Intelligent Design The Future

Today’s episode of ID the Future shines a light on Australian biochemist Michael Denton’s new book, Children of Light: The Astonishing Properties of Sunlight that Make Us Possible. Denton explores the finely tuned properties of sun and air, both fine-tuned for creatures like us. The new book shows how they are crucial parts of the larger story of our fine-tuned place in the cosmos. Or as he puts it in his new book, “Whatever the cause and whatever the ultimate explanation, nature appears to be fine-tuned to an astonishing degree for beings of our biology.” Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future we hear the first part of a panel discussion from FreedomFest 2018, where John West and Richard 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 us today.

On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, hear an installment in our ID Inquiry series, in which ID scientists and scholars answer your questions about intelligent design and evolution. Tune in to this episode as Dr. Jonathan Wells explains the concept of codes in living things, and how they affect the debate over neo-Darwinism and intelligent design. For more on codes in biology, read Dr. Wells’ paper, “Membrane Patterns Carry Ontogenetic Information That Is Specified Independently of DNA.” The Summary and Implications section on page 14 gives an overview. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, host Sarah Chaffee speaks with physician and author Dr. Geoffrey Simmons about nature’s foresight. Engineers designing a car have to plan for all kinds of conditions the car might encounter for the car to be successful. Something like this also appears to be necessary for organisms — including the human organism, as Dr. Simmons argues in a recent Evolution News article. Blind natural forces, he argues, don’t have what it takes. Instead it requires real foresight, a hallmark of intelligent design. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

This episode of ID the Future could have been titled Nightmare at the Museum. In this episode, Discovery Institute’s John West introduces listeners to a shocking chapter of American history, drawing from his new documentary, Human Zoos: America’s Forgotten History of Scientific Racism. Learn of a time when this cherished American museum promoted Darwinian-inspired efforts to breed a master race. To learn more visit the film website, HumanZoos.org. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, physicist Rob Sheldon discusses the BICEP2 Consortium's apparent discovery of evidence for the inflationary model of the Big Bang, and the annoucement's impact on questions of cosmic fine-tuning. The consortium later withdrew their claim to have found the first evidence for the primordial “B-mode” polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In part 2 here, Dr. Sheldon explains his questioning of whether the signal detected by BICEP2 was real.  Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, host Ira Berkowitz talks with Rabbi Moshe Averick about his recent Times of Israel article, “From the People Who Brought You the Hydrogen Bomb.” Yes, it’s pointed — straight at scientists. It’s about scientists who jump out of their disciplines, taking the place of priests and shamans and pronouncing upon the place of mankind in the universe. It’s about scientists who say we’re nothing, mere specks on a speck of a planet, yet these scientists consider themselves “humanists” in spite of this outlook. Averick is the author of Nonsense of a High Order: The Confused World of Modern Atheism.Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, CSC Associate Director John West exposes the darker side of P.T. Barnum. Maybe you’ve watched The Greatest Showman – but have you heard of Barnum’s “What Is It?” exhibit? Listen in for more about racist displays of human freaks and how science of the day endorsed Social Darwinism. For more, watch the newly released documentary, Human Zoos, and visit HumanZoos.org. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, physicist Rob Sheldon discusses the BICEP2 Consortium's apparent discovery of evidence for the inflationary model of the Big Bang, and the annoucement's impact on questions of cosmic fine-tuning. The consortium later withdrew their claim to have found the first evidence for the primordial “B-mode” polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Dr. Sheldon's initial reaction to the announcement provides a model of scientific caution. In Pt. 1 and the subsequent Pt. 2 of this podcast conversation, Sheldon explains some of the underlying assumptions guiding BICEP2, and various things that could have led the astronomers astray. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, John West shares about pygmy Ota Benga, put on display in 1906 in the Bronx Zoo’s monkey house. Listen in to learn about how the New York Times, scientists, and ministers responded. Was Benga the only one treated like this? For more, watch the newly released documentary, Human Zoos, and visit HumanZoos.org. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future biologist Jonathan Wells, author of Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth? Why Much of What We Teach About Evolution Is Wrong and Zombie Science: More Icons of Evolution tells how, in many textbooks, the myth of peppered moths “evolving” from light to dark still lives on, in the same form many parents probably remember from their school days. Dr. Wells and others have shown that many of these pictures used dead moths, pinned in places live ones never roost. The supposed science of these moths’ evolution has been shown to be false. But the pictures are persuasive, so some textbooks still use them. Which leads the important question podcast host Robert Crowther asks Dr. Wells: What can parents do to help their kids know the truth? Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

Today’s episode of ID the Future from the vault continues a discussion of why the idea of land-to-sea whale evolution doesn’t wash. CSC Senior Fellow and evolutionary biologist Richard Sternberg’s focuses on material from the documentary Living Waters: Intelligent Design in the Oceans of the Earth, and explains why neither natural selection nor neutral drift cannot explain the transition from a land mammal to a fully aquatic whale. Standard evolutionary models would either require implausibly large breeding populations (greater than that of any mammal species) or a waiting period far longer than the given 8-9 million years. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, Father Michael Chaberek, author of the books Catholicism and Evolution and Aquinas and Evolution, explains why the theory of intelligent design meshes well with the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. In his conversation with host Jay Richards, Chaberek, creator of the site Aquinas.Design, notes that some Thomists complain about ID, but he argues that they misunderstand what ID is and isn’t. As for criticism that ID is a “God of the Gaps” argument, Chaberek urges Thomists to consider where that complaint leads: For Catholics, and Christians generally, that complaint proves way too much, he argues. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

In this episode of ID the Future from the vault, hear an interview with Dr. Richard Sternberg, evolutionary biologist and CSC Senior Fellow, whose discussion of whale origins is featured in Illustra Media’s documentary, Living Waters: Intelligent Design in the Oceans of the Earth.  Sternberg critiques whale evolution, noting that the timespan is too short for the bodyplan modifications needed to transition from a land mammal to a whale. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, Andrew McDiarmid reads an excerpt from a speech prepared by philosopher, mathematician, and trailblazing design theorist William Dembski for the launch of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence. Dr. Dembski asks whether we need worry about an AI takeover, and says no, there’s no evidence that artificial intelligence (AI) could reach that level, or achieve consciousness, and there’s mounting evidence from both philosophy and the field of artificial intelligence technology that it cannot and will not. “The real worry,” Dembski says, “isn’t that we’ll raise machines to our level, but that we’ll lower humanity to the level of machines.” Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.