwin, and how acceptance of Darwinism greatly hindered acceptance of Mendel’s great insights. Listen in as Dr. Lönnig explains Mendel’s laws and why they’re still relevant for biology, and particularly genetics. Source
In Part 3 of The Miracle of Man interview with author Michael Denton, the Australian biologist and MD explores with host Eric Anderson some of the bioengineering marvels of the human lung and, more fundamentally, some of the many things about chemistry, the sun, and planet Earth that had to be just so to allow our respiratory and circulatory systems to work—not merely as well as they do but at all. It’s fine tuning for creatures very much like ourselves, what Denton terms The Miracle of Man. “Denton provides the a scientific underpinning for a theistic real humanism far beyond the nihilistic implications of so-called secular humanism,” writes German paleontologist Günter Bechly. “The book deserves to become a game changer Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, host Andrew McDiarmid interviews science historian and author Michael Keas about Keas’ ISI book Unbelievable: 7 Myths About the History and Future of Science and Religion. The myth they tackle on this episode is the notion that the Catholic Church willfully ignored incontrovertible scientific evidence against geocentrism and tortured the astronomer Galileo for promoting a sun-centered model of the solar system, and that they opposed him on purely religious grounds. As Keas explains, in fact Galileo had found support for heliocentrism but hadn’t proved it scientifically; there were scientists and theologians both against him and for him; and he wasn’t tortured anyway. Source
This ID the Future continues Miracle of Man author Michael Denton’s conversation with host Eric Anderson about his latest book. The focus of this capstone work in his Privileged Species series is, as the subtitle explains, The Fine-Tuning of Nature for Human Existence. Here Denton and Anderson dive deeper into the book’s argument that science has uncovered multiple ensembles of fitness for creatures much like ourselves—land-going, airbreathing, intelligent bipeds capable of controlling fire and developing new technologies. In other words, it’s not just a handful of things about nature that appear fine tuned for our existence. It’s a long list of things, and indeed, a long list of interdependent ensembles of prior fitness—what Denton sometimes refers to as a “primal Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future brings onto the show Scottish physician David Galloway, author of the recent book Design Dissected and former president of Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. In his conversation with guest host and fellow physician/author Geoffrey Simmons, Galloway describes how he found himself in the evolution/design controversy and eventually presented his doubts about Darwin to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. In this first half of a two-part conversation, Galloway and Simmons briefly summarize the content of Design Dissected, and Galloway homes in on one section in particular where he tells the tragic story of Ignaz Semmelweis, a nineteenth-century Hungarian physician who pioneered life-saving antiseptic procedures in hospitals, but whose ideas were Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, Jay Richards and astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez discuss several discoveries made since 2004 supporting the conclusions of their 2004 book The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery.Gonzalez and Richards show how the book’s thesis — that conditions for life and scientific discovery meet on Earth to a fine-tuned degree that strongly points toward design — has been confirmed multiple times. Source
On today’s ID the Future, host Eric Anderson sits down with Australian biologist and MD Michael Denton to discuss his new book, The Miracle of Man: The Fine Tuning of Nature for Human Existence. As Denton notes, throughout the Middle Ages, humans were viewed as central to the cosmic scheme of things, but this anthropocentric view began to fall out of favor in the sixteenth century, and few if any scientific discoveries in the subsequent two centuries offered any apparent aid or comfort to the view. That, however, isn’t the end of the story. According to Denton, even as Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution by natural selection seemed to be draining from the idea what little life remained Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future is Part 2 of physicist Brian Miller exploring a recent report from the University of Tokyo claiming a big breakthrough in origin-of-life research. As Miller and host Eric Anderson make clear, the university’s laboratory work on RNA, detailed in a recent Nature Communications article, involved the intelligent interference of the lab scientists and, despite this intelligent interference, the devolution of RNA rather than the evolution of increasing RNA sophistication. Miller says that it’s ironic that Steven Novella, a scientist committed to puncturing science hype, seems to have fallen for the hype surrounding this laboratory work. Miller and Anderson go on to discuss critiques of origin-of-life tall-tale claims, critiques coming Robert Shapiro, James Tour, and others. Life, Read More › Source
On this classic ID the Future from the vault, biologist Michael Denton reflects on paradigm shifts in science he’s witnessed in his lifetime and how his own thinking has changed. He also looks at how these shifts challenge Darwinian evolution in new ways. Denton is the author of the new book The Miracle of Man: The Fine Tuning of Nature for Human Existence. Get a copy today. Source
Today’s ID the Future spotlights the groundbreaking new book The Miracle of Man: The Fine Tuning of Nature for Human Existence, with author and biologist Michael Denton reading excerpts from the work. Here Denton, who is also an MD, marvels at the engineering sophistication of the human heart and hands. Then he dives into the heart of his new book, teasing just a small sampling of the many ways nature appears fine tuned for bipedal, intelligent, technology-developing creatures such as ourselves. One or two such examples are interesting. But where the argument gains dramatic force is in the accumulation of many examples, stretching from physics and the characteristics of our sun to chemistry and the ensemble of unique characteristics of Read More › Source
On this ID the Future, Brian Miller, research coordinator for the Center for Science & Culture, reports on laboratory research recently presented in Nature Communications and in a University of Tokyo press release— research that supposedly provides dramatic “new insights into the possible origin of life,” and specifically “the molecular evolution of RNA.” The popular press picked up on these claims and ran with them, including in this May 5 Quanta article that breathlessly reported, “When researchers gave a genetic molecule the ability to replicate, it evolved over time into a complex network of ‘hosts’ and ‘parasites’ that both competed and cooperated to survive.” Miller says nothing remotely this dramatic occurred in the experiment. He insists there were no great Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, host Jay Richards and astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, authors of The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery, discuss what’s changed in the years since the book first appeared. One big change: the number of exo-planets discovered has exploded from 200 or so to several thousand. Gonzalez walks through this and other exciting recent advances in astronomy, and the two discuss how these new discoveries bear on the predictions and arguments they advanced in their book. Also in the discussion, Gonzalez speculates about what the James Webb space telescope may uncover after it comes online. Source
