Intelligent Design the Future

On this episode of ID: the Future, Ira Berkowitz interviews M.I.T. Ph.D. Lee Spetner in Jerusalem. Together they explore key arguments from Spetner’s books Not by Chance and The Evolution Revolution. Spetner explains why he considers Neo-Darwinism less than a theory and offers a surprising take on Thomas Malthus. Spetner also argues that, contrary to Darwinist propaganda, the evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria demonstrates a loss of information rather than a gain.

On this episode of ID the Future, John G. West, associate director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, explains the Darwinian basis for getting rid of the unfit. One way this manifested itself in the 20th century was in the eugenics movement’s disturbing push for compulsory sterilization. Listen in to learn about prominent scientists who supported these efforts, and the disturbing facts about how far they advanced toward making their ideas a reality. To learn more, read Darwin Day in America. 

On this episode of ID: The Future, an educator asks whether teachers in public schools should teach intelligent design. Listen to the replies from Discovery Institute Senior Fellows John West, author of Darwin Day in America, and Jonathan Wells, author of Zombie Science, along with playwright Matt Chait. This conversation was taped live in Hollywood during a discussion after the final performance of Disinherit the Wind, a play that tells the story of a neurobiologist who sues his university for the right to challenge neo-Darwinian evolution.

On this episode of ID: The Future, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor talks about how enlisting doctors to perform assisted suicide is a betrayal of longstanding medical ethics. He describes it as an attempt to hijack the respectability of doctors to make the practice seem acceptable.

On this episode of ID: The Future, CSC Senior Fellow Jay Richards explains how perfect solar eclipses are the tip of an iceberg-size design argument found in a book he co-wrote, The Privileged Planet. The conditions for a habitable planet (right distance from the right size star, a big but not too big moon that is the right distance away to stabilize Earth’s tilt and circulate its oceans) are also conditions that make perfect solar eclipses from the Earth’s surface much more likely. And perfect eclipses aren’t just eerie and beautiful. They’ve helped scientists test and discover things, and are part of a larger pattern: The conditions needed for a habitable place in the cosmos correlate with the conditions well suited for scientific discovery. As Richards notes, this correlation is inexplicable if the cosmos is the product of chance. But if it’s intelligently designed with creatures like us in mind, it’s just what we might expect.

Which requires more faith? A belief in multiple universes or a belief in the intelligent design of our universe? On this episode of ID The Future, host David Boze explores the ideas found in a Harper's Magazine article by MIT physicist and author Alan Lightman. Some physicists attempt to side-step the intelligent design implications of our finely-tuned universe by suggesting that ours is merely one of countless universes, each with its own laws and constants.

Lightman: "If the multiverse idea is correct, then the historic mission of physics to explain all the properties of our universe...is futile, a beautiful philosophical dream that simply isn't true."

Tune in as Boze explains why it takes more faith NOT to believe in intelligent design!

On this episode of ID: The Future, Biologist Jonathan Wells, author of Zombie Science, and political scientist John West, author of Darwin Day in America, recently visited Hollywood for the final performance of the play Disinherit the Wind. The play tells the story of a neurobiologist who sues his university for the right to challenge neo-Darwinian evolution. Listen in on a post-play discussion in front of the audience featuring Wells, West, and playwright/actor Matt Chait as they discuss science, academic freedom, and the evidence of purpose in nature.

On this episode of ID the Future, Casey Luskin sits down with Dr. Cornelius Hunter for a discussion about “junk” DNA and the ENCODE project. Dr. Hunter lends his insight into how non-coding DNA fits into the ongoing debate between Darwinian evolution and Intelligent Design, noting how Darwinian evolutionists have changed their predictions and explanations in order to accommodate contradictory evidence that would falsify their theory.

On this episode of ID: The Future, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor discusses Jerry Coyne’s free speech double standard. Peter Singer has advocated killing some handicapped newborns in the crib, and after some handicapped people protested and disrupted his lectures, Coyne objected to their infringing on Singer’s free speech rights. But then Coyne supported efforts to intimidate and possibly fire professor Eric Hedin for noting evidence of fine-tuning in an honors astronomy course.

On this episode of ID: The Future, host Ray Bohlin talks with neurosurgeon Michael Egnor about Jerry Coyne’s recent argument for killing handicapped newborns. Egnor rebuts Coyne’s reasoning and shows that Coyne’s recommendation has antecedents in some of the eugenics practices of Nazi Germany.