ID the Future Intelligent Design, Evolution, and Science Podcast
Topic

Alfred Russell Wallace

Violinist tuning a violin

Dr. Michael Denton on Evidence of Fine-Tuning in the Universe

On this year 2012 episode of ID the Future from the vault, Australian biochemist Michael Denton discusses various ways the universe is uniquely fit for carbon-based life, and perhaps even human life. Denton argues that when it comes to evidence of fine-tuning in the universe, the more you look, the more you find. Tune in to discover what he has found that has led him to the inference that our world is intelligently designed. Denton is author of the new book The Miracle of the Cell, where he brings his fine-tuning arguments up to date with a fascinating dive into the extraordinary fine tuning of the chemical elements of life.

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Light and dark bunnies

Of Natural Selection, Explanatory Deficits, and Bunnies Dark and Light

On this episode of ID the Future we hear the first part of Discovery Institute Education Outreach Associate Daniel Reeves’ talk at the 2020 Dallas Science and Faith Conference. Reeves outlines the meaning of natural selection, and traces its history, starting from Darwin’s early understanding, in the days when cells were viewed as just blobs of protoplasm. Reeves carries the story from there through the neo-Darwinian modern synthesis and into the extended evolutionary synthesis, culminating in a 2016 meeting of the Royal Society on the theory’s continuing — and still unresolved — explanatory deficits.

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United hands

Charles Darwin vs. Richard Owen on Race

On this episode of ID the Future, Mike Keas interviews science historian and bioethicist Michael Flannery about his recent article on Charles Darwin and archrival Richard Owen. Owen was an evolutionist, too, but of a different stripe. Unlike Darwin, he believed that evolution was guided by teleology or purpose, and he saw humans as different from animals not only in degree but in kind. This led him to reject Darwin’s conclusion of a “hierarchy of races,” as well as Darwin’s expectation that the supposedly “less fit” races of humankind ultimately would be exterminated by the so-called “superior” white race. Most Darwinists today aren’t racist, but Darwinism did grease the skids into a dubious scientific racism that became widespread, encouraging racist eugenics campaigns in both Europe and the United States.

Nature’s Prophet Author Michael Flannery Reviews the Reviewers

On this episode of ID the Future, Michael Flannery speaks again with host Mike Keas about his book Nature’s Prophet: Alfred Russel Wallace, and His Evolution from Natural Selection to Natural Theology. Wallace was the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution by natural selection along with Charles Darwin, but in 1869 he broke with Darwin, disagreeing with him on the origin of special human attributes like art, music, and abstract thought.

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Unravelling fern frond closeup, one of New Zealand symbols.

Michael Flannery on the Unraveling of the Darwinian Paradigm

On this episode of ID the Future, host Mike Keas speaks with science historian Michael Flannery about Darwinism, Past, Present, and Future, in which Flannery wonders about an L.A. Times op-ed by Ann Reid, director of the pro-Darwinism lobby group The National Center for Science Education.

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Humanity and Teleology: Darwin, Wallace and Lyell Debate Natural Selection

On this episode of ID the Future, Michael Flannery, historian of science and emeritus professor from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, discusses how Alfred Russel Wallace, co-founder of the theory of evolution by natural selection, broke with Darwin by arguing that the rise of humans required something more than blind evolutionary mechanisms. As Flannery also notes, the great geologist Charles Lyell sided with Wallace in the debate, to Darwin’s dismay. Listen in to learn more about Lyell’s idea of uniformity, the pro-Darwinian origins of the journal Nature, and how professional dissent from Darwinism has existed and persisted ever since Darwin’s Origin of the Species. And to dive deeper still, check out Flannery’s new book on Wallace, Nature’s Prophet.

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Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace: Darwin’s Pattern for Scientific Dialogue that Darwinists Could Stand to Follow

On this episode of ID the Future host Mike Keas talks a third time with Michael Flannery about Flannery’s new book Nature’s Prophet: Alfred Russel Wallace and His Evolution from Natural Selection to Natural Theology. The surprising word come out of this conversation is how open Darwin was to Wallace’s opposing viewpoint — unlike many Darwinists today. Some of Flannery’s recent experience with historians of science, though, shows there is at least hope in some quarters for increasing academic openness today.

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Nature’s Prophet, Pt. 2: Alfred Russel Wallace’s Case for an “Overruling Intelligence”

On this episode of ID the Future historian Michael Flannery continues discussion of his new book Nature’s Prophet: Alfred Russel Wallace and His Evolution from Natural Selection to Natural Theology. Flannery tells how Wallace became convinced of some “overruling intelligence” in nature — not because of “gaps” in what he knew, but because so many human attributes demand a better explanation than Darwin’s own “utility principle.” They called for a cause adequate to the effects. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast.

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Nature’s Prophet, Pt. 1: How Alfred Russel Wallace Embraced Intelligent Design

On this episode of ID the Future, historian Michael Flannery discusses his just-released book Nature’s Prophet: Alfred Russel Wallace and His Evolution from Natural Selection to Natural Theology. It’s the intellectual history of Wallace, who is credited with independently propounding the the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin insisted on a purely materialistic version of the theory, but as Wallace studied the evidence, he grew convinced that intelligent design also played a role in the history of life, particularly in the origin of humans. Though not a religious person, he broke with the rising scientism of his day to argue that there must be some “overruling intelligence” behind nature.

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Kenneth Miller’s Darwinian Theism: Trying, and Failing, to Square a Circle

On this episode of ID the Future, Pr. Emeritus Michael Flannery (U of Alabama-Birmingham) continues his discussion of evolutionist Kenneth Miller’s recent book The Human Instinct: How We Evolved to Have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will. Flannery suggests that Miller’s “theistic evolution” is more precisely Darwinian theism — and that such a marriage is as ultimately hopeless as squaring the proverbial circle.

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