Michael Behe and Richard Sternberg to Defend Intelligent Design in Live Debate

Michael Behe, professor of biological sciences and Lehigh University, and Richard Sternberg, evolutionary biologist, will be taking part in a debate with Michael Ruse and Malgorzata Moczydlowska-Vidal over whether intelligent design is just an illusion or indeed a reality. Our friends at the En Arche Foundation will be organizing this event and have described it in further detail below:

Intelligent Design in Nature: Illusion or Reality?

The answer to this question has long puzzled scientists. In 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, which indicated that the entire living world is the result of a purely naturalistic process of evolution by means of natural selection operating on random mutation. Darwin’s opinion that design in nature is only apparent is today the prevalent view in science. Renowned evolutionist and popularizer of Darwinism, Richard Dawkins, stated in The Blind Watchmaker that “biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed”.

Are we really only dealing with the appearance of complicated things in nature? There are a growing number of scientists that claim that the design in nature is not illusory, but that it is a scientifically detectable feature of natural structures. This is the opinion advocated by intelligent design theorists. According to this approach, we have at our disposal certain criteria that allow us to decide whether a given structure arose accidentally or is the result of a project. Design theorists point out that the practice of design recognition is widely used in various fields of science (e.g. archaeology) and if it is successful there, why not attempt to scientifically detect design in nature?

Note: This event is not being livestreamed, so in order to join, you will need to be present in person.