Intelligent Design the Future

Is life the result of purposeful design or unintended evolutionary accidents? It’s an ongoing debate that’s about to be impacted by new scientific evidence that suggests living things are full of optimal engineering. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his conversation with award-winning British engineer and designer Stuart Burgess about his new book Ultimate Engineering. In it Burgess gathers together compelling examples of advanced structures and systems in the human body and other vertebrates that go far beyond what humans have produced and point to intelligent design, not the cobbled-together results of a blind, purposeless process. In Part 2, Burgess compares his professional work on European Space Agency satellites to the far more sophisticated systems found in biology. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 1 in a separate conversation. Source

This classic ID the Future out of the archive brings in protein scientist Douglas Axe to discuss his contribution to the 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. Source

Evolutionary theory predicts a living world crowded with substandard designs. But as today’s guest reveals, the latest science has discovered just the opposite—designs so advanced they are at the limit of the possible, precisely as proponents of the theory of intelligent design have anticipated. On this episode of ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes to the show award-winning British engineer and designer Stuart Burgess to begin a two-part conversation with me about the extraordinary engineering feats of the human body: ingenious systems and devices that demonstrate what Burgess calls Ultimate Engineering. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 2 in a separate episode! Source

Starting this month, ID The Future listeners will get to enjoy a new episode each month (as well as a bingecast archive episode) from our sister podcast Mind Matters News, a production of the Discovery Institute's Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence. The Mind Matters News podcast brings you interviews and insight from computer scientists, engineers, inventors, neurosurgeons, and other experts who bring sanity to the conversation about natural and artificial intelligence, going beyond the hype to explore the undercurrents of these important ideas. On this episode of Mind Matters News, host Robert J. Marks is joined by Bradley Norris as they welcome Hal Philipp, the man behind the modern touchscreen and a prolific inventor with an impressive 98 U.S. patents. Hal shares his story and some of the lessons he’s learned over a career in invention. Source

Left to their own devices, the natural result of physics and chemistry is death, not life. So how are we still breathing? On this classic ID The Future from the archive, host Eric Anderson concludes his conversation with physician Howard Glicksman about some of the remarkable engineering challenges that have to be solved to produce and maintain living organisms such as ourselves. Glicksman is co-author with systems engineer Steve Laufmann of the book Your Designed Body, an exploration of the extraordinary system of systems that encompasses thousands of ingenious and interdependent engineering solutions to keep us alive and ticking. In the “just so” stories of the Darwinian narrative, these engineering solutions simply evolved. They emerged and got conserved. Voila! But it takes more than the laws of nature to keep us from dying. Tune in for the conclusion to this conversation! Source

Does the brain explain the mind completely? And what can phenomena like terminal lucidity and near-death experiences reveal about the relationship between mind and brain? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his two-part conversation exploring those questions with neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor, co-author with Denyse O’Leary of the recent book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul, and Alexander Batthyany, a leading researcher on terminal lucidity and author of Threshold: Terminal Lucidity and the Border Between Life and Death. In the first half of the conversation, we defined terminal lucidity and explored why it’s so puzzling. Today, we look at how it relates to near-death experiences, and we ask a deeper question: what does this phenomenon suggest about the nature of the human mind? This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Source

Why would the human mind sometimes appear strongest when the brain is weakest? On today's ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes to the show neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor, co-author with Denyse O’Leary of the recent book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul, and Alexander Batthyany, a leading researcher on terminal lucidity and author of Threshold: Terminal Lucidity and the Border Between Life and Death. The trio begins a two-part conversation discussing the phenomenon of terminal lucidity: what it is, what the evidence shows, and how it relates to debates about consciousness, mind, and human identity. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Source

When left to their own devices, the laws of nature tend toward death, not life. So what does it take for life to exist? On this classic ID The Future out of the vault, host Eric Anderson begins a two-part conversation with physician Howard Glicksman about some of the remarkable engineering challenges that have to be solved to produce and maintain living organisms such as ourselves. Glicksman is co-author with systems engineer Steve Laufmann of the book Your Designed Body, an exploration of the extraordinary system of systems that encompasses thousands of ingenious and interdependent engineering solutions to keep us alive and ticking. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Source