On this ID the Future intelligent design pioneer William Dembski unpacks one of his chapters in The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions about Life and the Cosmos, which Dembski co-edited with Joseph Holden and episode host Casey Luskin. The chapter, “Why Intelligent Design Matters,” focuses on ID’s cultural implications. Dembski notes that atheists use mindless evolution to provide a God-free explanation for life and the universe. Intelligent design checks that move, showing that blind material processes couldn’t have created many things in nature, much less the cosmos itself. Intelligent design is the better explanation. What about the idea that an alien created, say, the first life on Earth (intelligent design without the need for God)? Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, philosopher William Dembski and host Casey Luskin explore the relationship between science and faith. What is science? What is faith? How does Christianity define faith? Dembski explains that faith in the Judeo-Christian tradition is not the opposite of reason; at the same time, faith possesses a relational component—trust in a just, gracious, and reasonable God—that goes beyond mere assent to propositions. As for science, Dembski describes it as a careful search for truths about the natural world, including truths about key elements such as the birth of our fine-tuned universe and the origin of living things. Dembski says that he is convinced that scientific discoveries, unshackled from atheistic blinders, point strongly to intelligent design as Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, biophysicist Cornelius Hunter explains how mitochondria, the powerhouses of eukaryotic cells, pose a powerful and growing problem for evolution. For years evolutionists thought some early cells must somehow have brought other cells inside of them, and those other cells then mysteriously evolved into mitochondria. But recent research undermines that notion. Why do many evolutionists then still cling to the idea? Dr. Hunter’s answer explains how a lot of evolutionary thinking persists in the face of mounting contrary evidence. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast. Source
On today’s ID the Future intelligent design pioneer William Dembski tells the story of his rocky journey into and out of higher education, the reasons for his sabbatical from the ID movement, his recent success as an entrepreneur, and his return to intelligent design work. Along the way Dembski bats down a mistaken rumor about his sabbatical. The occasion for his conversation with host Casey Luskin is the recent anthology Dembski and Luskin contributed to and helped edit, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions about Life and the Cosmos. Source
On this ID the Future, Human Nature author and polymath David Berlinski and radio host Michael Medved discuss everything from human depravity, the burning of Notre Dame, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the Big Bang and a quixotic century-old pact to ban war. Berlinski argues that the case for the death of God and the case for the impending demise of human depravity have been greatly exaggerated. Contra Steven Pinker, Berlinski insists that there is little if any evidence that human evil is being steadily rolled back by the spread of secular values. Further, the idea that science has disproven God flies in the face of trends running in the opposite direction, perhaps most dramatically in the triumph Read More › Source
From the vault: German paleontologist Günter Bechly is co-author (with Stephen C. Meyer) of the chapter titled “The Fossil Record and Universal Common Ancestry” in the book Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique. In this second conversation with Sarah Chaffee on this topic, Bechly moves on from the Cambrian explosion to discuss “life’s second ‘big bang.’” He then touches on other biological explosions, including the Avalon explosion, the Triassic explosion, the origin of flowering plants, and the origin of placental mammals. “There’s no reasonable way,” Bechly concludes, “to get from bacteria to mammals via evolutionary processes.” Source
Today’s ID the Future from the vault spotlights some problems the fossil record poses for Darwinism and, specifically, the theory’s idea of universal common ancestry. The guest is distinguished German paleontologist Günter Bechly, who was a proponent of Darwinism until he discovered, well into his career, what he sees as significant scientific reasons to doubt the evolutionary story. The occasion for his conversation with host Sarah Chaffee is an essay he and Stephen Meyer contributed to Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique, an anthology from Crossway books. Source
On today’s ID the Future, radio host Hank Hanegraaff continues his conversation with Animal Algorithms author Eric Cassell. Here they look at more insects with strikingly sophisticated innate behavior, suggesting intricate algorithms encoded into their brains from birth, all of which cannot be effectively explained by reference to Darwinian evolution. Cassell and Hanegraaff touch on wasp martial arts; termite altruism and termite architectural skills, including a cooling system that has inspired a human design; interdependent social caste systems that enhance fitness; and spiderweb architecture and the extraordinary properties of spider silk, including the different kinds of silk and the spider’s ability to employ different types precisely tailored for different needs. Cassell looks at evolutionary explanations for these innate abilities that Read More › Source
On this ID the Future radio host Hank Hanegraaff interviews Animal Algorithms author Eric Cassell about insects and other small-brained animals with innate behaviors of astonishing sophistication — desert ants, leafcutter ants, honey bees, spiders, monarch butterflies, and many more. These appear to be hard-wired from birth with complex algorithms coded into their neural networks, and some of the algorithms seem to involve complex mathematics. Also mysterious: many of these innate abilities are do or die. So how could they have blindly evolved one small Darwinian step at a time? Also, how would genetic mutations generate the ability to make navigational calculations (as in the case of some birds) that for humans require spherical geometry? Listen in to learn more Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, bioethicist Wesley J. Smith explores a recent article in the journal Nature, “The Alarming Rise of Complex Genetic Testing in Human Embryo Selection.” As alarming as that title sounds, Smith says the reality is even worse than the Nature article suggests. Using the breakthrough technology known as CRISPR, scientists are not only altering the genes of a given creature, including humans, but are even altering the creature’s germline. This threatens to permanently alter a species, Smith explains, including the human species. There’s the question of whether we have the right play god in this way, of course. There’s also the practical issue of scientists not really knowing what they are doing yet. A gene identified Read More › Source
On this ID The Future from the vault, host Sarah Chaffee interviews biologist Ann Gauger about a Crossway Books anthology that Gauger contributed to and helped edit, Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique. Among the tenets of theistic evolution is the idea that humans evolved from a large population of ape-like creatures. But is that idea scientifically plausible? Today’s episode delves into the fossil evidence. Listen in as Gauger describes not a mere gap in the fossil record, but a great gulf between australopithecines (an ancient ape-like creature) and humans. Source
This ID the Future continues the debate between design theorist Casey Luskin, an editor of The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith, and science historian Adam Shapiro, co-author of Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction. Justin Brierley, of the popular British debate program Unbelievable?, hosts. In this second half of the conversation, Shapiro argues that intelligent design’s popularity seems to have waned. Casey Luskin counters, arguing that the number and frequency of New York Times articles on ID is a superficial metric and that the ID research program is exploding, with the number of peer-reviewed ID papers growing every year, and the number of interested graduate students, ID hubs, and conferences expanding around the world, including ID conferences attended by high-level scientists, including Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, design theorist Casey Luskin, an editor of The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith, and science historian Adam Shapiro, co-author of Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction, debate the meaning and prospects of intelligent design. Here in this first half of their conversation with host Justin Brierley of the Unbelievable? podcast, the focus is on how the term intelligent design is used, or misused, and its relationship to theological issues. The interview is used by permission of Justin Brierley. Source
