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

irreducible complexity

ripples-in-the-sand-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
ripples in the sand

Michael Behe on the Design Idea That Won’t Go Away (and Shouldn’t)

On this episode of ID the Future, Jonathan Witt caught up with Darwin’s Black Box author and biochemist Michael Behe at the 2020 Dallas Science and Faith conference, where the two discuss an idea that many wish would just go away, but hasn’t. Charles Darwin himself told us how his evolutionary theory could be overturned: identify a biological system that couldn’t possibly have evolved by “numerous success successive slight modifications.” It’s to Darwin’s credit that he put his theory in “empirical harm’s way,” to quote philosopher Del Ratzsch, but as Witt and Behe note, Darwin also cleverly placed the burden of proof on his opponents, an arguably dubious maneuver given that his proposed evolutionary mechanism has never once been observed to generate a fundamentally new biological form or molecular machine. Still, Behe has taken up the challenge. Listen in as he discusses how his “irreducible complexity” arguments against Darwinism have fared, and for a teaser about an upcoming anthology where Behe directly engages his critics.

Photo by National Cancer Institute

Honoring Phillip Johnson, Pt. 3: Michael Behe

On this ID the Future we continue a series of messages from a November 2019 symposium in Berkeley, California, presented in honor of the late Phillip Johnson, who played a crucial role in the flowering of the intelligent design movement. Read More ›

Black gift box.jpg
Black gift box on a dark contrasted background, decorated with a textured bow and feathers, creating a romantic atmosphere. Typically used for birthday, anniversary presents, gift cards, post cards, l

Michael Behe Opens a Black Box for Christmas

On this episode of ID the Future, Lehigh University biochemist Michael Behe discusses the closing sections of his new book Darwin Devolves: The New Science about DNA That Challenges Evolution. He compares evolutionary biology in Darwin’s time and today to the world of astronomy before and after the telescope was invented. The cell was a black box to Darwin and his contemporaries. Today we can explore that black box like never before, much better even than even two decades ago, allowing us to observe what evolution can actually do at the molecular level. According to Behe, the answer is, not much. Evolution can create niche advantages by breaking certain things, but it doesn’t build fundamentally new structures or new machines. That’s because it can’t do what mind can do. It can’t purposefully arrange things. Behe and host Andrew McDiarmid discuss what it might mean for origins science to again recognize, and allow room in its explanatory toolkit for, the unique causal powers of mind. Finally, Behe reflects on his critics’ confident predictions that they’d have the evidence to refute his groundbreaking book Darwin’s Black Box within 20 years. It’s now been 20 years, so where does the score stand? Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast.

Photo by Mobin Jahantark

Ann Gauger on Emerging Clues to Life’s Design

On this episode of ID the Future, Andrew McDiarmid shares biologist Ann Gauger’s recent article on emerging clues to life’s design, and how the “Darwinian Regime” tends to ignore them. One stubborn bit of biological evidence Gauger highlights is the fact that cells can’t make life-essential ATP, NAD, and other metabolic co-factors without having ATP, NAD, and the other co-factors there first. It’s a “daisy chain of causal circularity woven by what must be an intelligent designer,” Gauger comments. Or as she also puts it, “It’s chickens and eggs, all the way down.”

Photo by Jeffery Wong

The Venus Flytrap Takes a Bite Out of Darwinism

On this episode of ID the Future, Scotsman Andrew McDiarmid reads from Marcos Eberlin’s recent book Foresight: How the Chemistry of Life Reveals Planning and Purpose. In this excerpt, the distinguished Brazilian scientist highlights the challenge the Venus flytrap poses for evolutionary theory. Dr. Eberlin, the former president of the International Mass Spectrometry Association, describes the problem: The Venus flytrap, like all carnivorous plants, had no use for its insect-trapping function unless it also had an insect-digesting function. And vice versa. Did they really both evolve together? And how when there would be no functional advantage along much of the evolutionary pathway to the sophisticated finished system? Finally, how did this “evolutionary miracle” also happen in four other carnivorous plant genera? (See the Venus flytrap here, as mentioned in the podcast.)

bloodcells

Omega-3 Nutrition Pioneer Tells How He Saw Irreducible Complexity in Cells 40 Years Ago

On this episode of ID the Future, Jorn Dyerberg, the Danish biologist and co-discoverer of the role of omega-3 fatty acids in human health and nutrition, talks with Brian Miller about finding irreducible complexity in cells 40 years ago. It wasn’t until he encountered ID researchers like Michael Behe that he gave it that name — but he saw how many enzymes and co-enzymes it took working together to make metabolism work in every living cell. And if neo-Darwinism is true, and these enzymes showed up one at a time, “And over these eons, the other enzymes would just be sitting there waiting for the next one to come.”

Read More ›
IDTF-thumbnail
IDTF-thumbnail

“Revolutionary Behe”: Part One of A Conversation Between Jerry Bowyer and John West on the Discovery Institute Documentary on Michael Behe

Jerry Bowyer of the Bowyer Briefing interviews the Discovery Institute’s John West about a recent documentary on the work of biochemist Michael Behe. Behe’s Darwin’s Black Box introduced the public to the wonders of biochemical machinery, and set materialist science on a frantic search to refute his theory of irreducible complexity, leading to a conclusion of intelligent design. It’s a search that’s failed in many ways since then, as the documentary reveals — and this discussion explains as well.

Read More ›
glucose in vein
3d Illustration of glucose level in blood, isolated white

Glucose Systems in the Body — Another Instance of Irreducible Complexity

Dr. Howard Glicksman, author of an extended series at Evolution News on “The Designed Body,” is interviewed today by Ray Bohlin on glucose, glycogen, glucogon, insulin — all part of an extended multi-step series essential for life — an irreducibly complex series.   “If students only knew how life worked,” says Dr. Glicksman,” … they’d quickly come to realize that when it comes to figuring out where it all came from, common sense tells us it was intelligent design, and it’s the Darwinists who are suffering from an illusion.”

reflection-in-water-ripples-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
reflection in water ripples

A Doc Looks at Why Water is Important for Human Life

On this episode of ID the Future, to celebrate Michael Denton’s newest book, The Wonder of Water, we bring you a conversation between Ray Bohlin and Howard Glicksman on the body’s wondrous control systems for using water. Dr. Glicksman is a medical doctor and author of an extended series of posts at Evolution News & Science Today, “The Designed Body.”

red blood cells antibodies
Immunity. Red blood cells with antibodies in an artery, flow inside body. 3d Illustration

A Doctor Examines How the Body Meets Its Need for Oxygen

On this episode of ID the Future, Ray Bohlin interviews physician Howard Glicksman about hemoglobin and the body’s need to have enough of it to transport sufficient oxygen to the tissues. Finely-tuned and exquisitely engineered, this system gave our ancestors enough oxygen to not only stay alive but thrive in the face of hostile challenges. Dr. Glicksman is author of an extended series of posts at Evolution News & Science Today, “The Designed Body.”