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The 12th Summer Seminar on Intelligent Design — I Will Remember the Faces

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As always, the push to prepare for the nine-day Summer Seminar on Intelligent Design, which concluded this past weekend, was intense. The Seminar, our 12th year running, opened as fifty students from around the world gathered on a Friday night at Discovery Institute for a welcome and introduction to the work of the Center for Science & Culture.

Packed with Information

What followed were days and evenings packed with information about design in the natural world. We heard about the cosmos, fine-tuning, the Big Bang, the problems of the first life, the Cambrian explosion, irreducible complexity, causal circularity, limits to protein evolution, and that was just up through Wednesday morning.

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The students asked good questions and were not afraid to challenge a lecturer’s conclusions. And from all accounts, they found it rewarding, even the ones who disagreed with one lecture or another.

I could tell as the week went on that things were going well, based on the volume of the conversation before each session. Students got to know each other quickly, finding common ground, yet also being astonished by each other’s accomplishments. This happens most years, but this year was special.

Women in Science

One thing I noticed in particular was the number of women that were there.

At their request we had a round table discussion on women in science, and the unique challenges we face. I look forward to watching these women flourish as they move forward in life.

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Unfortunately, the pictures we have of the Seminar need to be severely cropped, so as to protect the students’ identities. But their faces I will remember for a long time.

Photos: Stephen Meyer, Jonathan Wells, and Jay Richards teaching at the 2018 Summer Seminar, Seattle, by Daniel Reeves.