On this ID The Future from the vault, Zombie Science author and biologist Jonathan Wells dissects some recent hype over Darwin’s finches, an icon of evolution that just won’t stay buried. Seventeen years after Wells’ book Icons of Evolution, a thorn in the side of Darwinists, Darwin’s finches are back in the news and can still be found in biology textbooks despite the fact that, as Wells explains, they illustrate no net evolutionary change nor did they play a role in helping Darwin formulate his theory. As Wells’ Zombie Science book title suggests, the finch-beak icon has been killed by the facts, but like a zombie, it just keeps coming. Source
On today’s ID the Future, Human Nature author David Berlinski continues his conversation with host Wesley J. Smith. Here Berlinski reflects on the Jewish Holocaust, the destructive nihilism of the Nazis and the SS, and the shortcomings of Neo-Darwinism as an explanation for the diversity of life. Berlinski and Smith also discuss the increasingly widespread attacks on human exceptionalism, the growth of emotivism and why it’s a problem, and the bizarre nature rights movement. This is the second and concluding part of a conversation borrowed, with permission, from Wesley J. Smith’s Humanize podcast. Source
On this ID the Future, host Wesley J. Smith talks with polymath and Human Nature author David Berlinski about the philosophy of mathematics, the corruption of science, the burning of Notre Dame, modern Europe’s curious incapacity to build graceful, beautiful structures, and what’s driving the devolution of Western society. But before any of that, Berlinski relates the dramatic story of how his parents, European Jews, escaped the Nazis only by the skin of their teeth. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation borrowed with permission from Wesley J. Smith’s Humanize podcast. Source
On this classic ID the Future, John West, managing director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, explains the Darwinian basis for getting rid of the “unfit.” One way this manifested itself in the twentieth century was in the eugenics movement’s disturbing push for compulsory sterilization, right here in the United States. One of the most famous such instances was Carrie Buck (to the left in the picture accompanying this episode), sterilized as “feeble minded” despite going on to live a normal productive life. Her case went to the Supreme Court, where the court, in an opinion written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., ruled against Buck. She was sterilized five months later. Listen in to learn about prominent scientists Read More › Source
On this ID the Future, physicist Brian Miller looks at various attempts to evade the mounting evidence that the universe had a beginning, a Big Bang. Miller and host Casey Luskin first review the fascinating history of how the eternal universe model of the nineteenth century gave way to the Big Bang model. Then Miller walks through about a half a dozen attempts to evade a cosmic beginning after the Big Bang model had won the day. These evasions include the steady state model, the idea of an eternal cyclical universe, and the string landscape model. According to this model, our universe exists in a multi-dimensional brane (not “brain”) which exists in a higher dimensional space, and our multi-dimensional brane Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future brings listeners a lively conversation between radio host and bestselling author Eric Metaxas and historian Richard Weikart about Weikart’s new book, Darwinian Racism: How Darwinism Influenced Hitler, Nazism, and White Nationalism. Weikart provides a quick flyover of the evidence that the outlook of Hitler, the Nazis, and contemporary white nationalists is significantly shaped by Darwinism and the arguments of early Darwinists. Metaxas and Weikart then contrast the Darwinian foundation for morality with the Judeo-Christian foundation, which holds that all humans are made in the image of God and therefore possess inherent worth, regardless of race and regardless of one’s “fitness.” This episode is reposted here, with permission, from The Eric Metaxas Show. Check out Weikart’s new Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, paleontologist Günter Bechly and host Andrew McDiarmid discuss Bechly’s article “Ape-Man Waves Goodbye to Darwinian Gradualism.” Bechly touches on the oldest australopithecine fossil skull ever found, from 3.8 million years ago. The researchers behind the find are confident of its age but puzzled because the discovery undercuts one of the best examples of alleged gradual transition between two hominid species, and it also doesn’t fit well with common theories of phylogenetic relationship. The evidence poses a significant problem for the Darwinian mechanistic paradigm, but can be readily explained with an intelligent design approach. Source
On today’s ID the Future, Lehigh University biologist Michael Behe argues that Darwinism was built on a foundation of ignorance. Through no fault of Darwin’s, neither he nor anyone else in his day had a clue about the nature of cellular life and biological information, says Behe. Even the biologists of the Neo-Darwinian synthesis in the first half of the twentieth century were fairly clueless about the foundation of life, Behe says. When researchers did finally begin to unravel the sophisticated foundations of life, earlier notions of how evolutionary processes might have invented the great diversity of life forms on earth were exposed as causally inadequate. Behe says that in fact all the attempts to rescue the idea of mindless Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, philosopher Jay Richards offers advices on engaging with evolutionists over the issues of origins, evolution, and intelligent design. In his conversation with host Casey Luskin, he says that if someone tells you he’s a theistic evolutionist, first find out what he means by theism and evolution. The latter term, in particular, can have widely varying meanings, and the average lay persons who see themselves as theistic evolutionists likely see God as actively and creatively working in the history of life to steer evolutionary outcomes, including the origin of humanity. What they may not realize is that such a view takes them well off the reservation of what academic theistic evolutionists generally mean by the term Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future from the vault brings listeners Part 2 of Nate Herbst of The God Solution and Casey Luskin of the Center for Science and Culture discussing intelligent design. Here the two look at why some people conflate intelligent design with creationism, and what distinguishes the two. Luskin explains the positive argument for intelligent design from biological information. And he notes that various proponents of intelligent design take widely divergent views on religion, which he says tells us something important about ID’s evidential basis. Tune in to learn more. Source
On today’s ID the Future, Bristol University engineer Stuart Burgess dives deeper into the engineering marvels of such sea creatures as the parrotfish, sling-jaw wrasse, mantis shrimp, and the deep sea dragonfish, with a particular focus on the amazing linkage mechanisms found in these creatures. Burgess says these mechanisms are extraordinary examples of engineering prowess, and they are irreducibly complex, thereby posing a challenge to modern evolutionary theory. He and host Eric Anderson also discuss the engineering sophistication of muscles, with a specific look at the human bicep and how the muscle and the brain work together. Burgess is an expert on linkage mechanisms. His design work in this area helped Great Britain’s cycling team win gold in the two Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future spotlights a Bristol University engineer whose design work helped Great Britain’s cycling team win gold in the most recent Summer Olympics. Stuart Burgess, currently on a visiting fellowship at the University of Cambridge and an expert on linkage mechanisms, discusses with host Eric Anderson how top engineering firms are paying big money to learn from the extraordinary designs found in biology so as to improve their own designs. Burgess has designed groundbreaking linkage mechanisms, but he says the human knee is still well ahead of what even the most advanced human engineers have managed in this area, even accounting for the fact that wear and tear and misuse can lead to knee problems. He walks listeners Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, Nate Herbst of The God Solution and the Center for Science and Culture’s Casey Luskin discuss their experiences as students in science courses interacting with professors over the evolution controversy. Luskin offers some suggested do’s and don’ts, and describes how involvement in a student club first awakened his interest in the intelligent design debate. Source
