ID the Future

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

Another “Junk DNA” Icon Bites the Dust

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Casey Luskin
March 5, 2021}

On this ID The Future from the vault, Casey Luskin examines a paper in Genome Biology and Evolution which argues that the famous beta-globin pseudogene is functional. Why is this pseudogene famous? Well, it’s been Exhibit A — literally, offered as evidence in a court case — for critics of intelligent design who argue that our genome is full of useless, functionless junk, and therefore can’t be a product of design. Biologist Kenneth Miller argued in court that its appearance in multiple species, including gorillas and chimpanzees, strongly suggests Neo-Darwinian evolution and a common ancestor, since what designer would stick the useless gene in different species? Instead, Miller and others have theorized, the random mutation that produced the pseudogene occurred Read More ›

Latest Episodes

Physicist Eric Hedin Discusses His New ID Book, Canceled Science

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Eric Hedin
March 3, 2021}

Today’s ID the Future spotlights Canceled Science: What Some Atheists Don’t Want You to See. Host Robert Crowther and author Eric Hedin begin by revisiting the atheist attack on Professor Hedin and his Ball State University course, the Boundaries of Science. The course was an interdisciplinary honors course exposing students to some basic astrophysics and cosmology, as well as to some of the big questions raised by such discoveries as the Big Bang and the fine-tuning of the laws and constants of physics for life. The course included mention of world-leading scientists who saw evidence of design in some of these findings, as well as mention of scientists who denied any evidence of design in nature. Atheist Jerry Coyne and Read More ›

A James Tour Course on Abiogenesis: Prologue

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James Tour
March 1, 2021}

Today’s ID the Future features audio of the first in a series of YouTube videos by Dr. James Tour on the origin-of-life problem. Here Tour, a renowned synthetic organic chemist and professor at Rice University, explains why he is addressing the origin-of-life issue, also known as abiogenesis, and touches on some common misconceptions about the field. He says the organizing impetus for the series is a YouTube video by Dave Farina, “Elucidating the Agenda of James Tour: A Defense of Abiogenesis.” As Farina’s title suggests, he begins his video with an ad hominem attack, seeking to discredit Tour by showing that Tour is a Christian. Tour briefly responds to this line of attack and then moves into matters scientific. There Read More ›

Jay Richards Talks Paley, Hume, and Natural Theology

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Jay Richards
February 26, 2021}

In this classic ID The Future, CSC’s Logan Gage interviews philosopher Jay Richards about William Paley, David Hume, and contemporary arguments for intelligent design. Richards begins with a description of William Paley’s 1802 book Natural Theology, in which the author infers from the natural world that there must be some intelligent agent (God) responsible for its design. This includes Paley’s famous watch analogy, which Richards also summarizes. Richards then addresses David Hume’s critique of analogical arguments like those used by Paley. Richards closes by differentiating between analogical arguments and arguments for intelligent design.

Rhetorical Advice for Opponents of Intelligent Design

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Tom Gilson
February 24, 2021}

On this ID the Future author and blogger Tom Gilson offers advice to ID opponents on how to improve their persuasive strategy. Getting ID theory right instead of criticizing a made-up straw man would be a good start, he says. He then offers several additional suggestions, all of which have the incidental effect of highlighting the many suspect rhetorical strategies commonly employed by prominent opponents of ID. Gilson is the author of six books on faith, culture, and philosophy, and has a background in organizational strategy and organizational psychology. He is a blogger, a senior editor at The Stream, and the sound editor of this podcast.

Botany Journal Revisits Darwin’s “Abominable Mystery”

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Günter Bechly
February 22, 2021}

On today’s ID the Future, German paleontologist Günter Bechly unpacks what Charles Darwin referred to as an “abominable mystery,” the sudden appearance in the fossil record of a certain group of flowering plants. It was a mystery to Darwin because according to his theory, there should have been a long succession of precursors gradually evolving toward the flowering plants of the Cretaceous. Bechly and host Eric Anderson focus their conversation around a recent paper by Richard Buggs in the American Journal of Botany showing that the problem for evolutionary theory has actually grown more acute since Darwin’s time. What about a recent article claiming to have found evidence of flowering plants in the Jurassic? Bechly says that the “evidence” amounts Read More ›

The Making of a Darwin- Dissenting Doctor

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Geoffrey Simmons
February 19, 2021}

On this ID The Future from the vault, Casey Luskin interviews CSC fellow and physician Geoffrey Simmons on what led him from card-carrying Darwinist to Darwin skeptic. Simmons has a BS in biology; coursework completed for an MS in microbiology, University of Illinois; an M.D., University of Illinois Medical School; Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine, LAC-USC Medical Center; Boarded in Internal Medicine since 1974. He is the author of several books, including What Darwin Didn’t Know (2004), Billions of Missing Links (2007), and Are We Here to Re-Create Ourselves?: The Convergence of Designs (2019).

Is ID Bad Theology? No, but the Objection Is

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Jay Richards
February 17, 2021}

On this ID the Future philosopher Jay Richards responds to Mark Vernon’s charge that intelligent design is bad theology. No, Richards says, the charge itself is based on bad theology, bad reasoning, and a faulty understanding of both intelligent design theory and theism. First, the theory of intelligent design doesn’t specify the identify of a designer or the specific means of causation. It merely makes an argument to intelligent design as the best explanation for certain features of the natural world. Second, even if it did involve arguing that the designer was God and that God had intervened at particular points in the history of the cosmos, such as in the origin of life or the emergence of human beings, Read More ›

Bill Dembski Teases the 2021 Dallas ID Conference

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Bill Dembski
February 15, 2021}

On this ID the Future, intelligent design pioneer William Dembski talks with host Robert Crowther about his return to the intelligent design arena and what he’s been up to during his time away from the front lines of the ID movement. He also gives a sneak preview of the talk he plans to give at this Saturday’s Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. The February 20 conference is open to both in-person and live online attendance. To learn more about this exciting event, and to register, go here.

Darwin Day Meets Black History Month–Sparks Fly

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Michael Flannery
February 12, 2021}

As a nod to Darwin Day and Black History Month, today’s ID the Future spotlights the racist thinking of Charles Darwin and the scientific racism fueled by Darwinism and Darwinists. As guest and historian Michael Flannery notes, Darwin’s followers, including Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, took ideas found in Darwin’s work and used them to vigorously press the case for eugenics, a movement that came to have a horrifying impact for American blacks in the twentieth century, including for thousands who were subjected to forced sterilizations. Was Darwin’s racism purely a function of his time and place, Victorian England? Flannery says no, and on two counts. First, he says that the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution by natural selection, Alfred Read More ›

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