Intelligent Design The Future

In this episode of ID the Future from the vault, Jay Richards interviews Jonathan Witt about Witt's book, co-authored with William Dembski, titled Intelligent Design Uncensored. What is ID? Why is it controversial? This book breaks down the science of intelligent design into easy to understand terms and looks at other key cultural questions. Read a full review of the book here. In addition to discussing the book itself, Richards and Witt reveal autobiographical details of how they got involved with intelligent design. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

In this episode of ID the Future, Mike Keas interviews engineer Eric Anderson about the first of two mistakes ID antagonists often make regarding information in nature. There is information to be gained about natural phenomena, like Saturn's rings for example, but is there information actually in Saturn's rings, or is that information produced by intelligent agents studying Saturn's rings? The answer to that question should be clear — and it makes a huge difference in how we understand information and intelligence. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, host Robert Crowther talks with Rachel Adams, special projects coordinator at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, about Thanos, the arch-villain from the Marvel blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War, and a couple of real-life thinkers, Eric Pianka and Paul Ehrlich, who share the villain’s view that the world would be a better place with far fewer humans. Thanos, Pianka, and Ehrlich appear to share a materialistic view of the human person, one that ignores the inherent dignity and worth of every person as well as humanity’s capacity to create solutions and new resources, growing the resource pie. Thanks to this, life is not a zero-sum game. The human species is, as Julian Simon put it, the ultimate resource. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this ID the Future episode from the vault, Dr. Stephen Meyer debates Michael Shermer on Lee Strobel’s show, Faith under Fire. The debate ranges from anthropic fine-tuning to DNA and the metaphysical implications of either worldview. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, philosopher Jay Richards continues his conversation with host and historian of science Mike Keas about Henry Kissinger's recent Atlantic article on "The End of the Enlightenment." In the piece, Kissinger sounds an alarm over artificial intelligence, and raises questions about machine ethics and the possibility that humans may learn we're not so special after all. Richards, author of the new book The Human Advantage: The Future of American Work In an Age of Smart Machines, pushes back, explaining how we can continue to use artificial intelligence to our advantage, prudently but without fear of the robot apocalypse or of computers becoming conscious and free. No, Richards argues, those qualities cannot be programmed. They are, and will remain, the human advantage. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, Jay Richards talks with host Mike Keas about a recent Atlantic article from former National Security Advisor Henry A. Kissinger on “How the Enlightenment Ends” with the rise of artificial intelligence. Richards, whose forthcoming book The Human Advantage: The Future of American Work In an Age of Smart Machines, covers this territory and more, explains that AI is about statistical processing, not budding consciousness; and the ethical concerns it raises are both important yet in some ways not so new. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, Jay Richards interviews Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Benjamin Wiker on his book, 10 Books Every Conservative Must Read: Plus Four Not to Miss and One Impostor. Listen in as they examine the role of materialism in politics, particularly in C. S. Lewis’s prophetic book, The Abolition of Man, and Wiker explains how moral argument has been replaced by technological manipulation of human nature. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, philosopher Logan Gage speaks with Sarah Chaffee about the new book Aquinas and Evolution by Fr. Michael Chaberek. Philosophers in the tradition of Thomas Aquinas — Thomistic evolutionists — have pressured Intelligent Design theorists, saying that it gets Aquinas wrong, in fact it even gets God wrong. Dr. Gage says Fr. Chaberek’s book counters that pressure and shows how “Thomistic” evolution contradicts Aquinas. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, University of British Columbia at Vancouver philosophy faculty member Richard Johns discusses his paper in the journal Synthese titled "Self-organisation in dynamical systems: a limiting result." In the paper, Dr. Johns argues that there are limits to the complexity of structures that can be produced by self-organization. Johns shows that Darwinian evolution is actually a type of a self-organizing process, and that it too is limited in the types of biological structures it can produce. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, Andrew McDiarmid reads a popular essay by philosopher of science Stephen Meyer on the detectability of intelligent design in nature. The article recently appeared in Sapientia, and here at Evolution News. In the piece, Meyer explains the logic by which we routinely know there’s been a creative intelligence at work. Meyer unpacks this logic in terms of information, which we can see clearly in the cell, but elsewhere in nature, too. He also shows how this detection method is an established part of the historical sciences. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, physician Howard Glicksman explains the hugely complex blood flow systems required to keep us clear-headed and alive even while doing everything from gymnastics to simply getting up in the morning. There are various methods the heart and blood vessels use to keep the body properly supplied. It’s also about hormones and nervous-system signaling. Does Darwinism provide a satisfactory explanation for such an intricately coordinated system? Dr. Glicksman argues that it does not, and that a far better explanation is intelligent design. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future Dr. Ann Gauger shares more about her experimental work evolving enzymes in the lab, honing in on how complex and specified enzymes are generated and testing Darwinian predictions experimentally. Listen in as she shares what she discovered about an insurmountable problem for evolution. Ann Gauger received a BS in biology from MIT, and a PhD in developmental biology from the University of Washington, where she studied cell adhesion molecules involved in Drosophila embryogenesis. As a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard she cloned and characterized the Drosophila kinesin light chain. Her research has been published in Nature, Development, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, biologist Jonathan Wells talks with Ray Bohlin about a conversation he imagined between evolutionists Richard Dawkins and Dan-Eric Nilsson, and published recently at Evolution News. Dawkins had lectured (in real life) on Nilsson’s computer simulation work, showing the human eye could have evolved easily and quickly. What would the two of them have said when Nilsson contacted Dawkins and told him, “I’m sorry, Richard, but I didn’t do that simulation?” Wells imagines them talking about rushing the work on that simulation. But then, what about the next conversation when the simulation failed? Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, biologist Jonathan Wells talks with Ray Bohlin about a conversation he imagined between evolutionists Richard Dawkins and Dan-Eric Nilsson, and published recently at Evolution News. Dawkins had lectured (in real life) on Nilsson’s computer simulation work, showing the human eye could have evolved easily and quickly. What would the two of them have said when Nilsson contacted Dawkins and told him, “I’m sorry, Richard, but I didn’t do that simulation?” Wells imagines them talking about rushing the work on that simulation. But then, what about the next conversation when the simulation failed? Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, German paleo-entomologist Dr. Günter Bechly explains the real, living problem of living fossils — a term resisted by evolutionists though coined by Darwin himself and undeniably a living reality. These plants and animals have remained unchanged over eons: in the case of the horseshoe crab, nearly half a billion years through enormous upheaval. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.