On today’s ID the Future Casey Luskin hosts distinguished German paleontologist Günter Bechly to discuss Bechly’s essay in the recent Harvest House anthology, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions About Life and the Cosmos. Darwinian evolution predicts a gradually branching tree of living forms, with one form shading into another over long periods of evolution, with each transitional step almost too modest to notice. Does the fossil record suggest such a pattern? Quite the opposite, Bechly says. Instead the pattern of the fossil record is consistently one of sudden appearance, and evolutionists have yet to successfully construct a single robustly populated series of gradually transitioning fossils that move chronologically from one form to a distinctly different Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future explores with physicist and space telescope expert Bijan Nemati the amazing discoveries that may await us when the singularly powerful James Webb space telescope goes on line in summer 2022. Nemati and host Jay Richards, co-author of The Privileged Planet, discuss the telescope’s ability to see far deeper into space than any previous telescope, and further into the past. If all goes well it will be able to see so far into the past, Nemati says, that we will get glimpses of the universe close to when galaxies were first forming, not long after the Big Bang. These glimpses may confirm our most current ideas of early cosmic history and galaxy formation, or turn them on Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, we hear part two of a panel discussion on “The Danger of Totalitarian Science,” held at the July 2018 FreedomFest in Las Vegas. This discussion followed a screening there of the film Human Zoos, written and directed by John West, who emceed the panel discussion. Here, Discovery Institute senior fellow George Gilder raises concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) — but not the usual economic ones. He’s more concerned about the thinking underlying some of the more ambitious attempts at AI — and how it would tend to turn the whole world into one very large yet confining human zoo. Source
On today’s ID the Future, physicist Bijan Nemati, an expert in advanced astronomical instruments, discusses the new James Webb space telescope with host Jay Richards. The NASA telescope has been successfully launched into space and has reached its destination, known as the Lagrange Point 2, roughly a million miles from Earth. If all goes well with the extremely delicate multi-phase deployment, the Webb telescope will go online in late spring or early summer 2022 and begin sending back stunning images. In this first of two episodes, Nemati describes the remaining steps in the telescope’s deployment, some of the extraordinary technology involved, and the telescope’s amazing powers, including its ability to see into the far infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, and Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future features the second half of a recent webinar spotlighting historian Richard Weikart and his new book, Darwinian Racism: How Darwinism Influenced Hitler, Nazism, and White Nationalism. Here Weikart fields questions from the webinar audience. Along the way Weikart touches on the connection between Darwinism and scientific racism, the objection that Darwinism, properly understood, doesn’t support scientific racism (much less Nazi racism), the racism inherent in Darwin’s own writings and those of prominent early Darwinists such as Ernst Haeckel, and more recent manifestations of Darwinian-inspired scientific racism both academic and populist. This and much more is explored in Weikart’s new book, available here. And for scientific reasons to reject Darwinism along with its racists implications, jump over Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, philosopher of biology Paul Nelson discusses his chapter in a recent Harvest House anthology edited by host Casey Luskin, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Nelson says the theory of universal common descent, a key component of modern evolutionary theory, has generated multiple predictions that have failed. The prediction he discusses here is that there would turn out to be a single universal genetic code, since that’s what we should expect if all life on earth is descended from the last universal common ancestor (LUCA). Findings over the past three decades have proven that prediction spectacularly wrong. How does the theory of universal common descent shrug off this contrary empirical finding? The trick for Read More › Source
On this classic ID the Future, hear the story of how leading German paleo-entomologist and Darwinist Günter Bechly became convinced of intelligent design. Host Ray Bohlin shares the clip from the documentary Revolutionary, and sits down with the star of the film, Lehigh University biologist and Darwin’s Black Box author Michael Behe, to discuss some possible lessons to glean from Bechly’s dramatic story. In the time since the documentary was filmed, Bechly was forced to resign from his position as curator at the prestigious State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany. Then his English language Wikipedia page disappeared in an apparent attempt to shove this distinguished scientist down a memory hole. Bechly, meanwhile, is standing by his convictions and continuing Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future is part one of a recent webinar featuring Darwinian Racism author and noted historian Richard Weikart, discussing his new book with webinar host and Center for Science and Culture managing director John West. Weikart and West begin by discussing Whoopi Goldberg’s recent claim that the Jewish Holocaust under Nazi Germany was not racist. Yes it was, explains Weikart. Hitler and the Nazis believed that the Nordic or Aryan Europeans, which included Germans, were a superior race, and they viewed Jews, blacks, Slavs, and other races as inferior. Worse, Hitler and other Nazis drew upon Darwin’s theory of evolution, and in particular ideas laid out in Darwin’s The Descent of Man, as well as the work of Read More › Source
On this ID the Future, biophysicist Cornelius Hunter explores Charles Darwin’s theological arguments for his theory of evolution. By theological, Hunter doesn’t mean that Darwin was arguing for theistic evolution. He means that Darwin received what is known as theological utilitarianism from the intellectual culture of his youth, which had strong deistic tendencies and expected everything in creation to be perfectly adapted, and he made a case against it, presenting mindless evolution as a better explanation for his observations of the biological world than theological utilitarianism. But one problem with this approach, according to Hunter, is that it assumed that theological utilitarianism is THE alternative to blind evolution. In fact, there are other alternatives, including an orthodox Judeo-Christian understanding of Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault we hear from Richard Weikart, author of the new book Darwinian Racism, and John West, director of the award-winning hit documentary Human Zoos. The episode is the first part of a panel discussion from FreedomFest 2018, where West and Weikart speak on “The Danger of Totalitarian Science.” Science is a great blessing, but like all exercises of human reason and creativity, it can be abused. When science is considered the only route to knowledge, scientific experts are given the right to rule, and science becomes totalitarian. It happened decades ago, as documented in the Discovery Institute film Human Zoos. But don’t think it’s all in the past. As the panelists explain, totalitarian science remains with Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future features the newly released Darwinian Racism: How Darwinism Influenced Hitler, Nazism, and White Nationalism by distinguished historian Richard Weikart. Here Andrew McDiarmid reads from the introduction and chapter one. Weikart begins his book by revisiting the harrowing Columbine High School mass shooting and underscoring the curious fact that one of the mass shooters, a white nationalist, claimed inspiration from not just Adolf Hitler but also Charles Darwin. Since Darwin was a peaceable Victorian English gentleman and naturalist, what possible connection could there be between Darwin on the one hand and Hitler and contemporary white nationalism on the other? Weikart shows that the connection is in fact quite clear from the writings of Hitler, Darwin himself, and Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future Biola University physicist John Bloom discusses his chapter