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

design inference

creatures-of-the-cambrian-period-underwater-scene-with-anomalocaris-opabinia-hallucigenia-pirania-and-dinomischus-3d-science-illustration-stockpack-adobe-stock
creatures of the Cambrian period, underwater scene with Anomalocaris, Opabinia, Hallucigenia, Pirania and Dinomischus (3d science illustration)

Why Intelligent Design Best Explains the Fossil Record Data

The fossil record reveals sudden explosions of new life forms followed by long periods of stasis. Is this evidence to be expected from a gradual Darwinian model? On this episode of ID The Future, host Eric Anderson talks with Casey Luskin on location at this year’s Conference on Engineering and Living Systems (CELS). Luskin discusses three different models of the fossil record - the gradual descent model, the punctuated equilibrium model, and the explosion model. He explains why gradual Darwinian models are built on a lack of data and cannot adequately explain the patterns revealed in the record. He also shows that the sudden appearance of complex organisms and long periods of non-change are exactly what we would expect to find from a design perspective. "These organisms...are designed to change within limits," says Luskin, "and that's why we see stasis." Indeed, the fossil record is consistent with the engineering-based theory of bounded adaptation, the idea that organisms are deeply designed, purposeful, and capable of adapting within their operating parameters. It's an intriguing new way to look at the history of life on earth. Says Luskin, "The only way you're going to be able to generate all the information needed to yield an organism that's alive and functional all at once is through an intelligent cause." Don't miss this intriguing conversation! Casey Luskin holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Johannesburg, where he specialized in paleomagnetism and the early plate tectonic history of South Africa. He serves as Associate Director of Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. Want to dive deeper into the fascinating explosions of plant and animal life in the geologic record? Luskin recommends reading a chapter by Stephen C. Meyer and Gunter Bechly (Chapter 10) on the topic, in Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique. Available here: https://www.discovery.org/b/theistic-evolution/ Read More ›
periodic-table-science-stockpack-adobe-stock
Periodic Table Science

Introducing Online High School Chemistry With A Design Perspective

On this ID The Future, host Rob Crowther chats with Kristin Marais about her new online chemistry course launching this fall through Discovery Institute Academy. Her chemistry class is a two-semester, virtual, synchronous, and lab-based course which integrates the fundamentals of chemistry with applicable intelligent design concepts and topics. Students will progress through the course with Marais and fellow students together, with ample opportunity for real-time teacher-student engagement and student-to-student engagement. Class meets three times a week via Zoom to discuss content, ask questions, and work on problems together. Students can also utilize optional drop-in sessions after class, as well as the opportunity to set up one-to-one live video sessions with the teacher. "What's a wet lab?" Crowther asks during their discussion. Marais explains that a wet lab involves hands-on physical experiments. Students will conduct both physical and simulated virtual experiments during the state-of-the-art course, from equilibrium labs designed to see reversible reactions to reaction rate labs they'll get to design themselves. This chemistry course is unique among other available chemistry courses because it's connected to the Discovery Institute. As such, Marais will be able to connect students with questions to a global network of scientists and scholars in the intelligent design research community, as well as a mountain of books, articles, videos, and animations to help them learn more about chemistry and science in general. Learn more and register for the course today at www.discoveryinstitute.academy. Get a discount on registration through June 30th, 2023. Read More ›
chess
Business concept Strategy of red Chess Game

Did Chess Ace Hans Niemann Cheat? A Design Detection Poser

On this ID the Future, mathematician William Dembski and host Eric Anderson explore whether design detection tools shed any light on the recent chess scandal involving world chess champion Magnus Carlsen and American grandmaster Hans Moke Niemann. Did Niemann cheat in a match where he beat Carlson, as some have claimed? There is no smoking gun in the case, so how might one determine if cheating occurred? At first glance the problem might seem far removed from the design detecting rules and tools Dembski laid out in his Cambridge University Press monograph The Design Inference. But actually there is some intriguing overlap. Is there a way to dig into the chess data and determine whether Niemann secretly used a computer chess engine to help him win the match? Tune in as Dembski and host Eric Anderson wrestle with the problem.

nanotech
Molecule 3D illustration. Laboratory, molecules, crystal lattice. Nanotech research. Decoding genome. Virtual modeling of chemical processes. Hi-tech in medicine

