ID the Future

ID the Future _{Intelligent Design, Evolution, and Science Podcast}

The Multiverse—From Epicurus to Comic Books and Beyond

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Andrew McDiarmid
September 28, 2022}

On this ID the Future, Discovery Institute senior fellow Andrew McDiarmid explores the roots of the idea that our universe is just one of many universes, an idea stretching back to the ancient atomists and given new life in the modern era, first by physicist Hugh Everett. McDiarmid then looks at how the idea percolated into comic books and from there into popular culture. He caps off the episode with a reading of a recent article about the multiverse hypothesis by Stephen Meyer, author of the recent bestseller, Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe. Meyer shows why some atheist scientists are attracted to the multiverse idea. As he explains, there is Read More ›

Latest Episodes

BEHE COUNTERS THE BEST OBJECTIONS TO IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY AND ID, PT. 3

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Michael Behe
September 26, 2022}

On today’s ID the Future biologist Michael Behe and Philosophy for the People host Pat Flynn conclude their conversation (posted by permission here) about some of the best objections to Behe’s central case for intelligent design. One objection Behe and Flynn tackle in this episode: the idea of evolution overcoming the irreducible-complexity hurdle through co-option. That is, maybe the precursors to what would become one of today’s molecular machines, such as the bacterial flagellum motor, co-opted simpler machines being used for other purposes, allowing evolution to build a bacterial flagellum motor one small step at a time over thousands or millions of generations, even though the completed bacterial flagellum ceases to function at all when just one of its many key parts Read More ›

Darwin Visits the 21st Century–A Novella, Pt. 5

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ID the Future
September 23, 2022}

On this ID the Future, hear the concluding episode of I, Charles Darwin, in which author Nickell John Romjue’s time-traveling Darwin returns to his family home and offers some final reflections on his eye-opening visit to the twenty-first century. Part 1 of the audio series is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here. To learn more and to purchase the book, visit www.icharlesdarwin.com.

BEHE COUNTERS THE BEST OBJECTIONS TO IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY AND ID, PT. 2

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Michael Behe
September 21, 2022}

Today’s ID the Future continues A Mousetrap for Darwin author Michael Behe’s conversation with philosopher Pat Flynn, focused on some of the more substantive objections to Behe’s case for intelligent design in biology. In this segment the pair discuss the bacterial flagellum, the cilium, and the blood clotting cascade, and tackle critiques from Alvin Plantinga, Graham Oppy, Russell Doolittle, Kenneth Miller, and others. This interview is posted here by permission of Pat Flynn.

Behe Answers the Best Objections to Irreducible Complexity and ID, Pt. 1

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Michael Behe
September 19, 2022}

On today’s ID the Future Lehigh University biologist Michael Behe addresses what Philosophy for the People host Pat Flynn considers some of the best objections to Behe’s central intelligent design argument. As far back as the 1996 book Darwin’s Black Box, Behe has argued that certain features in biology are irreducibly complex. That is, they require numerous essential parts, each carefully fitted to its task and integrated with the other parts, in order for the molecular machine or system to function at all. Two examples are the bacterial flagellum motor and the blood clotting cascade. Such systems are, in Behe’s words, irreducibly complex and could not have arisen through any blind and gradual evolution process. The better explanation for their Read More ›

Darwin Visits the 21st Century–A Novella, Pt. 4

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ID the Future
September 16, 2022}

On this classic ID the Future, hear another chapter from Nickell John Romjue’s fascinating book I, Charles Darwin. Follow along as Darwin, on his visit to the twenty-first century, learns about DNA and the other amazing discoveries of molecular biology that have occurred since he developed his theory, as well as discoveries in physics and cosmology, which have our time-traveling Darwin reconsidering some of his earlier conclusions. Part 1 of the audio series is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. To learn more and to purchase the book, visit www.icharlesdarwin.com.

The Debate over Design in the Early Church Eerily Current

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John G. West
September 14, 2022}

In today’s ID the Future, scholar John West, managing director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, reveals how current debates over whether nature displays evidence of intelligent design echo debates in the first centuries of the Christian church. The early Christians debated the Greco-Roman materialists but also the religious Gnostics of their day; and the ideas the early Christians confronted then confront Christians and other theists still today. Moreover, in some cases, those ideas are being peddled not by outsiders to the faith but by prominent Christians. West’s talk was taped at the 2022 Westminster Conference on Science and Faith in the greater Philadelphia area, an event jointly sponsored by Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and Read More ›

An Origin-of-Life Poser: No Short Cut to Energy-Harnessing

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Rob Stadler
September 12, 2022}

On today’s ID the Future, Stairway to Life co-author Rob Stadler and host Eric Anderson delve deeper into Challenge to Origin of Life: Energy Harnessing, the latest video in the Long Story Short intelligent design video series. Could the first cell have been much simpler than any current cell, making it easier for it to emerge through blind natural forces on the early Earth? Stadler and Anderson surface one big problem with that idea: in experiments to make relatively simple cells even simpler, the cells inevitably become less robust and adaptable. These simpler cells must be coddled to survive. But the first cell on earth would have been anything but coddled. It would have had no source of glucose and Read More ›

Darwin Visits the 21st Century–A Novella, Pt. 3

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ID the Future
September 10, 2022}

Today’s ID the Future features another chapter from Nickell John Romjue’s fascinating short novel I, Charles Darwin, in which Darwin is shocked to learn about the impact his theory has had on areas outside of science. Part 1 of the audio series is here. Part 2 is here. To learn more and to purchase the book, visit www.icharlesdarwin.com.

Energy Harnessing: An Achilles Heel for Origin of Life

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Rob Stadler
September 7, 2022}

Origin-of-life specialist Rob Stadler joins today’s ID the Future to discuss a new Long Story Short science video short. The video investigates a special problem that faces all naturalistic origin-of-life scenarios: To be viable, a cell must have sophisticated machinery, including ATP synthase, to turn raw energy into constructive energy. But how could prebiotic chemicals harness raw energy on the way to evolving into a viable self-reproducing cell without first having the sophisticated machinery to harness raw energy and convert it to useful work? Are the energy sources that have been proposed for chemical evolution realistic? In his conversation with host Eric Anderson, Stadler argues that, no, they aren’t. This isn’t the sort of thing that mindless natural processes can Read More ›

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