Tag: Materialism

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen C. Meyer

Date
September 15, 2021

Categorized
Faith and Science

Tagged
abductive reasoning, Alvy Singer, Alvy’s Error, Annie Hall, Atheism, Bayesian reasoning, Charles Darwin, Evolution, Evolutionary Biology, fine tuning, Fred Hoyle, freedom, God, God hypothesis, Harold J. Berman, Intelligent Design, James Davison Hunter, Materialism, methodological naturalism, Michael Shermer, moral absolutes, moral argument for God, moral objectivism, moral relativism, Morality, Naturalism, nature red in tooth and claw, Origin of the Species, Paul Nedelisky, Return of the God Hypothesis, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Science and the Good, skepticism, sociobiology, Stephen C. Meyer, Theism, Woody Allen}

Pt. 2: Stephen Meyer and Skeptic Michael Shermer

_{Stephen C. Meyer

September 15, 2021

Faith and Science}

Today’s ID the Future continues a lively and cordial conversation between atheist Michael Shermer and Stephen Meyer, author of Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe. In this segment of the four-part series, Shermer and Meyer discuss a fourth argument for theism, the moral law within. Then they discuss the similarities and differences between inferring design for something like the Rosetta Stone versus inferring intelligent design from the information in DNA or the fine tuning of the universe. The interview is reposted here by permission of Michael Shermer.

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen C. Meyer

Date
September 13, 2021

Categorized
Faith and Science

Tagged
Allen Sandage, Altenberg 16, Atheism, beginning of the universe, Big Bang, BioLogos, Brian Keating, confirmation bias, Darrel Falk, Eugene Koonin, exotic naturalism, fine tuning, fine tuning of the universe, Francis Crick, God and the Astronomers, Günter Bechly, imaginary time, James Tour, Materialism, metaphysical hypotheses, methodological naturalism, Michael Shermer, multiverse, Neo-Darwinism, origin of life, oscillating universe model, panspermia, Return of the God Hypothesis, Richard Dawkins, RNA World hypothesis, Robert Jastrow, skepticism, steady state theory, Stephen C. Meyer, Stephen Hawking, Theism, theistic evolution}

Stephen Meyer and Skeptic Michael Shermer, Pt. 1

_{Stephen C. Meyer

September 13, 2021

Faith and Science}

Today’s ID the Future spotlights the first part of a lively and cordial conversation between host and atheist Michael Shermer and Stephen Meyer, author of Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe. In this first of the four-part series, the two touch on everything from Meyer’s three key lines of evidence for theism to a quick flyover of less well-known materialistic origins theories, including the oscillating universe model, panspermia as an explanation for the origin of the first life on earth, and Stephen Hawking’s idea of imaginary time. Meyer lumps many of these ideas under what he terms exotic naturalism and suggests that the atheists who defend these explanations are multiplying exotic Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Neil Thomas

Date
August 11, 2021

Categorized
Evolution

Tagged
abiogenesis, Adam Ure, agnosticism, Alexander Oparin, Andy Dougan, Atheism, Charles Darwin, Darwin’s warm little pond, Darwinism, DNA, double helix, Erasmus Darwin, Evolution, Francis Crick, Frankenstein, Harold Urey, Intelligent Design, James Watson, John Haldane, Karl August Weinhold, Louis Pasteur, Mary Shelley, Materialism, Matthew Clydesdale, Miller-Urey experiment, origin of life, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus, Prometheus Unbound, Richard Dawkins, spontaneous generation, Stanley Miller, Theism, Watson and Crick}

Taking Leave of Darwin’s Warm Little Pond

_{Neil Thomas

August 11, 2021

Evolution}

Today’s ID the Future offers a sneak peek at the new book Taking Leave of Darwin: A Longtime Agnostic Discovers the Case for Design by Neil Thomas (Discovery Institute Press). Here Scotsman Andrew McDiarmid reads from a Chapter 2 segment titled “The Elusive First Step.” Much of the book is a critical examination of Darwin’s theory of biological evolution, in its original and updated forms; but here Thomas takes up Darwin’s proposal for the unguided origin of the first living cell. Thomas, like others before, points up the persistent and growing problems with a designer-free origin of life, but here he also explores some of the cultural influences that primed society to view the leap from non-life to life as Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Jay Richards

