Intelligent Design the Future

On this episode of ID the Future, Dr. Michael Denton talks with host Sarah Chaffee about his new book Children of Light: The Astonishing Properties of Sunlight That Make Us Possible. Dr. Denton speaks of the properties of both light and water: From photosynthesis to metabolism to circulation, even from plate tectonics to the hydrologic cycle, both have exactly what it takes — in “amazingly fortuitous” ways — to make complex organic life possible; showing once again that the world is fine-tuned by a designing intelligence. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID The Future from the vault, Discovery Institute senior fellows David Berlinski and Michael Denton, both long-time critics of neo-Darwinism, discuss their primary objections to neo-Darwinian theory. For Berlinski, a mathematician and author of The Deniable Darwin, the problem is quantitative and methodological. For Denton, a geneticist and author of the new Discovery Institute Press book Children of Light: The Astonishing Properties of Light that Make Us Possible, the problem is empirical. Don’t miss this engaging discussion.  Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, Michael Denton explores a “miraculous convergence of properties” for life. Denton is both a medical doctor and a PhD biochemist, and now the author of the new book Children of Light: The Astonishing Properties of Sunlight That Make Us Possible (ebook available here). He lets his astonishment flow freely in this interview with host Sarah Chaffee, with topics ranging from the light of the sun to key chemicals here on earth. Taken together, it’s “an astonishing coincidence. … Science has discovered the fine-tuning… it’s not in doubt.… I’m blown away by this evidence.” And the common-sense conclusion, he says, is that a designing intelligence has fiddled with things to make life like us possible. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, Dr. Winston Ewert continues unpacking his new hypothesis challenging Darwin’s tree of life. Ewert is a software engineer, and his new model is inspired by the coder strategy of repurposing existing code, called modules, for different projects. Moreover, some of these modules depend on other modules, meaning you can generate a dependency graph to better understand the similarities and differences among software programs that share modules. Ewert argues that a dependency graph model better explains the pattern of similarities and differences in the history of life, better than a model of common descent by unguided evolution. As he also explains, the new model is testable in multiple ways. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, Robert Crowther interviews Dr. Michael Denton about the film Fire-Maker, which is available to watch for free on YouTube. Denton discusses how finely-tuned conditions allowing for both combustion and human life fostered development of technology and describes how it is a ‘close call’ that we are even able to make fires. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future, guest host Robert J. Marks talks with Dr. Winston Ewert about Ewert’s groundbreaking new hypothesis challenging Darwin’s common descent tree of life. The new model is based on the well-established technique of repurposing software code in different software projects. Ewert, a senior researcher at Biologic and the Evolutionary Informatics Lab, describes the nested hierarchical pattern of life and how any credible theory of life’s origin and diversity must explain it. He then describes how Darwin’s basic theory fits, and doesn’t fit, the pattern, and the various ancillary mechanisms invoked to close the gaps. These patches include horizontal gene transfer, convergent evolution, and incomplete lineage sorting. Ewert then cues up what he argues is a better, more elegant hypothesis, the common design hypothesis laid out in his peer-reviewed technical paper available here.

On this episode of ID the Future we hear part two of a panel discussion on “The Danger of Totalitarian Science,” held at the July 2018 FreedomFest in Las Vegas. This discussion followed a screening there of the film Human Zoos, written and directed by Dr. John West. In this second episode, Discovery Institute Senior Fellow George Gilder raises concerns about artificial intelligence — but not the usual economic ones. He’s more concerned about the thinking underlying some of the more ambitious attempts at AI — and how it would tend to turn the whole world into one very large yet confining human zoo.

On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, hear an installment in our ID Inquiry series, in which ID scientists and scholars answer your questions about intelligent design and evolution. Tune in to this episode as Dr. Robert Marks, discusses information and how it relates to intelligent design. Marks is the director of the recently-launched Walter Bradley Center for Natural & Artificial Intelligence and co-author of Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics. 

Today’s episode of ID the Future shines a light on Australian biochemist Michael Denton’s new book, Children of Light: The Astonishing Properties of Sunlight that Make Us Possible. Denton explores the finely tuned properties of sun and air, both fine-tuned for creatures like us. The new book shows how they are crucial parts of the larger story of our fine-tuned place in the cosmos. Or as he puts it in his new book, “Whatever the cause and whatever the ultimate explanation, nature appears to be fine-tuned to an astonishing degree for beings of our biology.” Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.

On this episode of ID the Future we hear the first part of a panel discussion from FreedomFest 2018, where John West and Richard Weikart speak on “The Danger of Totalitarian Science.” Science is a great blessing, but like all exercises of human reason and creativity, it can be abused. When science is considered the only route to knowledge, scientific experts are given the right to rule, and science becomes totalitarian. It happened decades ago, as documented in the Discovery Institute film Human Zoos. But don’t think it’s all in the past. As the panelists explain, totalitarian science remains with us today.