Physicist Brian Miller Talks Nanotech, Origin of Life, and Area 51

On today’s ID the Future physicist Brian Miller and host Eric Anderson continue their exploration of a recent conversation between origin-of-life investigators Jeremy England and Paul Davies on Justin Brierley’s Unbelievable? radio show. Miller begins with a quick flyover of the many nanotechnologies essential to even to the simplest viable cell. A minimally complex cell is vastly more sophisticated than our best human nanotechnology. What about England’s insistence that real progress has been made in origin-of-life studies since the 1950s? True, Anderson says, but the progress has been principally in better understanding how the simplest cells function, and in figuring out what doesn’t work to blindly evolve life from non-life. That is, the direction of discovery has been to throw cold water on one idea after another for the naturalistic origin of life. Miller then makes an even bolder statement. All the physics for us to have known this were in place more than a hundred years ago. The origin-of-life community just chose to ignore it, perhaps because they were dogmatically wedded to finding a purely materialistic explanation for the origin of the first life. To show why that’s misguided, Miller offers an illustrative story: Imagine that what looks for all the world like an alien spaceship is discovered in the desert. Two groups of scientists decide on radically different approaches to understanding the workings of this mysterious object. Tune in to hear the rest of the story.

virus-protection-vaccine-search-antibodies-and-viral-infection-immune-defense-of-the-body-attack-on-antigens-3d-illustration-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Virus protection. Vaccine search. Antibodies and viral infection. Immune defense of the body. Attack on antigens 3D illustration

Covid-19, Random Mutations, and Aristotle’s Matrix of Design

On this episode of ID the Future, Andrew McDiarmid speaks with neurosurgeon Michael Egnor about Egnor’s recent Evolution News article, The Coronavirus Demonstrates How Evolution Presupposes Intelligent Design. Egnor notes that the coronavirus and other viruses are not, strictly speaking, considered living things, even if they depend on living hosts for their continued existence. Egnor also discusses the role of random mutations in viruses and draws upon Aristotle to argue that these and other random events only occur, and have their meaning, against a backdrop of purpose and design — in this case, the designed systems — the bodies — that viruses invade.

data-collection-in-colorful-containers-3d-rendering-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Data collection in colorful containers - 3D Rendering

The Taxonomy of Information, Pt. 2

On this episode of ID the Future, Casey Luskin continues his discussion on the taxonomy of information. He delves into the definitions of semantic information and complex & specified information, detailing their relationship and explaining how to use information to make a design inference.

IDTF-thumbnail
IDTF-thumbnail

The Taxonomy of Information, Pt. 1

On this episode of ID the Future, Casey Luskin discusses the taxonomy of information, explaining various ways of defining information and whether or not they are helpful for making a design inference. He examines syntactic information, Shannon information and Kolmogorov information.

Read More ›
IDTF-thumbnail
IDTF-thumbnail

Dr. Michael Egnor’s Brain Hypothesis

On this episode of ID the Future, Logan Gage interviews professor of neurosurgery at SUNY, Stony Brook Michael Egnor. Dr. Egnor discusses his current research into cerebral blood flow and the buffering of the brain from the force of blood pumped by the heart. Dr. Egnor’s approach to this problem is that of an engineer, using the design inference to understand how the brain protects itself from the pulsatility of the arterial blood flow of the heart.

IDTF-thumbnail
IDTF-thumbnail

Newsweek’s Trojan Horse

On this episode of ID the Future, Casey Luskin discusses how Newsweek columnist Sharon Begley muffles the cosmic design inference and forces her philosophical blinders on her readers. Luskin shows how the evidence for fine-tuning is driving materialists like Begley to make extreme proposals — and to hide the alternative explanations — implicitly admitting that there is something about our universe needing explanation by an external cause.

IDTF-thumbnail
IDTF-thumbnail

Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased Without Intelligence

On this episode of ID The Future, CSC’s Robert Crowther highlights one of the foundational books of the theory of intelligent design. No Free Lunch, the sequel to mathematician and CSC senior fellow William Dembski’s Cambridge University Press book The Design Inference, explores key questions about the origin of specified complexity. No Free Lunch demonstrates that design theory shows great promise of providing insight in the field of evolutionary computation