Fractal multiverse.jpg
Fractal multiverse - astract illustration for topics such as physics and astronomy
ID the Future Intelligent Design, Evolution, and Science Podcast
Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

The Modern-Day Phlogiston: Darwinism Explains Everything and Nothing

Episode
1250
With
Andrew McDiarmid
Guest(s)
Matti Leisola
Duration
00:14:06
Download
Audio File (9.7 mb)
Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

On this episode of ID the Future, Andrew McDiarmid reads an excerpt from Heretic: One Scientist’s Journey from Darwin to Design by Finnish bioengineer Matti Leisola and Jonathan Witt. It makes the case that modern neo-Darwinism is today’s “phlogiston,” a theory that explains everything but nothing, faces mounting contrary evidence, and survives only with ever more ancillary hypotheses.

In the excerpt Leisola and Witt also discuss the well-documented pattern of scientists defending an existing scientific paradigm even after fresh discoveries have turned against it, with the obsolete dominant paradigm dying only very slowly. An especially dramatic and tragic example gave the name to this all-too-human tendency — the Semmelweis reflex. Listen in to learn more.