Date
August 9, 2021

Categorized
Faith and Science

Tagged
Atheism, Carl Sagan, Christian charity, Christian invention of hospitals, Christian invention of universities, Christianity, Christopher Hitchens, Determinism, false dilemma, Free Will, golden rule, hypocrisy, imago dei, inherent human dignity, James Watt, Judeo-Christian religion, Materialism, moral absolutes, moral code, moral truths, mythology, Pre-Copernican cosmology, self-reliance, survival of the fittest, The Privileged Planet, Theism}

Jay Richards Dismantles Carl Sagan’s Passive Theist

_{Jay Richards

August 9, 2021

Faith and Science}

On today’s ID the Future, philosopher Jay Richards and host Eric Anderson wrap up their conversation about a video where Carl Sagan plumps for atheism. At one point Sagan suggests that if we give up on the belief in God, then we realize that we’re on our own and instead of waiting around for God to save us, we can roll up our sleeves and save ourselves and our planet. Richards notes that Sagan’s argument involves a strawman view of the Judeo-Christian worldview, which is miles apart from the idea of sitting around doing nothing while waiting for God to save us. As Richards and Anderson discuss, it’s no coincidence that the Christian West invented universities, hospitals, and science. What Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Jay Richards

Date
August 6, 2021

Categorized
Faith and Science

Tagged
agnosticism, Atheism, Carl Sagan, conceptions of God, God, Intelligent Design, Jay W. Richards, laws of physics, Materialism, methodological materialism, objective reality, philosophical materialism, purpose, redefining God, relativism, Return of the God Hypothesis, Stephen C. Meyer, The Privileged Planet, Theism, transcendent creator}

Jay Richards Talks God, Carl Sagan, and Word Games

_{Jay Richards

August 6, 2021

Faith and Science}

On today’s ID the Future, philosopher Jay Richards, co-author of The Privileged Planet, continues a conversation with host Eric Anderson about Carl Sagan and a short video clip where Sagan fields questions about God. Sagan points out that there are different conceptions of God, but Jay asks, what’s his point? There are different conceptions of nature. That doesn’t mean that nature isn’t out there and that there aren’t true and false things that can be said about it. Also, when the vast majority of people speak about God, they have in mind a powerful, conscious Creator of nature. Sagan plays definitional games by redefining the meaning of “God.” Listen in to learn how, to what purpose, and to hear what Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Jay Richards

Date
August 2, 2021

Categorized
Intelligent Design

Tagged
agnosticism, Aristotle, Atheism, book of nature, C.S. Lewis, Carl Sagan, Copernican Principle, cosmic beginning, cosmos, discoverability, earth, eternal universe, extrasolar planets, fifth element, fine tuning, founders of modern science, Galileo, general revelation, Gloria Patri, habitability, Intelligent Design, Jay W. Richards, Kepler, Materialism, pale blue dot, Pantheism, Pre-Copernican cosmology, Psalm 19, purpose, Science and faith, scientific revolution, space exploration, The Privileged Planet, Theism}

Jay Richards: Before Carl Sagan Said It, Science Debunked It

_{Jay Richards

August 2, 2021

Intelligent Design}

On today’s ID the Future, Privileged Planet co-author Jay W. Richards sits down with host Eric Anderson to discuss the gold rush of extrasolar planet discovery and how the Privileged Planet hypothesis has held up since 2004. Richards teases an anniversary edition of The Privileged Planet in the works, and he and Anderson discuss the statement that Carl Sagan is perhaps most famous for. Richards explains how science had already disproven the famous Sagan claim by the time the astronomer first uttered it to millions of viewers in his documentary series Cosmos.

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen C. Meyer

Date
June 16, 2021

Categorized
Intelligent Design

Tagged
Alexander Vilenkin, apologetics, beginning of universe, Big Bang, boundary constraints, Brief History of Time, fine tuning, Francis Beckwith, idealism, imaginary time, Intelligent Design, Logan Gage, Materialism, multiverse, Platonism, quantum cosmology, Return of the God Hypothesis, River Forest Thomism, singularity, Stephen Hawking, Stephen Meyer, Theism, Thomas Aquinas, Thomism, universal wave function, Wheeler-DeWitt equation}

Pat Flynn and Stephen Meyer Talk Thomism and Intelligent Design

_{Stephen C. Meyer

June 16, 2021

Intelligent Design}

On today’s ID the Future, Return of the God Hypothesis author Stephen C. Meyer sits down with podcaster and philosopher Pat Flynn to discuss Meyer’s new book. Flynn notes that some contemporary followers of the great medieval Catholic philosopher Thomas Aquinas argue that the theory of intelligent design is incompatible with Thomism. In response Meyer, a philosopher of science and the director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, points out that some Thomists are fully on board with ID, and he offers reasons why he sees ID as fully compatible with Thomistic philosophy. Flynn and Meyer then move into a discussion of Meyer’s new book with a particular focus on the sections exploring the beginning of the universe Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen C. Meyer

