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

Undeniable

cookie child christmas

Axe’s Not-So-Secret Guide to Making Cookies and Dragonflies

This ID the Future brings in protein scientist Douglas Axe to discuss his contribution to a new book, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Axe and host Casey Luskin discuss Axe’s thinking on the design intuition, the evidence that it’s triggered almost universally in small children when they observe things like dragonflies or fresh-baked cookies, and why he’s convinced that this intuition is a rational one rooted in our true sense of what sorts of things require know-how for their creation. For those who retort “Science!,” Axe has some of that to offer as well. As he tells Luskin, he led an experiment at a lab in Cambridge, England, on the abilities and limits of an enzyme to evolve. The research findings on this protein, beta-lactamase, were published in a prestigious, peer-reviewed research journal, and showed that while the enzyme does mutate, the odds of it randomly mutating to a fully novel function are so slim as to place such an event beyond the reach of chance, even if we give all the life forms that have ever existed on Earth a go at the challenge. The Petri dishes don’t lie. The numbers don’t lie. So why do so many academic biologists and other scholars resist the design implications of Axe’s research? For many it’s because they are theophobes, says Axe. He explains the term and, for evidence, points to a noted contemporary philosopher who frankly admits to being one.

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A Plea to Parents: Don’t “Butt Out” of Your Kids’ Education

On today’s ID the Future, host Robert Crowther sits down with writer Andrew McDiarmid to discuss his recent New York Post article, “Word to the Wise: Progressives Forget that Parents are in Charge of Kids’ Education.” The two discuss recent dustups in the news in which parents were told to butt out of the public education of their children. This is profoundly wrongheaded and for a variety of reasons, McDiarmid argues. McDiarmid, a Discovery Institute senior fellow, advocates for greater parental involvement, rather than less, and he and Crowther then apply the principle to the narrower question of how evolution is taught in the public high schools. In many districts evolutionary theory is taught as unquestionable dogma, with none of the theory’s weaknesses presented, and no attempt to encourage critical inquiry into the matter. Parents, students, and education leaders should never settle for this, McDiarmid says. He and Crowther wrap up their conversation by pointing listeners to several quality educational resources, many of them online, to help parents, students, and educators.

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chameleon on hand, photo as background, baby chamaleon

The Human Element in Science, Pt 2: Douglas Axe on The Eric Metaxas Show

On this episode of ID: The Future, author Douglas Axe continues his conversation with Eric Metaxas about Axe’s book Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life is Designed and his account of how he lost his position at a Cambridge research lab because of the implications of his research findings. Axe also talks about the currently polarized atmosphere in science, the reliability of the design intuition, and the larger implications of living in a designed universe. For more from The Eric Metaxas Show, visit www.metaxastalk.com

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A Billion Genes and Not One Beneficial Mutation

Evolutionists often speak in generalities about beneficial mutations. Such mutations may be rare, we’re assured, but they happen, and when they do, natural selection is there to capture, preserve and pass them along. All right, we now have some data to consider. We can put a number to the frequency of beneficial mutations in a very large sample. The number is …

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David Klinghoffer Reviews Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition that Life Is Designed

On this episode of ID the Future CSC Senior Fellow David Klinghoffer gives his review of the new book Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition that Life Is Designed, by biologist Douglas Axe. Klinghoffer calls the book an “intellectual tool,” and explains how the book engages even the non-scientists on key scientific issues of the day.

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