ID the Future

ID the Future _{Podcasting on Intelligent Design and Evolution}

Casey Luskin Returns, Teases a New Book, Celebrates ID 3.0

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Casey Luskin
January 27, 2021}

On today’s ID the Future, Rob Crowther continues his conversation with Casey Luskin, the intelligent design proponent who previously worked for Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and has now returned. As Luskin explains, he left to pursue a PhD in geology at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. The two discuss the wild conspiracy theories circulated by opponents of intelligent design when Luskin stepped away from Discovery Institute five years ago. Luskin also tells about an upcoming book he’s been working on with William Dembski, another intelligent design proponent who stepped away from day-to-day ID work and is now putting a foot back in the ID waters. Also on tap in today’s conversation, Luskin and Dembski’s upcoming appearance Read More ›

Latest Episodes

Casey Luskin’s South Africa Adventures

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Casey Luskin
January 25, 2021}

On this ID the Future, Rob Crowther interviews geologist Casey Luskin, recently back from getting his PhD in geology at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. Luskin, who formerly worked for Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, and has just now rejoined the CSC, tells about his adventures doing field research in Africa, his side interest in human origins, his cross-cultural experiences, the amazing game parks, museums, and fossil sites he visited, and a little bit about his PhD, including some evidence suggesting that parts of Africa and Western Australia used to be connected.

No, Scientists Should Not Rule

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Wesley J. Smith
January 22, 2021}

On this new episode of ID the Future, The Price of Panic co-author and philosopher Jay Richards hosts bioethicist Wesley J. Smith to discuss a Tweet from Physics-Astronomy.org. The Tweet read, “Imagine a world ruled by scientists, not politicians.” The drift of the Tweet was, wouldn’t rule by scientists be wonderful! Smith immediately threw up a great big “Don’t go there” sign at the Epoch Times. As Smith and Richards emphasize, such an approach to governance would be disastrous, and would actually be anti-science. It would tend to corrupt the practice of science, thrust scientific specialists into positions calling for generalist skills, and further the arrogant mistake that is scientism—the view not only that nature is all there is, but Read More ›

Algorithmic Specified Complexity Pt. 3: Measuring Mt. Rushmore

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Winston Ewert
January 20, 2021}

On this ID The Future from the vault, Robert J. Marks and Winston Ewert, both of the Evolutionary Informatics Lab, continue their conversation about three of their recently published papers dealing with evolution, biological information, and what is known as algorithmic specified complexity. In this final podcast of the series, Dr. Ewert explains the role of context in measuring meaning in images. A non-humanoid gelatinous alien might assign no meaning to the faces on Mount Rushmore if the alien had never seen a humanoid. But humans, and especially humans familiar with major figures in American history, have the context to recognize that the carved shapes tightly match pre-existing patterns and therefore contain considerable algorithmic specified complexity. Ewert then applies all Read More ›

A Mousetrap for Darwin, and Another for Richard Lenski

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Michael Behe
January 18, 2021}

Today’s ID the Future extends the discussion of A Mousetrap for Darwin: Michael Behe Answers His Critics, the newest book from Discovery Institute Press. Here the focus is on Parts 4 and 7 of the new book, and in particular Richard Lenski’s Long Term Evolution Experiment at Michigan State. What has this long-running project demonstrated? As Behe explains in the book (and elaborates on in today’s podcast), “The study has addressed some narrow points of peculiar interest to evolutionary population geneticists, but for proponents of intelligent design the bottom line is that the great majority of even beneficial mutations have turned out to be due to the breaking, degrading, or minor tweaking of pre-existing genes or regulatory regions. There have Read More ›

Algorithmic Specified Complexity Pt. 2: Conway’s Game of Life

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Winston Ewert
January 15, 2021}

On this ID The Future from the vault, Robert J. Marks and Winston Ewert, both of the Evolutionary Informatics Lab, discuss John Conway’s Game of Life, played on a rectangular grid. In the game, cells live or die depending on the cells that surround them. Hobbyists have designed highly complex patterns using Conway’s four simple rules of birth, death and survival. Patterns include oscillators, spaceships and glider guns. Ewert explains how the theory of algorithmic specified complexity can be applied to the game and to exploring design questions. The discussion centers around a peer-reviewed journal article by Ewert, Marks, and William Dembski: “Algorithmic Specified Complexity in the Game of Life.”

How to Destroy Love with Darwinism

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Editor
January 13, 2021}

On today’s ID the Future, host Andrew McDiarmid presents an Evolution News essay, “How to Destroy Love with Darwinism.” Altruism as defined by evolutionists means “behavior by an animal that may be to its disadvantage but that benefits others of its kind.” It’s not an easy fit with Darwinism, since Darwinian evolution is all about passing your favored genes onto your offspring. How can a creature do that if she gives her life for another, particularly when it’s not even her own children, and before she has produced any offspring? Such individuals fail to pass on their own genes — a seeming conundrum for Darwinism. Evolutionists have made some progress (they think) explaining such things with theories of group selection Read More ›

Michael Medved Spotlights Michael Behe and His New Book

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Michael Behe
January 11, 2021}

Today’s ID the Future features an excerpt from the Michael Medved Show spotlighting intelligent design proponent Michael Behe. The two Michaels do a quick flyover of Behe’s hard-hitting new book, A Mousetrap for Darwin: Michael Behe Answers His Critics. Along the way they discuss some random mutations often touted as proof of evolution’s power, including some found in dogs. On closer inspection, this dog of an argument for evolution won’t hunt. Tune in to hear Behe’s lucid explanation.

Algorithmic Specified Complexity Pt. 1: Genesis

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Winston Ewert
January 8, 2021}

On this ID The Future from the vault, Robert Marks and Winston Ewert, both of the Evolutionary Informatics Lab, discuss three of their papers written with design theorist William Dembski. The focus here is evolutionary informatics, algorithmic specified complexity, and information theory as it relates to biology and evolutionary theory. Ewert discusses the mathematical foundation for why we know Mount Rushmore is designed in a way that Mount Fuji isn’t. In particular he unpacks a recent advance in information theory, the theory of algorithmic specified complexity. Also in the conversation mix, snowflakes and … poker. To find all three papers under discussion, and more on the topic, jump over to the Evolutionary Informatics website.

Michael Behe’s New Book Dispels Malaria Evolution Fog

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Michael Behe
January 6, 2021}

Today’s ID the Future provides another peek at A Mousetrap for Darwin: Michael J. Behe Answers His Critics. Here Behe and host Eric Anderson discuss the new book’s section on malaria evolution. Evolutionists say malaria’s ability to evolve resistance to the antimalarial drug chloroquine is powerful evidence of unguided microbe-to-man evolution. Behe discusses how this evolutionary innovation required two coordinated mutations and lies at the outside edge of what blind evolution can manage. But many innovations in the history of life require three or more coordinated mutations, which Behe argues is so improbable as to lie beyond the reach of blind evolution. If so, this would discredit evolutionary theory. Drawing from his new book, Behe discusses various attempts to discredit Read More ›

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