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

DNA

Thomas Doughty - Fanciful Landscape 1834 - NGA 1963.9.2

Stephen Meyer: Evidence of Mind in The Natural World

Can we scientifically detect the activity of a mind behind the universe? On this ID The Future, philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer answers this question and more in the concluding hour of a new two-hour interview on various topics related to his work and books. Dr. Meyer discusses the problems with scientific materialism, the problems with quantum cosmological models, a good theology of nature, and more. This is Part 2 of a two-part interview. Read More ›
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Single helix RNA, Epigenetics concept

Minimal Replication Fidelity: Another Problem for the RNA World Hypothesis

The RNA world is proposed by some to explain how early life began before DNA. But is RNA capable of maintaining a life-friendly self-replication rate? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes back Dr. Jonathan McLatchie to discuss another headache for the RNA world scenario. Before a trial and error process like natural selection can even get started, self-replicating molecules must have a minimal accuracy rate to copy genetic material effectively. The required fidelity rate is estimated to be 2%. Any error rate higher than that results in error catastrophe for organisms. The average error rate in RNA copying is estimated to be around 17%, vastly higher than the estimated maximum error threshold for survival. McLatchie explains the implications of this for chemical evolutionary theories like the RNA world hypothesis. He also explains how a Bayesian approach to this evidence can provide us with the likeliest explanation for the origin of biological life. "The sorts of features that we observe in life are not particularly surprising if we suppose that a mind is involved," says McLatchie. But things like minimal self-replication fidelity are wildly surprising on a naturalistic hypothesis. Read More ›
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Abstract human body with molecules DNA. Medicine, science and technology concept. Illustration.

Michael Behe on the Origin of Biological Information

Just what is information? Why is so much of it needed for life? And where did it all come from? On this ID The Future, we're pleased to rebroadcast in audio form the latest episode in biochemist Michael Behe's Secrets of the Cell series on the mystery of biological information. In this episode, Behe starts by explaining just what information actually is. From the decision to flip a switch to the thousands of decisions needed to build complex structures, information is everywhere in our world, and it also runs the show in the hidden inner world of cells. Behe describes how cells manage information to build tissues, organs, and systems. He also explains that each cell is part of a massive collaboration of trillions of cells, where the right information at the right time flows through us in the form of chemical and electrical signals, activating different energy modes and keeping our entire body functioning efficiently. To conclude, Behe invites us to join him for a sobering thought experiment: attempting to build an instruction manual for a human femur bone. Sounds simple enough in theory. It's just a bone, after all! But Behe reminds us of the many layers of complexity inherent in making even a single bone part of a larger, dynamic, and coordinated living system. Complex machines and working structures, says Behe, are possible only through specific code that determines form and function. And our uniform and repeated experience affirms that specified or functional information always arises from an intelligent source, not a strictly material process. Read More ›
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David Berlinski on Chickens, Eggs, Human Exceptionalism, and a Revolution

On today’s ID the Future, Science After Babel author David Berlinski continues discussing his newly released book from Discovery Institute Press. In this conversation with host Andrew McDiarmid, Berlinski explores a chicken-and-egg problem facing origin-of-life research, a blindness afflicting some evolutionists focused on human origins, and the mystery of why science almost flowered in ancient Greece, early Medieval China, and in the Muslim-Arab Medieval Empire, but did not, having to await the scientific revolution that swept through Europe beginning in the sixteenth century. Check out the endorsements and get your copy, paperback or e-book, at scienceafterbabel.com. Read More ›
Bruegel tower of babel
Vienna, Austria. 2019/10/23.

