Intelligent Design The Future

On this episode of ID the Future, we explore two topics. Sarah Chaffee analyzes New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof’s viewpoints on intellectual diversity. Kristof makes a compelling case for hiring faculty with varying political and religious viewpoints, but stops short when it comes to those skeptical of evolution. Then, David Klinghoffer discusses the “anti-science” label – and how it’s now used by those on both sides of disagreements on scientific issues.

Scott Turner is a biologist and physiologist, a professor at State University of New York College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry and visiting professor at Cambridge. In this episode, Rob Crowther interviews him about his new book Purpose and Desire: What Makes Something Alive and Why Modern Darwinism Has Failed To Explain It. Turner argues that modern Darwinism has reached a scientific dead end, unable to tell us what life is, treats many of its features — including purpose and desire — virtually as illusions. There’s a better way to view life, says Turner.

On this episode of ID the Future, Dr. Donald E. Johnson shares about his journey from evolutionist to Darwin-skeptic and proponent of intelligent design. What stands in the way of many scientists accepting ID? Johnson explains the difficulty he faced as the logic of the design argument compelled him to take a more critical look at Darwin’s theory. Donald E. Johnson, who holds two Ph.D.s, one Ph.D. in Computer & Information Sciences from the University of Minnesota and another Ph.D. in Chemistry from Michigan State University, is the author of the pro-ID book, Probability’s Nature and Nature’s Probability. His website is ScienceIntegrity.net.

Dr. Howard Glicksman, author of an extended series at Evolution News on “The Designed Body,” is interviewed today by Ray Bohlin on glucose, glycogen, glucogon, insulin — all part of an extended multi-step series essential for life — an irreducibly complex series.   “If students only knew how life worked,” says Dr. Glicksman,” … they’d quickly come to realize that when it comes to figuring out where it all came from, common sense tells us it was intelligent design, and it’s the Darwinists who are suffering from an illusion.”

On this episode of ID the Future, we hear from two contributors to the new 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.

Does Darwinism lend support more naturally to a capitalist moral-economic perspective or to a Marxist one? On this episode of ID the Future, David Klinghoffer explores the deep Darwinian roots of Communism, arguing that, while Marx had already begun sketching the outlines of his ideas before Darwin published the Origin of Species, he is fairly called a Darwinist, and the men who translated Marxism into practical political terms in the form of Soviet terror were evolutionary thinkers, just as they themselves claimed to be. Listen in to learn more, and read more about Darwinism & Communism at Evolution News & Views: Darwinism & Communism, Part I Darwinism & Communism, Part II Darwinism & Communism, Part III

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had such respectful give-and-take, from both professors and students.” Jonathan Wells gives that encouraging word and more when he speaks with Ray Bohlin about his recent visit to Brazil. Interest in intelligent design is strong there, audiences were large, and the Q&A lively. Among other things, Wells reports on Discovery Institute-Mackenzie at Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo.

German paleontologist Günter Bechly was co-author (with Stephen C. Meyer) of the chapter titled The Fossil Record and Universal Common Ancestry, in the major new book Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique.  In this second conversation with Sarah Chaffee on this topic, Bechly speaks of "life's second 'big bang,'" one of many discontinuities in the fossil record. “There's no reasonable way,” he concludes, “to get from bacteria to mammals via evolutionary processes.”

On this episode of ID the Future, Sarah Chaffee discusses the University of Chicago’s action to uphold academic freedom, including a letter to incoming freshman and a piece by Pres. Robert Zimmer in the Wall Street Journal.  As Zimmer notes, “Every attempt to legitimize silencing creates justification for others to restrain speech that they do not like in the future.”

Today on Intelligent Design the Future we hear from the editors of the major new Crossway book, Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique. Philsophers J.P. Moreland and Stephen Meyer examine contradictions right at the heart of theistic evolution, answer logical challenges directed back at intelligent design theory, and explain more than one severe issue with thinking science ever has or ever could thrive on its own, without strong support from both philosophy and theology.  

Sarah Chaffee interviews German paleontologist Günter Bechly on the book Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique, specifically his chapter with Stephen Meyer on The Fossil Record and Universal Common Ancestry. Bechly, who had been a prominent proponent of Darwinism, discovered late in his career that there are significant scientific reasons to doubt the evolutionary story. His chapter in the book describes some of these reasons. A big one: the abrupt appearance of major body plans in the fossil record, and not just in the often-discussed Cambrian Explosion. In fact, as Bechly puts it, “Abrupt appearances are the rule." In this episode he discusses one of these abrupt appearances in particular.

On this episode of ID the Future, Casey Luskin interviews Wayne Rossiter, author of Shadow of Oz: Theistic Evolution and the Absent God. Rossiter shares about the biggest scientific and theological problems he sees with theistic evolution.

On this episode of ID the Future, Tod Butterfield reads from the beginning of Heretic: One Scientist’s Journey from Darwin to Design, by Jonathan Witt and Matti Leisola. It’s an exciting new book that tells the story of how one major European scientist who applied the maxim, “Scientists are supposed to investigate mysteries with an open mind; not assume an explanation from the outset.” He came to see that arguments insisting on purely material causes in nature are based on assumptions, not evidence. He noted how history shows that scientific consensus doesn’t always mean scientific truth. And ultimately — in spite of serious opposition from mainstream science — he came to see that the evidence in nature really points to intelligent design. 

On this episode of ID the Future, German paleontologist Günter Bechly describes the Dali skull from China, and how it disrupts the conventional out-of-Africa account of human origins. There were already several significant discoveries in 2017 upending traditional scientific accounts of human evolution. And now another one. Bechly asks, “How many more major rewritings do we need to endure until a major rethinking is considered?” For more, read the essay on Evolution News.  

On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, Casey Luskin interviews Wayne Rossiter, author of Shadow of Oz: Theistic Evolution and the Absent God. Rossiter shares about his conversion away from atheism in 2008, and the writing of his book on theistic evolution.