What is the ultimate origin of the information that powers life and the universe? For materialists, matter and energy are the fundamental stuff of life, but an even more crucial element is missing from that equation: information. And as our parents likely reminded us, you don't get anything in this life for free. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his four-part conversation with mathematician and philosopher Dr. William Dembski about his work on the law of conservation of information and how it can help us critically evaluate scientific theories of origins. In this final segment, Dembski explains the ultimate origin of information: what he calls irreducible intelligence. Don't miss other segments of this conversation in separate episodes! Source

Nothing's free in life. It's a sobering reality we all come to realize in life. And this cold, hard truth also applies to the realm of biology. On today's ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid continues his four-part discussion with mathematician and philosopher Dr. William Dembski. The topic is Dembski's work on the law of conservation of information, a principle asserting that information within a search process is redistributed from pre-existing sources rather than materializing from nothing. In addition to being used in computer science and physics, the law can also be applied to theories of biological origins to evaluate which theory best comports with the reality that all information comes with a cost, and that cost must be adequately explained. This is Part 3 of a four-part conversation. Source

In his landmark book Darwin's Black Box, biochemist Michael Behe wrote that "to appreciate complexity, you have to experience it." On today's ID The Future out of the vault, we conclude a three-part series with Dr. Jonathan McLatchie that dives into the complexity and design of sexual reproduction. In Part 3, Dr. McLatchie explains the design features of erectile function, the ejaculatory reflex, sperm chemotaxis, and the female egg cell. McLatchie reminds listeners how all separate parts work together as an irreducibly complex whole system. Be sure to catch Parts 1 and 2 of this informative series! Source

We already have a well-established law that shows us how order can decrease in a physical system. But is there a law that explains an increase in order? Scientists have been looking for "nature's missing law" for a while, and while they might be asking the right questions, their training in a bottom-up reductionist framework is leading them to the wrong answers. On this ID The Future, mathematician and philosopher Dr. William Dembski continues a four-part conversation with host Andrew McDiarmid about his work on the law of conservation of information and its implications for theories that attempt to explain the origin of life and the universe. This is Part 2 of a four-part conversation. Source

Chances are you’re already familiar with specified complexity, one of the mathematical pillars of the theory of intelligent design. There’s another pillar that is much less well known but equally vital: the law of conservation of information. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid begins a four-part conversation with mathematician and philosopher Dr. William Dembski. The conversation unpacks Dembski’s work on the law of conservation of information and its implications for scientific theories like Darwinian evolution. In Part 1, Dr. Dembski begins by defining information fundamentally as the narrowing of possibilities, where specifying one outcome excludes others. Using his a simple analogy of location, he explains that identifying a specific place, like the town of Aubrey, Texas, provides more Read More › Source

Sexual reproduction depends on an irreducibly complex core of components for its success. But can we really credit a gradual evolutionary process for this remarkable system? On this classic ID The Future from the archive, host Andrew McDiarmid continues his discussion with Dr. Jonathan McLatchie on why sex is the queen of problems for evolutionary theory and why instead it bears the hallmarks of a system governed by forethought and engineering. Dr. McLatchie covers two more components and explains why they are beyond the reach of a Darwinian process. This is Part 2 of a three-part conversation. Source

On today's ID the Future, host Casey Luskin continues a deep dive into the mounting hurdles facing origin of life (OOL) research with prebiotic synthesis expert Dr. Edward Peltzer. Peltzer, a seasoned ocean chemist and researcher, breaks down the critical flaws in the RNA world hypothesis, revealing that many successful lab experiments actually rely on investigator interference—intelligently designed interventions that researchers must make in experiments in order to yield results. But that's not how the prebiotic atmosphere would have worked, notes Peltzer: "Unless you've got graduate students and post-docs working on the early Earth to set up these conditions that were used in the experiments, it's not gonna happen." Peltzer also discusses how the goalposts of origin-of-life theory keep moving as our understanding of cellular complexity expands. And he shares a personal story of censorship as the discussion ends by exploring the risks faced by scientists who question the standard evolutionary paradigm. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 1 in a separate episode. Source