Date
May 26, 2021

Categorized
Intelligent Design

Tagged
beginning of universe, Big Bang, Biological Information, Darwin’s Doubt, Darwinism, developmental gene regulatory network, divine intervention, DNA, embryonic lethals, Eric Davidson, Evolution, fine tuning, hierarchically arranged information, integrated circuit, intelligent agents, Intelligent Design, J. Scott Turner, Materialism, Neo-Darwinism, scientific revolution, stacked information systems, teleology}

Return of the God Hypothesis: Q&A with Stephen Meyer, Pt. 1

_{Stephen C. Meyer

May 26, 2021

Intelligent Design}

On today’s ID the Future Stephen C. Meyer fields questions about Return of the God Hypothesis*, his new bestselling book from HarperOne. The occasion was a live Zoom event for people who had pre-ordered the book. Daniel Reeves emceed, and in his introductory conversation with Meyer the two discuss a colorful tidbit about Meyer’s time at Cambridge University when he was working on his PhD. Turns out we may have Meyer’s wife to thank for him still possessing the ability to write such a probing book. In the Q&A Meyer summarizes the thesis of the book and then takes questions—everything from how evolutionists explain, or fail to explain, the pattern of stacked information in living things to what’s the object Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen C. Meyer

Date
April 19, 2021

Categorized
Intelligent Design

Tagged
agnosticism, Atheism, Big Bang, Boltzmann brains, Brief History of Time, cosmological models, cosmology, fine-tuning, God, Hilbert Space, imaginary time, Inference to the Best Explanation, Intelligent Design, Lawrence Krauss, many worlds hypotheses, Materialism, multiverse, New Atheists, philosophy of science, quantum cosmology, quantum theory, Return of the God Hypothesis, Schrödinger equation, Science and faith, self-defeating arguments, singularity, Stephen C. Meyer, Stephen Hawking, Theism, universal wave function, Wheeler-DeWitt equation}

Stephen Meyer Defends His New Book to Cosmologist Brian Keating, Pt. 2

_{Stephen C. Meyer

April 19, 2021

Intelligent Design}

Today’s ID the Future continues (by permission) the long-form conversation between Stephen Meyer, author of the newly released USA Today bestseller Return of the God Hypothesis, and UC-San Diego physicist Brian Keating. Here in part two the conversation turns to quantum cosmology, multiverse hypotheses, Stephen Hawking, and Hawking’s now-you-see-it/now-you-don’t use of imaginary time to deny a cosmic beginning. Meyer argues that Hawking’s imaginary-time trick doesn’t wash, there remains powerful evidence for a cosmic beginning, and that this beginning is best explained as the creation act of an intelligent, immaterial being. Also, Keating and Meyer tackle the question: Did Isaac Newton really blunder by invoking a God of the gaps to periodically tweak the solar system to smooth out perturbations? That is, was Newton led Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Stephen C. Meyer

Date
April 12, 2021

Categorized
Intelligent Design

Tagged
agnosticism, Big Bang, Biological Information, circumstantial evidence, cosmological models, cosmology, ensemble of clues, epistemic support, fine-tuning, general revelation, God, Inference to the Best Explanation, Intelligent Design, Lawrence Krauss, Materialism, multiverse, New Atheists, NOMA, Non-overlapping magisteria, philosophy of science, purpose, quantum theory, Richard Dawkins, Roger Penrose, Science and faith, singularity, special revelation, Stephen C. Meyer, teleology, Theism, universal wave function, Wheeler-DeWitt equation}

Stephen Meyer Defends His New Book to Cosmologist Brian Keating, Pt. 1

_{Stephen C. Meyer

April 12, 2021

Intelligent Design}

Today’s ID the Future features, by permission, the first part of a long-form conversation between Stephen Meyer, author of the newly released Return of the God Hypothesis, and Brian Keating, the Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at the Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. Do the laws of cosmology, physics, and biology exhibit dispositive evidence of a cosmic designer? Do the Big Bang and fine tuning suggest a “Mind” behind it all? In the book and in this conversation Meyer argues yes. Keating tells what he likes about the new book and draws on his deep knowledge of cosmology to press Meyer with some great followup questions. Check out Keating’s website here, and Read More ›