in the recent anthology The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith, co-edited by host Casey Luskin. Bloom’s focus in his contributed chapter is the pivotal role of Christianity in the rise of science. Bloom, the academic director of Biola’s master’s program in science and religion, draws on his PhD training in physics but also on his PhD in ancient Near Eastern studies and his study of the history of science. Here he argues that while the Babylonians and Greeks contributed some discoveries and insights that would eventually play into the rise of science, science did not take off, was not born, until a cluster of crucial ideas Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future concludes a three-part series featuring author Neil Thomas in a free-ranging conversation with radio show host Hank Hanegraaff. The focus is Thomas’s recent book, Taking Leave of Darwin: A Longtime Agnostic Discovers the Case for Design. Here Thomas and Hanegraaff discuss the logical positivists and what Thomas sees as their failure to consistently apply their evidential standards to Darwinism. Thomas also contrasts the cosmic nihilism of Richard Dawkins with the mounting evidence of fine tuning for life, and calls out what Thomas describes as the magical thinking at the heart of Darwinism. Hanegraaff and Thomas also explore how Darwin’s theory of evolution has roots in an ancient philosophical system that was long regarded as resting on Read More › Source
On this ID the Future, Taking Leave of Darwin author Neil Thomas continues a lively conversation with radio host Hank Hanegraaff. In this second in a three-part series, the two touch on the fossil record’s challenge to Darwinism, Gould and Eldredge’s rescue attempt, the question of whether Darwin’s best known contemporary defender is dishonest or merely self-deluded, the wishful thinking surrounding origin-of-life studies, the failed attempts to reduce the mind to mere brain chemistry, and the morally repugnant pro-eugenics ideas rooted in Darwinism and touted in the textbook at the heart of the famous Scopes Monkey Trial. The conversation is posted here by permission of Hank Hanegraaff. Get Neil Thomas’s book here. Source
Today’s ID the Future kicks off a three-part series featuring Taking Leave of Darwin author Neil Thomas interviewed by radio host Hank Hanegraaff. In this first part, Hanegraaff begins by lauding Thomas’s book and underscoring how influential Darwin’s theory of evolution has been on Western culture. Then Thomas sketches the cultural milieu and individual motivations that he’s convinced drew Darwin toward his formulation of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Here the focus is not on the various evidential weaknesses of Darwin’s theory (which Thomas does cover in his book) but on a question that puzzled Thomas once he became convinced of just how evidentially weak the case for Darwinism was: How was it that a theory so poorly Read More › Source
On this classic ID The Future, Stephen Meyer, director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, honors Phillip Johnson, the U.C. Berkeley law professor who helped ignite the modern intelligent design movement with the publication of his highly successful book Darwin on Trial. Meyer says Johnson had the courage to speak up when others wouldn’t. “The overweening dynamic of this debate is fear,” Meyer says. “There are many many many people who have come up to the water’s edge, who have seen the problems with Darwinian evolution, have counted the cost, and recoiled.” But one Berkeley law professor did not recoil. As Meyer put it, “Johnson had the guts.” Source
Today’s ID the Future dives into the controversial realm of artificial intelligence (AI). Will robots or other computers ever become so fast and powerful that they become conscious, creative, and free? Will they reach a point where they can create faster and better AI, which will create faster and better AI, and quickly leave humanity in the dust? To shed light on these and other questions swirling around the exciting field of AI, host Casey Luskin interviews computer engineering professor Robert J. Marks, head of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence. In the course of the fast-paced interview, Marks touches on dystopian AI and the limits of computer algorithms (they can never do anything that is inherently Read More › Source
On this ID the Future, host Andrew McDiarmid sits down with Emily Reeves, one of the speakers for the January 22, 2022, Dallas Science and Faith Conference. The two walk through the lineup of speakers for the conference (Stephen Meyer, Brian Miller, Casey Luskin, Ray Bohlin, and others), tease some of the talks, and discuss how to join the one-day event live, either in person in the Dallas area or online. For more about the conference, slated for this Saturday, and to sign up, go here. Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, Eric Anderson makes his first appearance on ID the Future, in an interview with host Casey Luskin. By this point Anderson had been involved in the intelligent design debate for over a decade, and at that stage his primary focus was on analyzing the logical and rhetorical bases of arguments to help people understand strengths, weaknesses, and underlying assumptions of arguments made in the ID and evolution debate. He later used those skills in helping assemble a team of contributors for an excellent recent ID book Evolution and Intelligent Design in a Nutshell (Discovery Institute Press), to which he also contributes. There he taps another area of his expertise, the ongoing efforts Read More › Source
On this ID the Future, geologist Casey Luskin discusses biogeography and the problems it poses for the idea of universal common descent. To make it work, evolutionists have to propose, for instance, that old world monkeys rafted across the Atlantic from Africa to South America on a natural raft. Really? That’s some raft. And how did the monkeys not starve to death? Or die of thirst? They couldn’t drink salty ocean water, after all. And talk about a genetic bottleneck! That’s just one of several problems Luskin raises with the idea that all species gradually evolved from a universal common ancestor. In his conversation with host Emily Reeves, he also touches on the problem of convergence, as when two creatures Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, physicist and engineer Brian Miller sits down with host Casey Luskin to survey exciting developments in intelligent design research that are driven by an engineering model for understanding and studying variations in species. ID researchers are pushing this work, but so too are systems biology researchers outside the intelligent design community. Tune in to hear Miller and Luskin discuss everything from fruit flies, finch beaks, and stickleback fish to mutational hotspots, phenotypic plasticity, and the gravity well model of biological adaptation. Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, host Casey Luskin sits down with Michael Denton, a Senior Fellow of the CSC who holds a PhD in Biochemistry. Denton is the author of Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, which has been credited with influencing both Phillip Johnson and Michael Behe. Here they discuss his sequel to that book, Nature’s Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe, which explores various striking ways that Earth and the laws of nature are finely tuned for carbon-based life and, in particular, creatures like ourselves. Denton argues that when it comes to evidence of fine tuning in the universe, the more you look, the more you find. Indeed, he has continued to find Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, biologist Jonathan Wells and host Eric Anderson discuss a recently discovered problem with the famous Miller-Urey experiment, long ballyhooed in biology textbooks as dramatic experimental evidence for the naturalistic origin of life. The newly uncovered problem involves the glassware used in the experiment. It is an interesting finding, but as Wells explains, it is far from the first problem discovered with the experiment, nor the most serious one. While biology textbooks often present the 1952 experiment by Stanley Miller and Harold Urey as a key icon of evolution, even those origin-of-life researchers who hope to one day to discover a credible naturalistic scenario for the origin of the first living cell concede that the experiment Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, bioethicist Wesley J. Smith makes the case for passionate opposition to, and stricter bioethical regulations against germline genetic engineering that changes not only the genetics of the subject