ID the Future Intelligent Design, Evolution, and Science Podcast
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Brian Miller

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How Evolutionary Fitness Landscapes Bolster Design Arguments

Imagine a large area with gentle rolling hills and valleys, or perhaps a rugged terrain complete with steep mountains and impassible gullies. Now imagine those scenes plotted out in a three-dimensional graph. What your picturing may look similar to the virtual fitness landscapes biologists generate to visualize the variation in population for some species. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes Dr. Brian Miller to discuss evolutionary fitness landscapes and how they bolster the conclusion of design in living things. Dr. Miller also discusses how fitness landscapes relate to the work of bio-engineer Stuart Burgess and to the arguments made by Dr. Stephen Meyer about epigenetic information at the heart of life. Read More ›
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How Earth is Designed for Human Technology

You may already know about the mounting evidence from physics, chemistry, biology, and related fields that suggests our universe was designed for large multi-cellular beings like ourselves. But did you know there is also evidence that Earth is uniquely fit for human technology? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid speaks with physicist Dr. Brian Miller about the convergence of design parameters that come together to pave the way for human technological advancement. Get show notes and more episodes at idthefuture.com! Read More ›
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Brian Miller on the Limits of Protein Evolution

Was the universe designed to evolve through natural processes? In a recent book, theologian Dr. Rope Kojonen has argued that evolutionary mechanisms work in harmony with intelligent design to produce the diversity of life we see on earth. But can these fundamentally different processes really work together? On this ID The Future, host Casey Luskin speaks with physicist Dr. Brian Miller to explore why Kojonen's theory fails on scientific grounds. This interview is part of a series responding to Kojonen's proposal. Catch other episodes in the series at idthefuture.com or through your favorite podcasting app. Read More ›
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The Optimal Design of Our Eyes

Does the vertebrate eye make more sense as the product of engineering or unguided evolutionary processes? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his two-part conversation with physicist Brian Miller about the intelligent design of the vertebrate eye. Did you know your brain gives you a glimpse of the future before you get to it? And what about the claim that human eyes are badly designed? Dr. Miller discusses all this and more. This is Part 2 of a two-part interview. Visit idthefuture.com for show notes and full archive! Read More ›
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Brian Miller on the Gift of Vision

The gift of our vision is easy to take for granted. Yet, the more we dig into this amazingly intricate system, the more grateful we might get. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid begins a two-part conversation with physicist Brian Miller about the intelligent design of the vertebrate eye. Dr. Miller reviews the evolutionary scenario for the origins of human vision, explaining where it collapses for lack of empirical evidence. Then he explains why it's helpful to approach biological systems from an engineering standpoint. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Read More ›
Romanesco broccoli close up. The fractal vegetable is known for it's connection to the fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio. Fun food for any practical scientists that loves mathematics
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A New Design Inference for a New Generation

Is there an empirical method to determine whether a system is the product of chance or design? On this ID The Future, physicist Brian Miller concludes a two-part conversation with Dr. William Dembski about a new updated second edition of his classic book The Design Inference. In many ways, the 2nd edition of The Design Inference is a brand new book. Dr. Dembski teases out what is new and updated, and he also discusses what it was like to team up with software engineer Winston Ewert on the project. He even gives us a sneak preview of his next book, covering the conservation of information. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Read More ›
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colorful sunset on top of austrian mountain alps

The Return of Natural Theology

Influenced by a long line of materialist thinkers, Charles Darwin proposed the mechanism of natural selection as a substitute for God. But how does his theory’s explanatory power measure up to recent scientific discoveries? On this ID The Future, physicist Brian Miller discusses the resurgence of natural theology in modern science with Pat Flynn, co-host of the Philosophy for the People podcast. Natural theology advances arguments for God based on reason and the discoveries of science. It’s an ancient pursuit that fell out of favor in the 19th century as a materialist account of life’s origins took center stage. But scientific findings of the last century point to mind, not a mindless process, as the likeliest explanation for a life-friendly universe. As a result, the pendulum is swinging back to teleology, ushering in a new heyday for natural theology. In addition to giving an historical overview of natural theology, Dr. Miller and Flynn also discuss fundamental problems in origin of life studies that demand a better explanation than materialists can offer. Miller speaks plainly about the problem: “Here’s the fundamental challenge,” he says. “All natural processes tend to create greater disorder (entropy)…The origin of life requires chemicals to go into a state of both high order and high energy. That never happens without help!” This is Part 1 of a 2-part discussion. With thanks to Pat Flynn and the Philosophy for the People podcast for permission to share this interview. Read More ›
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sunrise in the sea

Ann Gauger on Her New Book, God’s Grandeur: The Catholic Case for Intelligent Design

Today’s ID the Future spotlights the richly stimulating new book, God’s Grandeur: The Catholic Case for Intelligent Design. Edited by biologist Ann Gauger, the anthology explores the evidence for intelligent design from a Catholic perspective, with contributions from an impressive range of Catholic scientists, philosophers, and theologians, including Gauger; internationally renowned paleontologist Günter Bechly; philosopher Jay Richards; molecular biologist Michael Behe; Rector of the European University in Rome Fr. Pedro Barrajón, LC; Aquinas and Evolution author Michael Chaberek; philosopher J. Budziszewski; professor of neurosurgery Michael Egnor; and noted Dante scholar Anthony Esolen. Listen in as Gauger gives a quick flyover of the book’s content, tells how she found her way into the intelligent design fold, and explains why Catholics should Read More ›

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Brian Miller and John West

Brian Miller Q&A: Engineering in Biology, and THE Engineer

On today’s ID the Future, host John West sits down with physicist and engineer Brian Miller to pitch him questions submitted at the Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. Is the Bible against the pursuit of knowledge about the natural world, or for it? Are microevolutionary changes in various organisms consistently driven by random mutations and natural selection, or instead, are some made possible by pre-programming in the organism, programming that gives the organism a built-in flexibility to adapt to its environment, within limits? If living systems were deliberately engineered, how good of an engineer was the engineer behind living systems? And if so, what are the implications for the evolution/design debate? Also, what do engineering insights regarding optimization processes Read More ›

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Brian Miller: The Surprising Relevance of Engineering in Biology

Today’s ID the Future brings listeners physicist and engineer Brian Miller’s recent lecture at the Dallas Conference on Science and Faith, “The Surprising Relevance of Engineering in Biology.” Miller rebuts several popular arguments for evolution based on claims of poor design in living systems, everything from the “backward wiring” of the vertebrate eye to whales, wrists, ankles, and “junk DNA.” But the main emphasis of this discussion is the exciting sea change in biology in which numerous breakthroughs are occurring by scientists who are treating living systems and subsystems as if they are optimally engineered systems. Some in this movement reject intelligent design for ideological reasons. Others embrace it. But all systems biologists treat these systems as if they are masterfully engineered Read More ›