Today’s ID the Future spotlights AlphaFold, an artificial intelligence program in the news for its impressive breakthroughs at predicting a protein’s 3D structure from its amino acid sequence. Philosopher of Biology Paul Nelson walks listeners through the importance of this “amazing breakthrough,” as he describes it in a recent Evolution News article; but don’t uncork the champagne bottles just yet. The reason, according to Nelson, is that while proteins, protein sequences, and protein folding promise to reveal much that is still mysterious in molecular biology, we now know that biological information involves far more than just an organism’s proteome—that is, far more than the full suite of proteins expressed by an organism. Nelson uses analogies to manmade machines and cognates Read More ›

On this ID the Future from the vault, host Robert J. Marks interviews chemist Charles Thaxton about a seminal 1984 book he co-authored, The Mystery of Life’s Origin, foundational to the intelligent design movement. The main body of Mystery was generally praised, Thaxton explains. It was the epilogue that proved controversial. There the three authors reviewed five proposed explanations for life’s origins and suggested that the best explanation was that the first life originated through an act of creative intelligence. Thaxton also tells a little about the recently revised and expanded edition of the book, with new contributions from Stephen Meyer, Brian Miller, James Tour, and others.

On this ID the Future, mathematician William Dembski and host Eric Anderson explore whether design detection tools shed any light on the recent chess scandal involving world chess champion Magnus Carlsen and American grandmaster Hans Moke Niemann. Did Niemann cheat in a match where he beat Carlson, as some have claimed? There is no smoking gun in the case, so how might one determine if cheating occurred? At first glance the problem might seem far removed from the design detecting rules and tools Dembski laid out in his Cambridge University Press monograph The Design Inference. But actually there is some intriguing overlap. Is there a way to dig into the chess data and determine whether Niemann secretly used a computer chess engine to Read More ›

On this ID the Future, mathematician and philosopher William Dembski shares with host Eric Anderson about a revised and updated edition of Dembski’s pioneering 1998 Cambridge University Press book, The Design Inference. Dembski says he stands by that work and his early contributions to intelligent design theory, but adds that he has learned a lot more in the intervening years, particularly from his work with Robert J. Marks and Winston Ewert at the Evolutionary Informatics lab. Lessons from that and other work, Dembski explains, will enrich the new edition. What light do these design-detecting methods shed on modern evolutionary theory? Tune in as Dembski explains.

On this ID the Future from the vault, Nancy Pearcey, author of numerous books, including The Soul of Science (co-authored with Charles Thaxton) and Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality, challenges the common belief that Darwin’s leading early supporters were convinced of the main pillars of his theory. Many in the nineteenth century were already primed to accept a theory of evolution, but not necessarily by natural selection. As Pearcey explains, some of Darwin’s chief supporters had grave doubts about natural selection’s role, and some of them believed that God or a “vital force” guided evolution. But Darwin would have none of it. And what do evolutionary scientists think today? The disagreements persist and, if anything, have Read More ›

Today’s ID the Future brings listeners distinguished German paleontologist Günter Bechly’s fascinating story of how science and philosophy moved him from atheism to theism, with host Andrew McDiarmid providing a beautiful reading of the essay where Bechly relates his journey, “A Long Surrender: A Scientist’s Arduous Path from Hard Atheism to Faith.” As he explains, he did not surrender his atheism quickly or easily, but only after long study and much resistance. The final two-and-half minutes of the reading recount Bechly’s journey after he became a non-specific theist. There are many stories of the evidence for intelligent design bringing individuals to a general belief in a cosmic designer. In Bechly’s case, and as he explains in final part of his Read More ›

On today’s ID the Future, Michael Medved interviews biologist Michael Behe about Behe’s visually stunning YouTube series, Secrets of the Cell. Behe summarizes one of the key messages of the video series, namely that everything from the life-essential blood clotting system to a myriad of crucial protein structures in our bodies increasingly appear to be far beyond the reach of blind evolutionary mechanisms to build. Instead they appear to be the work of planning and purpose, which is the purview of mind. Meanwhile, even many mainstream evolutionists are growing skeptical of neo-Darwinism, Behe says, as biologists continue to uncover more and more layers of cellular sophistication. The emerging field of metagenomics, he says, is a case in point. Medved also Read More ›

On this ID the Future from the vault, Professor Emeritus Michael Flannery (U of Alabama-Birmingham) continues discussing evolutionist Kenneth Miller’s 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. Part 1 is here.

Today’s ID the Future continues geologist Casey Luskin’s presentation about how Earth is fine tuned in numerous ways for life, a talk he gave at the 2022 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. Here in the second half, he highlights the many ways Earth’s precise mix of atmospheric gases is strikingly fit for life. On top of that (or rather, beneath that), Earth’s active geology and water-rich surface—unique in our solar system—are masterful at helping maintain our life-friendly atmosphere over long ages. Luskin argues that these and other finely tuned characteristics of planet Earth strongly suggest intelligent design. He then offers an additional design argument, this one aesthetic in nature, and then takes questions from the audience. Part 1 of his talk Read More ›

On today’s ID the Future geologist Casey Luskin explains how Earth contains many intricate geological processes required for life. He argues that, taken together, this points to intelligent design rather than dumb luck. This episode is the first half of a talk Dr. Luskin presented at the 2022 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. Stay tuned for Pt. 2 and a Q&A with his original audience.