but also of all that subject’s descendants. He and episode host Casey Luskin discuss germline genetic editing in China, the brouhaha that ensued when the experimental work by He Jiankui came to light, and why Smith is convinced that China’s disapproving response is less than it appears on the surface. He’s convinced, he explains, that the Chinese government wasn’t upset that the Chinese scientist conducted the experiment. They surely knew about his work and allowed it, Smith says. Rather, they and the scientific establishment internationally were upset Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future is Part 2 of a recent live webinar with Eric Cassell fielding questions about his new book, Animal Algorithms: Evolution and the Mysterious Origin of Ingenious Instincts. He and host Casey Luskin explore the engineering wonders of web-spinning spiders and their extraordinary silk, and the challenge of transforming solitary insects into social insects (with their complex and interdependent caste systems) via a blind step-by-step evolutionary process, and the many thousands of genetic changes required. What does Cassell consider the best explanation? He invokes design theorist William Dembski’s work with No Free Lunch theorems to argue that blind processes are a no-go for explaining their origin. From there Luskin opens the webinar up to questions from the Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future brings listeners the first half of a recent live webinar featuring author Eric Cassell fielding questions about his intelligent design book, Animal Algorithms: Evolution and the Mysterious Origin of Ingenious Instincts. Center for Science and Culture associate director Casey Luskin hosts. They begin the webinar discussing Cassell’s unique set of qualifications for writing the book, and then they move into a conversation about the amazing desert ant, a master navigator from birth, able to integrate multiple navigation sensors despite having an incredibly tiny brain. Cassell argues that these innate skills point to algorithms programmed into the ant’s brain and genome, and that such programming is far better explained by intelligent design than by any blind evolutionary Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, historian Michael Flannery is on The Universe Next Door with Tom Woodward, continuing their discussion of Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-founder with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution. Dr. Flannery is an expert on Wallace’s life and scientific pursuits, and is the author of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Rediscovered Life and editor of Intelligent Evolution: How Alfred Russel Wallace’s World of Life Challenged Darwinism. Here he gives Woodward a quick flyover of the rich body of work that Wallace produced in the course of his lengthy scientific career, and explains how the work of Thomas Huxley and the X Club contributed to Wallace eventually being overshadowed by Darwin. Source
On today’s ID the Future, guest Casey Luskin and host Eric Anderson untangle the differences between creationism, intelligent design, and theistic evolution. There are important distinctions as well as areas of overlap, Luskin explains, but the theory of intelligent design focuses on the book of nature, rather than on the Bible or some other sacred book, and offers evidence that certain features of the natural world are best explained by reference to an intelligent cause. The case for intelligent design includes negative arguments against competitor explanations, such as neo-Darwinism, as well as positive evidence for design. And Luskin notes that increasingly this paradigm is fueling fruitful scientific research in everything from protein science to pharmacology and cosmology. To support this Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, Casey Luskin further discusses his recent essay, “What Is Intelligent Design and How Should We Defend It,” in the new book The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. In his conversation with host Eric Anderson, Luskin rebuts the claims that intelligent design isn’t science (it is), doesn’t produce peer-reviewed research (it does), and is just a negative argument against evolution. He also offers advice on handling personal attacks and objections that you’ve never encountered before. To consider supporting the work of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and its brave scientists, click here for options. Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, historian Michael Flannery joins Tom Woodward on The Universe Next Door to discuss Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-founder of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Dr. Flannery is the author of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Rediscovered Life and editor of Intelligent Evolution: How Alfred Russel Wallace’s World of Life Challenged Darwinism. What is often passed over in popular historical accounts of Wallace’s work, Flannery explains, is that he argued, beginning with an 1869 essay in the prominent Quarterly Review, that humans could not have arisen purely through mindless evolution but instead required for their origin an “overruling intelligence.” If this sounds like a case for intelligent design in biology more than a century before Read More › Source
This ID the Future brings in protein scientist Douglas Axe to discuss his contribution to a new book, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Axe and host Casey Luskin discuss Axe’s thinking on the design intuition, the evidence that it’s triggered almost universally in small children when they observe things like dragonflies or fresh-baked cookies, and why he’s convinced that this intuition is a rational one rooted in our true sense of what sorts of things require know-how for their creation. For those who retort “Science!,” Axe has some of that to offer as well. As he tells Luskin, he led an experiment at a lab in Cambridge, England, on the abilities and limits of an enzyme to evolve. The research findings Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, host Robert Crowther sits down with writer Andrew McDiarmid to discuss his recent New York Post article, “Word to the Wise: Progressives Forget that Parents are in Charge of Kids’ Education.” The two discuss recent dustups in the news in which parents were told to butt out of the public education of their children. This is profoundly wrongheaded and for a variety of reasons, McDiarmid argues. McDiarmid, a Discovery Institute senior fellow, advocates for greater parental involvement, rather than less, and he and Crowther then apply the principle to the narrower question of how evolution is taught in the public high schools. In many districts evolutionary theory is taught as unquestionable dogma, with none of Read More › Source
On this ID The Future from the vault, host David Boze interviews filmmaker Fred Foote, writer and producer of the feature-length drama Alleged, which seeks to tell the real story behind the infamous 1925 Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, which pitched Darwinian evolution against belief in God. After seeing the 1960 film Inherit the Wind, starring Gene Kelly and Spencer Tracy, Foote did his own research into the trial and discovered that Inherit the Wind was highly misleading on many crucial points, an assessment corroborated by the 1997 Pulitzer-prize winning book about the trial, Summer for the Gods. So Foote set out to make another movie that would set the record straight and explore how media can influence, and profoundly distort, society’s view of Read More › Source
On this ID the Future host Casey Luskin interviews science journalist Denyse O’Leary about her recent essay, “Is Evolutionary Psychology a Legitimate Way to Understand Our Humanity,” which appears in the new Harvest House anthology co-edited by Luskin, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. O’Leary, a science journalist and co-author of The Spiritual Brain, offers a withering critique of evolutionary psychology and traces its roots, beginning with The Descent of Man (1871), where Charles Darwin attributed various human behaviors to natural and sexual selection. That fed into what became known as social Darwinism, which fell out of favor after World War II thanks to Hitler and the Nazis’ application of social Darwinist ideas to defend Nordic superiority and genocide. Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future spotlights The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Host Eric Anderson interviews one of the anthology’s co-editors and contributors, geologist Casey Luskin. The two focus on just one of Luskin’s contributed essays, one that addresses two primary questions: Is intelligent design true? And is it worth expending the energy to defend it against powerful opposition? Luskin answers both questions in the affirmative, and explains why he sees the new anthology as a great resource in the cause of intelligent design. Source
