Intelligent Design the Future

If life is built on complex molecular machines and information that is both complex AND specified, can unguided evolution actually get the credit? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes a two-part conversation with molecular biologist Dr. Douglas Axe and biochemist Dr. Michael Behe, two experts featured in the new movie The Story of Everything. Over two episodes Axe and Behe are discussing their participation in the movie and unpacking some of the insights they share in it. And you'll enjoy more exclusive clips from the movie too!

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You might find this hard to believe, but back in Charles Darwin’s day, the cell was thought of as little more than a piece of jelly. Thomas Henry Huxley called it a “simple, homogenous globule of undifferentiated protoplasm.” But today, thanks to discoveries in molecular biology, we’ve discovered the cell is something far more astonishing. And that begs a crucial question: if the cell is infinitely more than Darwin envisioned, can a Darwinian process really explain its origin, and how it came to produce the diversity we see in life? On today's ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid begins a...

On this episode, Mind Matters News host Dr. Robert J. Marks welcomes Dr. Mihretu Guta to discuss one of his chapters in the volume Minding the Brain titled “Mirror Neurons, Consciousness, and the Bearer Question.” Dr. Guta discusses the concept of “mirror neurons” – a type of brain cell that fires when a person observes an action being performed, as well as when the person performs the same action themselves. The properties of these neurons suggest they may play a role in empathy and understanding others’ actions. Dr. Guta explores the implications of mirror neurons to the mind-brain debate and how further study...

By now you might have heard about The Story of Everything, the new movie based on Dr. Stephen Meyer’s book Return of the God Hypothesis. It’s a cinematic exploration of the cosmos that reveals the hidden hand behind our universe. We’re pretty excited about it, and we want you to be able to share in the excitement too! On this ID The Future, CSC Education & Outreach Director Daniel Reeves chats with physicist Dr. Brian Miller about his participation in the movie and why the film is such a powerful presentation of the evidence for intelligent design.

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NASA’s recent Artemis II mission pushed the limits of human possibility with a record-breaking crewed trip to the moon. Movies like Project Hail Mary and Disclosure Day are exploring the intriguing idea of extraterrestrial life. The U.S. government promises to release a trove of UFO data in the near future. It’s a great time to be asking the big questions about the universe! On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes Eric Esau to the show to discuss his latest film, The Story of Everything, a cinematic exploration of the scientific evidence for a mind behind the...

On today’s classic ID the Future out of the vault, astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez and host Casey Luskin discuss the idea of undirected panspermia. Gonzalez explains the basic idea and what the best current evidence says about its plausibility. The occasion is his chapter on panspermia in the anthology The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith, co-edited by Casey Luskin, associate director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. Undirected panspermia is the idea that the first life on our planet came from outer space, carried by chance processes from a faraway living planet on space dust, asteroids, or c...

The Declaration of Independence is our nation’s founding creed, reminding us time and again that “we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.” But for too long now, science has been misused to overturn the ideas found in our nation’s founding principles. Is there hope for recovering these truths anew? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid is joined again by Dr. John West to conclude a discussion about West's latest book Endowed By Our Creator: The Bible, Science, and the Battle for America’s Soul. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation.

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For generations, the hallowed words of the Declaration of Independence that we are endowed by a Creator with certain unalienable rights has inspired not only Americans, but millions around the globe. Yet today, many Americans are skeptical or confused about the Declaration’s key claims. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes Dr. John West to the podcast to begin a discussion about his latest book Endowed By Our Creator: The Bible, Science, and the Battle for America’s Soul. In Part 1, West reviews key words and phrases from the Declaration of Independence to reveal what the founders real...

Do humans project mathematical order onto nature? Or was it there all along? On this classic ID The Future from the vault, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his three-part conversation with Dr. Melissa Cain Travis about her book Thinking God’s Thoughts: Johannes Kepler and the Miracle of Cosmic Comprehensibility. In Part 3, we look at how Kepler's ideas and work can inform the scientific enterprise today. This is Part 3 of a 3-part discussion.

