Intelligent Design The Future

On this episode of ID the Future, Michael Flannery, historian of science and emeritus professor from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, discusses a little known dustup among Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, and the great geologist Charles Lyell. Wallace, the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution by natural selection, eventually concluded that an overruling intelligence must be involved in the history of life. Scandalized, Darwin wrote to Lyell seeking support for his purely materialistic account of evolution. Lyell’s response may surprise you.

On this episode of ID the future, podcaster and Forbes contributor Jerry Bowyer concludes a conversation with John West about the intelligent design documentary film Revolutionary. They discuss German paleontologist Günter Bechly, who changed his mind about Darwinism after reading a book by the main protagonist of the film, Michael Behe. West also shares a fascinating postscript to that story. And West and Bowyer go on to discuss an upcoming Discovery Institute film, Human Zoos, which explores Darwin-inspired scientific racism in the early 20th century.

On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, Casey Luskin interviews Biologic Insitute director Douglas Axe about his peer-reviewed paper in BIO-Complexity, "The Limit of Complex Adaptation: An Analysis Based on a Simple Model of Structured Bacterial Populations." Dr. Axe explains complex adaptations -- adaptive changes that require more than one simple mutation to a genome in order for a particular adaptation to work -- and the difficulty Darwinian evolution faces when beneficial mutations have maladaptive intermediate stages.

On this episode of ID the Future, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor talks with host Sarah Chaffee about a theory that Hungarian philosopher Philip Goff calls “cosmopsychism.” According to cosmopsychism, the basic reality of the universe is mind, one wholly contained within the universe. Egnor says Goff gets it partly right but only partly. There are at least three very good reasons to believe there is Mind at the basis of everything, Egnor says, but as he goes on to argue, the classic view of this Mind transcending the universe remains more rational.

Jerry Bowyer of the Bowyer Briefing interviews the Discovery Institute’s John West about a recent documentary on the work of biochemist Michael Behe. Behe’s Darwin’s Black Box introduced the public to the wonders of biochemical machinery, and set materialist science on a frantic search to refute his theory of irreducible complexity, leading to a conclusion of intelligent design. It’s a search that’s failed in many ways since then, as the documentary reveals — and this discussion explains as well.

On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, Casey Luskin and guest Dr. Cornelius Hunter talk about the issue of serendipity and what it means for the modern theory of evolution. Dr. Hunter discusses how Darwinian evolutionists have relied heavily on serendipity and exaptation — or, as Dr. Hunter calls it, “sheer dumb luck” — to explain complex features in biology and prop up their theory.

Physician Howard Glicksman talks with host Ray Bohlin about the amazing control systems involved in something we’re all familiar with: blood pressure. It’s a system requiring adjustment at every point along the way, from blood volume to blood pumping velocity to pressure out in the blood vessels. And it has to be able to act fast in order to keep us alive — which leads to some hard questions for Mr. Darwin.

On this episode of ID the Future, host Mike Keas talks with Discovery Institute senior fellow Jay Richards, editor of God and Evolution, about a recent article by evangelical Michael Gerson in The Atlantic. There Gerson suggests that evangelicals have been culturally marginalized in part due to a misguided rejection of modern evolutionary theory. But Richards argues that Gerson fundamentally misunderstands the theory. Richards and Keas also explore the temptation to cede ground on an issue like evolution in order to curry favor with the mostly secular Washington establishment.

On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, Logan Gage talks with Dr. John Mark Reynolds, at the time the head of Biola University’s Torrey Honors Institute. Listen in as they discuss Reynolds’ book When Athens Met Jerusalem: An Introduction to Classical and Christian Thought. How did science develop? What were the Judeo-Christian roots of the scientific revolution? What about the often-underappreciated role of the Eastern Church? And what about the contributions of ancient Greek thought? Reynolds also explores how some of the giants of ancient Greek philosophy made design arguments.

Robert Crowther speaks with Sarah Chaffee, the CSC's Program Officer in Education and Public Policy, about some recent threats to academic freedom in America, particularly in the area of evolution and intelligent design. The two also discuss a new website, Freescience.today, supporting academic freedom through resources for school board members, teachers and students; stories of academic discrimination; and strategic advice on getting involved to defend the academic freedom of students and educators.

Matti Leisola, the Finnish biochemist whose story is told in his new book Heretic: One Scientist’s Journey from Darwin to Design, spoke by Skype with a crowd in Dallas recently. He describes that journey, including his research, some of the reasons he made the turn to belief in design, and other scientists’ sometimes irrational reactions to his conclusions.

On this episode of ID the Future, Stephen Meyer debates Michael Shermer, founder and publisher of Skeptic Magazine, about how Darwinian evolution should be taught in the public school classroom. Should students be allowed to learn about the scientific challenges to neo-Darwinism? Listen in on this candid discussion.

On this episode of ID the Future, Rob Crowther continues his conversation with J. Scott Turner, biologist at the State University of New York (SUNY), visiting scholar at Cambridge University, and author of the new book Purpose and Desire: What Makes Something “Alive” and Why Modern Darwinism Has Failed to Explain It. Turner critiques evolutionary biology’s bias toward mechanistic and gene-centric thinking, and contemporary biology’s failure to come to grips with the evidence of purpose and intentionality at many levels of biology. Viewing the brain as a computer, for example, obscures many things about the brain and the mind that exceed computers, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Jonathan Witt is interviewed by Barry Creamer, president of Criswell College and host of the podcast Coffee with Creamer, about Witt’s newly co-authored book Heretic: One Scientist’s Journey from Darwin to Design. Jonathan Witt Sits Down with a College President to Discuss Heretic and Evolution

On this episode of ID the Future, Dr. Jay Richards talks with John Lennox about his book God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is It Anyway? In this book, Prof. Lennox counters Stephen Hawking’s argument in The Grand Design that “the universe can and will create itself from nothing.”  Is philosophy dead, as Hawking claims? Is the so-called M-theory the “only viable candidate” for a complete ‘theory of everything’? Tune in and find out!