On today’s ID the Future Darwin Devolves author and biologist Michael Behe discusses two recent technical papers that the news media billed as dramatic evidence for evolution. As Behe explains in his conversation with host Eric Anderson, a careful look at the papers themselves shows that both cases involve devolution. That is, the biological forms in question did not evolve novel structures and information; instead they threw away things to achieve a niche advantage. In the first study, in the journal Nature Microbiology, the researchers found that in Africa, where “most rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for falciparum malaria recognize histidine-rich protein 2 antigen,” the malaria parasite has repeatedly evolved a way to sometimes elude detection, giving it a selective advantage, Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future again spotlights The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Historian Richard Weikart and host Casey Luskin discuss Weikart’s contribution to the new anthology, his essay “How Evil Has Been Done in the Name of Science.” As Weikart explains, over the past century and a half, science has been misused to fuel racist policies and undermine human rights. Darwinian ideas helped lay the groundwork for Nazi ideology in Germany. And we shouldn’t imagine the problem was restricted to Nazi Germany. Scientific racism also reared its head in the United States, including in the long-running and infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment. More broadly, a marriage of scientism and evolutionary thinking continues to undermine the idea of inherent human worth Read More › Source
On this classic episode of ID the Future, guest host Ira Berkowitz interviews Rabbi Moshe Averick, author of Nonsense of a High Order: The Confused World of Modern Atheism, about Stephen Hawking’s comments on God and religion in Hawking’s posthumously published Brief Answers to the Big Questions. Averick describes the work as “superficial,” “convenient” and marked by “a glaring lack of profundity.” Or as the rabbi puts it, “If he did physics that way his university would have fired him.” Listen in to hear why Averick has such a problem with the book. Source
Today’s ID the Future again spotlights the new book Animal Algorithms: Evolution and the Mysterious Origin of Ingenious Instincts. Host and Baylor University computer engineering professor Robert J. Marks talks with Animal Algorithms author Eric Cassell about the sophisticated algorithms that appear to be embedded in the brains of colony insects, granting them impressive instinctive abilities. Could these complex programmed behaviors have evolved through a blind Darwinian process? Cassell and Marks discuss the challenges to that idea, beginning with the fact that in our ordinary experience, when random changes are made to a computer algorithm, it inevitably degrades function rather than enhancing it. Digging deeper, they discuss the No Free Lunch theorems of William Macready and David Wolpert, and the problem Read More › Source
On this ID the Future Stephen Meyer sits down with talk show host and bestselling novelist Andrew Klavan to discuss Meyer’s Return of the God Hypothesis. In this fast-paced conversation the pair touch on the Judeo-Christian roots of science, how fine tuning in physics and cosmology point to intelligent design, and how a great many scientists held out hope that the universe was eternal and therefore did not require a creator, but eventually threw in the towel as evidence mounted for a cosmic beginning. What about the multiverse hypothesis as an escape for atheists wishing to explain away the evidence for a cosmic designer? Meyer explains why it fails Occam’s Razor, and then he and Klavan discuss a noted atheist Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, Casey Luskin finishes up his look at Francis Collins’s and Karl Giberson’s The Language of Science and Faith, a book arguing for theistic Darwinism. In this sixth and final installment in the series, Luskin reviews the contradictions and fallacious bandwagon appeals that he says permeate the book. He praises the two authors for their intelligence and professional achievements, but he encourages readers of the book to also read one or more works skeptical of theistic Darwinism in order to better assess how Giberson and Collins’s case holds up when pressed. Head over to Discovery Institute Press for some good options. Source
On today’s ID the Future, Animal Algorithms author Eric Cassell delves into another fascinating portion of his new book, the programmed social behaviors of colony insects and the challenge these instinctive behaviors pose for modern evolutionary theory. Cassell and host Robert J. Marks discuss the complex caste system of these colonies, the impressive signaling systems they use to communicate, and how technologists study these tiny-brained creatures to learn tricks for developing and improving drone swarm technology. How could a mindless evolutionary process have evolved these sophisticated colonies, where various castes appear essential to the functioning and survival of the colony, and possess their division-of-labor skills instinctively? Some colony members also behave altruistically, a fact that Charles Darwin himself conceded posed Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez and host Casey Luskin discuss the idea of undirected panspermia. Gonzalez explains the basic idea and what the best current evidence says about its plausibility. The occasion is his chapter on panspermia in the new anthology A Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith, co-edited by Casey Luskin, associate director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. Undirected panspermia is the idea that the first life on our planet came from outer space, carried by chance processes from a faraway living planet on space dust, asteroids, or comets either from within our solar system, or from another star system to here. The idea of panspermia was inspired by the extreme difficulty of Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, Casey Luskin highlights a glaring logical error in the pro-evolution book The Language of Science and Faith by Francis Collins and Karl Giberson. There Collins and Giberson assert that macroevolution is merely microevolution over long ages, and to cinch their argument they point to the observed macroevolution of … birds? No. Whales? No. A new land mammal? A fundamentally new type of bacteria? No again, and understandably so since no one has observed the macroevolution of any biological form. The idea is conjectural. So what example do Collins and Giberson offer? The evolution of automobiles from the Model T to the Toyota Prius hybrid. But as Luskin notes, such an evolutionary path illustrates Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future spotlights the new book Animal Algorithms: Evolution and the Mysterious Origin of Ingenious Instincts. The author, Eric Cassell, joins host and Baylor computer engineering professor Robert J. Marks to discuss the groundbreaking book and, in particular, the chapters on some of the animal kingdom’s most stunning navigators—the arctic tern, homing pigeons, the monarch butterfly, and the desert ant, among others. Cassell has degrees in biology and engineering, and he draws on these and his decades of professional expertise in aircraft navigation systems to show that these creatures instinctively employ navigational technologies that humans have only recently mastered. According to Cassell, their skills are driven by sophisticated algorithms embedded in their brains. But what created these algorithms Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez unpacks one of his chapters in the new book The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith, edited by episode host Casey Luskin. Gonzalez and Luskin look at how our atmosphere as well as the sun, moon, distance from our host star, and position in the Milky Way are all curiously fine tuned not only for life but also for allowing Earth’s human inhabitants to observe and discover things near and far about nature. It’s as if a master designer made the Earth not merely for life but for curious and intelligent beings. What about the fact that Earth is such a tiny part of a vast universe, a “pale blue dot” as Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, Casey Luskin tackles another neo-Darwinian assertion Francis Collins and Karl Giberson make in The Language of Science and Faith. In their book, Giberson and Collins capitalize on the popular notion of Neanderthals as pre-human, cavemen-like beasts in order to bolster their claims for common ancestry. But what sort of common ancestry? And do experts even agree that Neanderthals are drastically different from early homo sapiens? Luskin explores the connection between Neanderthals and humans and points to the growing evidence that Neanderthals interbred with homo sapiens, buried their dead, mastered technology, had a brain size equal to and even slightly larger than homo sapiens, and were essentially just another race of humans. Some have Read More › Source