David Berlinski on His New Book, Science After Babel

On today’s ID the Future, host Andrew McDiarmid rings up Science After Babel author David Berlinski in Paris to discuss the philosopher’s latest book. Berlinski is at his cultivated best as the two discuss everything from the biblical Tower of Babel as a metaphor for modern materialistic science, to his friendship with the brilliant and colorful French intellectual Marcel Schützenberger, a world-class mathematician who was self-taught and, as we learn here, came within a hair’s breadth of being swept up in the Chinese Revolution. Berlinski also reflects on the seminal 1966 WISTAR symposium, which laid out some mathematical challenges to Darwinism, challenges that Berlinski says remain unanswered to this day. At the same time, Berlinski gives the devil—here Darwinism—its due. Tune in for this and more, and order your copy of Berlinski’s Science After Babel here.

sad angel
Vintage image of a sad angel against the background of leaves

Stephen Meyer: Has the West Forgotten God?

In today’s ID the Future philosopher Stephen Meyer revisits Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Templeton Prize speech from May 10, 1983, where Solzhenitsyn indicted the West for forgetting God. Meyer argues that Solzhenitsyn’s indictment is more timely than ever. But at the same time, there is today more scientific evidence than ever for the existence of a personal God, Meyer says, and the argument from intelligent design is a powerful means to awaken individuals to the presence of God and to renew culture. Meyer goes on to support those claims with concrete examples. Today’s episode is taken from a talk Dr. Meyer gave at the 2023 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. Meyer is author of the bestselling book Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries that Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe.

complex machine
Metallic background of car automotive transmission gearbox

A PhD Evolutionary Biologist on Why He Embraces Intelligent Design

On this episode, Dr. Jonathan McLatchie takes us on a deep dive into two classic examples of irreducibly complex systems - the bacterial flagellar motor and the process of DNA replication in cell division. He explains the intricacies of each process and shows why each stands up to scrutiny as a true example of irreducible complexity. Along the way, he explains why the RNA world scenario isn't likely to be the answer to irreducible complexity that materialists are looking for. And near the end, be sure to listen to McLatchie explain the "likelihood ratio"of the evidence for irreducible complexity, a top-heavy ratio he says strongly supports a design hypothesis. This is Part 1 of a 2-part interview. Read More ›
replication-fork-for-a-new-strand-dna-in-the-dna-origin-stockpack-adobe-stock
Replication fork for a new strand DNA in the dna origin

Jonathan McLatchie on Classic Examples of Irreducibly Complex Systems

On this episode, Dr. Jonathan McLatchie takes us on a deep dive into two classic examples of irreducibly complex systems - the bacterial flagellar motor and the process of DNA replication in cell division. He explains the intricacies of each process and shows why each stands up to scrutiny as a true example of irreducible complexity. Along the way, he explains why the RNA world scenario isn't likely to be the answer to irreducible complexity that materialists are looking for. And near the end, be sure to listen to McLatchie explain the "likelihood ratio"of the evidence for irreducible complexity, a top-heavy ratio he says strongly supports a design hypothesis. This is Part 1 of a 2-part interview. Read More ›
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Portrait of beautiful peacock with feathers out

God’s Grandeur: Ann Gauger on Beauty, Intelligibility, and Human Uniqueness

On this episode of ID The Future, host Jay Richards concludes a two-part conversation with Ann Gauger about her newly edited volume God's Grandeur: The Catholic Case for Intelligent Design. Part 1 of their discussion focuses on the philosophical and theological arguments for intelligent design presented in the book. Gauger holds that Darwinism has no adequate explanation for natural beauty or the ability of human beings to appreciate beauty for its own sake. She also argues that we have no reason to expect human uniqueness or intelligibility in the universe outside a design paradigm. This is Part 2 of a conversation. Visit GodsGrandeur.org to learn more and download a free chapter! Read More ›
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Conch shell on beach  with waves.

God’s Grandeur: Ann Gauger on the Scientific Case for Design

On this episode of ID The Future, host Jay Richards begins a two-part conversation with Ann Gauger about her newly edited volume God's Grandeur: The Catholic Case for Intelligent Design. Part 1 of their discussion focuses on the scientific case presented in the book. Gauger reviews compelling biological evidence for design in the DNA code, molecular machines, the differences between humans and animals, and even the intriguing possibility that the entire human race came from two original parents. This is Part 1 of a conversation. Visit GodsGrandeur.org to learn more and download a free chapter! Read More ›