theistic evolution

This episode of ID the Future features the second half of philosopher of science Stephen Meyer’s recent appearance on the Dennis Prager Show. Meyer and Prager discuss some of the critics of intelligent design who tie themselves in knots: Theistic evolutionists who claim life arose through a completely undirected process directed by God, and materialists who insist on a universe from “nothing,” but where “nothing” means something.

On this episode of ID the Future, Pr. Emeritus Michael Flannery (U of Alabama-Birmingham) continues his discussion of evolutionist Kenneth Miller’s recent book The Human Instinct: How We Evolved to Have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will. Flannery suggests that Miller’s “theistic evolution” is more precisely Darwinian theism — and that such a marriage is as ultimately hopeless as squaring the proverbial circle.

On this episode of ID the Future, biologist Ann Gauger responds to a negative review of the new Crossway anthology Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique, arguing that parts of the review are confused and contradictory. For instance, Denis Lamoureux uses classic design language while denying design. He says design is all front-loaded so that random evolutionary processes can produce designed outcomes, thus changing the meaning of both “random” and “evolution.” He accuses ID of being theologically driven, apparently unaware that it’s theistic evolution that is theological. And he seeks to support faith through appreciation of the wonders of nature while insisting that appeals to evidence of design in nature somehow undermine faith.

On this episode of ID the Future, host Mike Keas interviews Professor Emeritus Michael Flannery (U of Alabama-Birmingham) on evolutionist Kenneth Miller’s new book The Human Instinct: How We Evolved to Have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will. Miller is prominent as a science educator and supporter of Neo-Darwinian theistic evolution. Flannery, a historian of science, argues that Miller’s attempt to defend human exceptionalism on Neo-Darwinian grounds runs into fatal difficulties, as have similar attempts before. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast.

On this episode of ID the Future, we hear from two contributors to the new Crossway anthology, Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique, Molecular biologist Douglas Axe and philosopher of science Stephen Meyer explain how Carbon Valley Trumps Silicon Valley, and shouts intelligent design. They compare some of today’s technological marvels to living technology, and show how even “simple cells” far exceed even the best silicon valley has to offer.

German paleontologist Günter Bechly was co-author (with Stephen C. Meyer) of the chapter titled The Fossil Record and Universal Common Ancestry, in the major new book Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique.  In this second conversation with Sarah Chaffee on this topic, Bechly speaks of “life’s second ‘big bang,'” one of many discontinuities in the fossil record. “There’s no reasonable way,” he concludes, “to get from bacteria to mammals via evolutionary processes.”

Today on ID the Future we hear from the editors of the major new Crossway book, Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique. Philosophers J.P. Moreland and Stephen Meyer examine contradictions right at the heart of theistic evolution, answer logical challenges directed back at intelligent design theory, and explain more than one severe issue with thinking science ever has or ever could thrive on its own, without strong support from both philosophy and theology.

Sarah Chaffee interviews German paleontologist Günter Bechly on the book Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique, specifically his chapter with Stephen Meyer on The Fossil Record and Universal Common Ancestry. Bechly, who had been a prominent proponent of Darwinism, discovered late in his career that there are significant scientific reasons to doubt the evolutionary story. His chapter in the book describes some of these reasons.