On today’s ID the Future, award-winning British producer and director Norman Stone joins host John West to discuss Stone’s new biopic on C.S. Lewis, The Most Reluctant Convert. The freewheeling conversation covers a wide range of topics, including Lewis’s view of science, the problems of reductionist science, Lewis’s attraction to and rejection of the occult (and the strange connection between the occult and scientific materialism), Bertrand Russell’s atheism, the women in C.S. Lewis’s life (not just Joy Gresham), and even the strange fate of C.S. Lewis’s old rooms in Oxford (you’ll never guess what’s in there now!). Plus, West tries his best to convince Stone that he should do a film version of a certain C.S. Lewis science fiction novel. Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future spotlights a new origin-of-life video showing that researchers aren’t anywhere close to creating life from non-life, despite the fact most Americans seem to believe otherwise. In the episode, host Eric Anderson interviews Stairway to Life co-author Rob Stadler, who helped create the new Long Story Short animated video. Stadler and Anderson explore how origin-of-life papers and popular media reports have misled the public, evidenced by a survey underscored by Rice University synthetic organic chemist James Tour. Then they discuss several daunting origin-of-life hurdles beyond the synthesis of key chemical building blocks. These are hurdles significant enough that each alone may doom the idea of life having once emerged from non-life spontaneously. Indeed, it is now a Read More › Source
On this classic ID the Future, Casey Luskin tackles another neo-Darwinian assertion made by Francis Collins and Karl Giberson in The Language of Science and Faith. There they make an offhand statement that a series of random mutations can lead to such a novel structure as the eye. However, they neglect to give any citation or discuss any evidence to support the claim. Instead of simply accepting the neo-Darwinian explanation of the eye on faith, Luskin leads listeners through an examination of the evidence. As he shows, the more closely we look, the more problems appear for the idea that the eye originated through a process of mindless evolution. For additional evidence that the vertebrate eye was instead intelligently designed, see Read More › Source
Today’s ID the Future spotlights the incredible fine tuning of life. Robert J. Marks hosts Stockholm University professor of mathematical statistics Ola Hössjer and University of Miami population geneticist Daniel Díaz. The three discuss strategies for extending the concept of fine tuning to biological systems, and along the way touch on population genetics, entropy, and probability theory. At the center of the discussion are three technical papers—here, here, and here—each co-authored by one or more of the three members of today’s podcast discussion. This episode is reposted with permission from Mind Matters News, a website of Discovery Institute’s Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence. Head over to their podcast site to find the other episodes in this interview Read More › Source
On this ID the Future award-winning actor Max McLean joins host John West to discuss his new film, The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis. West and McLean discuss how McClean came to do stage plays focused on Lewis’s work, and how he and filmmaker Norman Stone came to create a feature-length dramatic film in the midst of the coronavirus shutdown. McLean tells about Lewis’s long and winding conversion from agnosticism to Christianity, and then he and West focus on those aspects of Lewis’s conversion centered on science, evolutionary theory, and rational theism. Key to Lewis’s move from agnosticism to idealism and eventually Judeo-Christian theism—his friend Owen Barfield and the question of the origin of reason. Lewis Read More › Source
On this ID the Future from the vault, Casey Luskin continues his review of Karl Giberson and Francis Collins’s The Language of Science and Faith. Giberson and Collins point to the feather as a prime example of a novel feature arising via blind evolution. According to them, it evolved from elongated scales. But Luskin points to recent findings from developmental biology that have led even many evolutionists to abandon the proposal. Source
Today’s ID the Future spotlights The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith, and specifically, an essay in the new anthology by biologist Jonathan Wells, “Is Darwinism a Theory in Crisis?” As Wells and host Casey Luskin note, the essay title alludes to philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn’s influential 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn argued there that if one studies the history of scientific revolutions, one finds that when the scientific evidence has begun to turn against a dominant scientific paradigm—when its days are numbered— its adherents do not simply concede defeat. Instead they use all their institutional power to suppress dissent and punish proponents of any competing paradigm. This is the period of crisis, which can last Read More › Source
On this ID the Future, Baylor University computer engineering professor Robert J. Marks hosts Ola Hössjer of Stockholm University and Daniel Díaz of the University of Miami to discuss a recent research paper the three contributed to the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, “Is Cosmological Tuning Fine or Coarse?” It turns out that’s no easy question to answer rigorously, but this is where the new paper comes in. In this episode the three unpack the long answer. What about the short answer? It’s akin to a description in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “Space,” it informs us, “is big. Really big.” Measuring how finely tuned our universe is for life is all about searching large spaces of possibilities; Read More › Source
On this classic ID the Future, Casey Luskin discusses how theistic Darwinists Francis Collins and Karl Giberson rely on the argument that pseudogenes are junk, “broken DNA.” The pseudogene is their centerpiece evidence for common descent and macroevolution in their book The Language of Science and Faith. This leaves them hard-pressed as researchers discover more and more functions for non-coding DNA, including pseudogenes. Source
Today’s ID the Future spotlights a new book, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions about Life and the Cosmos, and specifically a chapter by biologist Jonathan Wells titled “What are the Top Scientific Problems with Evolution?” Wells is the guest, and the host is geologist and Center for Science and Culture associate director Casey Luskin, who co-edited the anthology from Harvest House Publishers. In this episode the first problem that Wells highlights concerns homology and convergence. A second problem involves fossils. Darwin anticipated “innumerable transitions” in the fossil record, but such a rainbow of transitional forms has never been found. Not even close. Another problem, molecular phylogenies. Another: the lack of observational evidence that natural Read More › Source
On this ID the Future, Zombie Science author and biologist Jonathan Wells and host Andrew McDiarmid explore the seductive but misleading appeal to consensus science. This is when someone makes a bandwagon appeal to support a scientific hypothesis rather than offering evidence and arguments—as in, “All serious scientists agree that X is the case.” Wells says history makes hash of the consensus-science appeal because the history of scientific progress is all about a consensus view being overthrown by a newer, more accurate view that for a time was a minority view. Wells also draws a distinction between evidence-based empirical science and ideologically driven science. The example he gives for the latter: scientific materialism. Instead of a search for truth about Read More › Source