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ID The Future listeners now get to enjoy two episode a month 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 features interviews from experts in computing, engineering, science, and philosophy who bring sanity to the conversation about natural and artificial intelligence. And although the Mind Matters News podcast will not often explicitly discuss intelligent design, it regularly explores the nature of intelligence, the origin of information, and the things that make us uniquely human, concepts that are central to the theory of...

Why has Darwin’s theory of evolution succeeded so dramatically? The official story, of course, is that it provides a sweeping and complete explanation of the development of life on Earth, with the claim that it’s rock solid because it’s grounded in an abundance of evidence. But when we take a closer look at that official story, we see that it actually resembles more of a myth, a legendary origin story that has been championed and propped up successfully for over 160 years. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid treats you to a reading from False Messiah, a book...

Why is the cosmos intellectually accessible to us? On this classic ID The Future from vault, host Andrew McDiarmid continues his conversation with Dr. Melissa Cain Travis about her book Thinking God’s Thoughts: Johannes Kepler and the Miracle of Cosmic Comprehensibility. In Part 2, Travis illuminates Kepler's university years to show us how his study of mathematics and astronomy complemented his interest in theology. We learn about obstacles he overcame during his education and how an unexpected appointment to assist imperial mathematician Tycho Brahe jump-started his career as an astronomer and gave him the tools he needed to develop and ad...

How do you separate the facts from the narrative? That can be challenging these days, and the realm of science is no exception. On this ID The Future, enjoy the second half of a conversation with Dr. Casey Luskin that originally aired on the Come Let Us Reason Together Podcast hosted by Lenny Esposito. Casey discusses the growing controversy surrounding Sahelanthropus tchadensis, a fossil often described as one of the earliest human ancestors. But what began as a celebrated evolutionary discovery has now sparked open disagreement among evolutionary scientists themselves. In this concluding segment, Casey will discuss the telling researcher-to-specimen...

Science is a very human enterprise, and very human problems can color scientific research as well as the narratives cast around findings and results. On this ID The Future, we’re bringing you the first half of a conversation with Dr. Casey Luskin that originally aired on the Come Let Us Reason Together Podcast hosted by Lenny Esposito. Casey discusses the growing controversy surrounding Sahelanthropus tchadensis, a fossil often described as one of the earliest human ancestors. But what began as a celebrated evolutionary discovery has now sparked open disagreement among evolutionary scientists themselves. In this segment, Casey reviews the hi...

ID The Future listeners now 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. And although the Mind Matters News podcast will not often explicitly discuss intelligent design, it regularly ex...

In this episode of ID the Future, host Eric Anderson concludes his conversation with medical engineer and scientist Rob Stadler about the divide between high-confidence and low-confidence science. In this segment, Stadler explains how to apply a set of rigorous criteria to the claims of Neo-Darwinism to better evaluate its explanatory power. He argues that many cornerstone proofs for evolution, such as homology and the fossil record, actually represent low confidence science. Rather than providing direct, repeatable evidence of a causal event, these claims often rely on circular reasoning and unproven assumptions that extrapolate far beyond the actual data available...

In today's ID The Future, guest host Eric Anderson welcomes medical engineer and scientist Rob Stadler to begin a two-part discussion about the critical need for a new approach to evaluating the strength of evidence in science. Drawing from 30 years of experience in a field where lives depend on rigorous regulatory standards, Stadler explains how he developed six criteria to distinguish between high-confidence and low-confidence scientific claims. These criteria evaluate both the quality of the experiment and the quality of the scientist. This is Part 1 of a two-part discussion.

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On this classic ID The Future out of the vault, host Andrew McDiarmid kicks off a three-episode discussion with Dr. Melissa Cain Travis about her recent book Thinking God's Thoughts: Johannes Kepler and the Miracle of Cosmic Comprehensibility. A fellow at Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, Dr. Travis serves as Affiliate Faculty at Colorado Christian University's Lee Strobel Center for Evangelism and Applied Apologetics, where she teaches courses in the history and philosophy of science. In Part 1, learn why Kepler was instrumental in transforming classical astronomy into a true celestial physics. Like others before him, Kepler perceived a...

