Intelligent Design The Future

Today’s episode of ID the Future brings you a conversation between Discovery Institute senior fellow Jonathan Witt and radio host Jerry Newcombe, originally presented on Newcombe’s nationally syndicated radio show. The two begin by discussing the Discovery Institute’s Science Uprising video series, which Jonathan helped create. From there they go on to talk about philosophical materialism, free will, morality, and what it means to be human. They touch on the Darwinian opposition, and on the rising threat of censorship.

On this episode of ID the Future, attorney Herman Bouma tells the story of how his talk at a National Association of Science Teachers conference last April was canceled at the last minute. His talk highlighted how Darwin’s Origin of Species (sixth edition) set an example of engaging his scientific critics with civility and reason. Bouma says in response to the incident, “It’s almost as if they considered Darwin a threat to Darwinian evolution.” Three conference officials shut him down, accusing him of promoting fake science. As Bouma notes, Darwin wrote that “I look with confidence to the future, to young and rising naturalists, who will be able to view both sides of the question with impartiality.” Alas, Darwin’s example—and his hope—weren’t much in evidence among the three conference officials who decided to shut down Bouma’s talk. For information from Discovery Institute on teaching the controversy, go here.

“We don’t splice our DNA the same way chimps do,” says Dr. Ann Gauger.  On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, she discusses human and chimpanzee genomes. Did you know that one stretch of DNA can code for multiple proteins? Listen in to learn more about how your DNA is different, and is expressed differently, than chimps!

On this episode of ID the Future, Bijan Nemati, formerly of CalTech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and now at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, tells what science is learning about how hard it is to find a planet like Earth. Anywhere. The more we learn about the conditions necessary for a planet to host life, the more we see we may need to search at least tens of thousands of Milky Way galaxies to expect to find another one--at least if it all depends on blind luck. This talk is part of bonus material included with the new, thought-provoking series Science Uprising.

On this episode of ID the Future we hear commentary on the singularity from Frank Tipler, Professor of Mathematical Physics at Tulane University and co-author of The Anthropic Cosmological Principle. This isn’t the supposed future singularity imagined by transhumanists, but the evidentially well-supported singularity at the foundation of the the Big Bang. The equations are clear, says Tipler: This singularity had an existence outside of space and time, was intrinsically infinite, and not subject to any laws of physics--among other arresting features. Atheists today still resist this conclusion, Tipler says, but only this conclusion has experimental support. You may also be interested in Science Uprising episode 4 "Fine Tuning: You Don't Suck! " featuring Frank Tipler among others: Ma href="https://youtu.be/WR51OrawqIg" target=new>https://youtu.be/WR51OrawqIg. FRANK J. TIPLER is Professor of Mathematical Physics at Tulane University. He is the co-author of (with John Barrow) The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, about the significance of intelligent life in the universe, and the author of The Physics of Immortality about the ultimate limits of computers, and the role computers will play in the universe, and The Physics of Christianity, about his scientific research into central Christian claims and beliefs.

Do we have 99% of our DNA in common with chimps? On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, Dr. Ann Gauger discusses human and chimpanzee genomes.  What is a genome? How is it sequenced? And what is a better estimate of the similarity between our genome and that of chimps? For more on this topic, see the book Science and Human Origins. 

On this episode of ID the Future, Michael Egnor continues his discussion with philosopher and professor Edward Feser about Feser’s new book Aristotle’s Revenge: The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Biological Science. The question this time is whether evolution is compatible with an Aristotelian understanding of reality. Feser says it could be — but he argues against naturalistic evolution anyway. While Feser differs from intelligent design theorists on his approach to the question, he agrees with the conclusion that nature evidences the existence of a mind instilling purpose, goal-directedness, and function within nature.

On this episode of ID the Future, Michael Egnor interviews philosopher Edward Feser about Feser’s new book Aristotle’s Revenge: The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Biological Science. Scientists can get along without Aristotle’s metaphysics, says Feser, but science can’t; in fact science presupposes Aristotle. Mechanistic views of nature have tried to make nature nothing but particles interacting, but a full understanding of nature requires that we include Aristotelian purpose, or teleology, and essences as well. Ultimately, Feser suggests, this leads us toward evidence for a divine mind behind it all.Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, Rob Crowther discusses controversy in the science classroom with Senior Fellow and historian of science Dr. Michael Keas, author of the recent book Unbelievable: 7 Myths about the History and Future of Science and Religion. Listen in as Keas discusses various areas of controversy, and advises teachers that “science is best taught as science is best practiced.”

On this episode of ID the Future, Andrew McDiarmid continues his conversation with distinguished Brazilian scientist Marcos Eberlin, author of close to 1,000 scientific articles and the Nobel laureate-endorsed Foresight: How the Chemistry of Life Reveals Planning and Purpose. Their topic again is the body’s surprisingly sophisticated, all-or-nothing system for flushing bad bacteria from our guts. It took foresight to solve all the problems involved; it took foresight even to make protein chemistry work in the first place. “Let’s listen to the data,” says Eberlin. “Let’s surrender to the evidence” — which points to intelligent design.

On this episode of ID the Future, Andrew McDiarmid talks with distinguished Brazilian scientist Marcos Eberlin, author of the Nobel laureate-endorsed Foresight: How the Chemistry of Life Reveals Planning and Purpose, about--of all things--diarrhea, the body’s surprisingly helpful (and sophisticated) system for flushing out that bad stuff. The system requires (and happily has) a support system for preserving the good stuff. But it’s an all-or-nothing system requiring great selectivity and fine-tuning. Evolutionist Jerry Coyne says blind evolution could have done it all. But Eberlin says that a knowledge of the relevant chemistry and physiology strongly suggests otherwise. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Jay Richards speaks with astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez about new research just reported in the Astrophysical Journal. The research suggests that the circumstellar habitable zone for terrestrial planets around stars is narrower than previously thought. This zone around stars, often referred to as the “goldilocks zone,” is where planets are not too hot and not too cold to support liquid water on the surface and, with it, complex life. But there’s another factor, previously underappreciated, which greatly curtails how much further a planet can be situated from its host star without running into trouble. It makes earth’s position that much more fine-tuned for life and, as Richards and Gonzalez discuss, may also strengthen the design argument they put forward in their book The Privileged Planet, now available as an audiobook. 

On this episode of ID the Future we hear a neurosurgeon’s view on materialistic bias afflicting the entire field of neuroscience. It’s a bias, he argues, that leads some scientists to misunderstand the meaning of their experiments. Darwinists “allergic to teleology” ignore clear evidence that purpose is essential to the mind. This talk is bonus material accompanying the action-filled and thought provoking series of short videos on science and materialism at scienceuprising.com.

On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, author Bruce Buff shares about his novel, The Soul of the Matter, which has drawn attention from Barnes & Noble and Publisher’s Weekly.

On this episode of ID the Future we hear a neurosurgeon’s take on materialist philosophical views of the mind. One currently common view, eliminative materialism, says there is nothing to the mind except what goes on in the brain. But do brain studies involving both imaging and surgery deliver an emphatic rebuttal? The evidence, Egnor says, strongly suggests there’s more to the human mind than the physical, material brain alone can explain. His discussion is drawn from bonus material accompanying the new, action-filled and thought-provoking Science Uprising series of short videos on science, materialism, and intelligent design at scienceuprising.com.