By now, you may have heard about some of the problems facing the field of origin-of-life research. Maybe you’ve come across Dr. James Tour making the argument that origin-of-life researchers are nowhere near their goal of creating life in a lab or proving a chemical evolutionary scenario for the origin of life. On today's ID The Future, we hear from another expert in origin-of-life chemistry and prebiotic synthesis: Dr. Edward Peltzer. Host Casey Luskin begins a conversation with Peltzer about the significant chemical hurdles facing origin-of-life research, specifically regarding the synthesis of biological building blocks. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 2 in a separate episode. Source

Sexual reproduction ought to be a recipe for evolutionary disaster. It's a waste of resources producing no short-term advantages. It demands an entirely different form of cell division and requires highly designed interconnected components to succeed. And yet, sex reigns supreme in the biological world. On this classic ID The Future episode, Dr. Jonathan McLatchie begins a series on why sex is the queen of problems for evolutionary theory and why instead it bears the hallmarks of a system governed by forethought and engineering. This is Part 1 of 3. Source

In this ID The Future, host Casey Luskin concludes a two-part conversation with University of Warwick professor and author Steve Fuller reflecting on the 20th anniversary of the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial, a case that examined the constitutionality of teaching intelligent design in public schools. Fuller discusses his experience serving as an expert witness for the defense. He defends his support of a policy that merely informed students of alternative theories to Darwinian evolution. He explains why high school is an ideal time to encourage an open mind toward science. Then he pivots to discuss the deeper issue of institutional censorship in science and how establishment science functions as a religion. He characterizes intelligent design as "anti-establishment" and suggests there's hope for a more pluralistic approach to science in the near future. This is Part 2 of a two-part interview. Source

On this episode of ID the Future, host Casey Luskin begins a two-part conversation with University of Warwick professor Steve Fuller to reflect on the historical and philosophical foundations of intelligent design (ID) and the 20th anniversary of the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial. Fuller, an expert witness in the Dover trial and a scholar in the history and philosophy of science, challenges the popular "conflict thesis" that suggests that science and religion are perpetually at war. Instead, he describes a different historical understanding where modern science originated from a theological foundation, noting pioneers like Newton and Galileo, who viewed the universe as an intelligible machine designed by a divine mind. This tradition suggests that the very project of science was launched by the belief that human minds, created in the image and likeness of God, are capable of uncovering the logical laws governing reality. The conversation delves into why intelligent design should be viewed as a rich, interdisciplinary research tradition rather than a modern invention. Fuller explores the concept of biomimicry as a form of reverse engineering nature to uncover the hidden engineering elements within organisms. While Luskin notes that ID can be approached through purely scientific observations of intelligent agency, Fuller argues that theology remains a vital component because it explains why the designer uses "code" or the "logos"—be it in DNA or mathematical laws—as a creative medium. This insightful first part of a two-part series highlights how ID integrates biology, engineering, and information science to offer a comprehensive explanation for the complexity of the natural world. Source

On this classic episode of ID The Future, we conclude a 2019 conversation between ID pioneer and biologist Dr. Jonathan Wells and distinguished Brazilian chemist Marcos Eberlin. The occasion for the chat was the publication of Dr. Eberlin’s book Foresight: How the Chemistry of Life Reveals Planning and Purpose. A member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Eberlin is a world leader in the field of mass spectrometry. His book was endorsed by three Nobel laureates. In the second half of the conversation, Eberlin explains how chemistry reveals foresight in the design of molecules and chemical systems. To the untrained eye, water looks like a simple clear liquid. To the chemist, it has 74 unique, even “weird” properties essential for life. And lightning seems purely destructive, but it, too, is essential for life. As Eberlin argues, both of these suggest foresight in the design of life — foresight to solve problems necessary to make life on earth possible. This is Part 2 of a two-part discussion. Source