The relationship between Christianity and science is much older and richer than you might think. What can we learn about today’s scientific debates by studying that history? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes a two-part conversation with software engineer and intelligent design researcher Winston Ewert about his new book The Heavens, The Waters, and the Partridge, an exploration of the interaction between Christianity and science before modern science. This half of the conversation dives into the rich history of how early Christian thinkers engaged with the scientific consensus of their time. By exploring historical case studies su...

What can we learn about science and faith from those who lived before the rise of modern science? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes software engineer and intelligent design researcher Winston Ewert to the podcast to discuss his new book The Heavens, The Waters, and the Partridge, a closer look at the interaction between Christianity and science in the thousand years before modern science. Why pay attention to ancient scientific debates and specifically how early Christian thinkers responded to them? What could possibly be gained from going that far back? As Ewert points out, quite a lot...

Perhaps no one in the intelligent design research community of recent decades was more qualified to tackle the debate over Darwinism and design than Dr. Jonathan Wells. We lost Dr. Wells in 2024, but his work lives on in his groundbreaking books, articles, interviews, and even a full-length online course. Today's ID The Future out of the vault takes us all the way back to the summer of 2006 when Discovery Institute's Director of Communications Rob Crowther interviewed Dr. Wells about his new book of the time, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design. Senior Italian geneticist Giuseppe Sermonti has...

Now, 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. And although the Mind Matters News podcast will not often explicitly discuss intelligent design, it re...

On this episode of ID the Future, host Andrew McDiarmid sits down with freelance science reporter David Coppedge to explore the fascinating and emerging field of interoception. Unlike our five external senses or proprioception (the awareness of our limbs in space), interoception involves the constant internal communication between our organs and the brain. While much of this signaling happens unconsciously, it's vital in maintaining homeostasis, that dynamic equilibrium that allows our bodies to function under varying conditions. In this discussion, Coppedge delves into the intricate mechanics behind this internal dialogue, highlighting the role of Piezo proteins—receptors that translate physical pr...

On a classic episode of ID the Future out of the vault, host and evolutionary biologist Jonathan McLatchie sits down with software R&D engineer Jonathan Bartlett to discuss Bartlett’s work on the question of when genetic mutations are random versus directed. Bartlett explains that the issue isn’t an all-or-nothing affair. Often a given biological system dramatically limits the search space of possible mutations in useful ways, and then within that much more limited set of possible mutations, random processes are at play. He gives the example of antibody mutations. He argues that many biological systems show considerable evid...

How did the giraffe get its long neck? It sounds like the beginning of a children’s bedtime story, and it certainly has been that. But it’s also a matter of serious scientific debate, and the debate continues today. On this installment of ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his two-part discussion correcting claims of giraffe evolution with retired geneticist Dr. Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig. In Part 2, Dr. Lönnig challenges the prevailing narrative that the fossil Samotherium major serves as a transitional "missing link" in giraffe evolution. Lönnig argues that this evolutionary interpretation is contradicted by the facts...

We’ve all admired the long, majestic neck of the giraffe, and the question remains: how did the giraffe get its long neck? Is it a product of an evolutionary process? Or was a process of foresight and purpose involved? Helping us unpack this today is retired geneticist Dr. Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig, who challenges the traditional narrative of giraffe evolution, noting a sharp disconnect between Darwinian predictions and the actual fossil record. While neo-Darwinism, by default, expects a gradual, step-by-step progression of slight variations leading to the modern giraffe, the geological evidence tells a different story. Learn how the twin pro...

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. And although the Mind Matters News podcast will not often explicitly discuss intelligent de...

A good way to evaluate scientific theories of origins is to ask what we’d expect to find if the given hypothesis were true and compare that to what we actually observe. Under a Darwinian explanation of life, we’d expect to see designs cobbled together by a blind, undirected process, substandard designs that work but that, in the words of one scientist, wouldn’t win any prizes at an engineering competition. But when we compare that expectation with the scientific evidence, they don’t match up at all. On today's ID The Future, award-winning British engineer and designer Stuart Burgess...

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 proc...

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.

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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 conv...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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!

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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...