Günter Bechly

Senior Fellow, Center for Science and Culture

Archives

Günter Bechly Says Goodbye to Darwinian Gradualism

Günter Bechly
April 6, 2020
On this episode of ID the Future, paleontologist Günter Bechly and host Andrew McDiarmid discuss Bechly’s article “Ape-Man Waves Goodbye to Darwinian Gradualism.” Bechly touches on the oldest australopithecine fossil skull ever found, from 3.8 million years ago. The researchers behind the find are confident of its age but puzzled because the discovery undercuts one of the best examples of alleged gradual transition between two hominid species, and it also doesn’t fit well with common theories of phylogenetic relationship. The evidence poses a significant problem for the Darwinian mechanistic paradigm, but can be readily explained with an intelligent design approach.

Günter Bechly on the Latest Fossil Find Confusing the Human “Evolutionary Tree”

Günter Bechly
May 1, 2019
On this episode of ID the Future, Andrew McDiarmid interviews paleontologist Günter Bechly about the latest hominin fossil that’s once again “rewriting human evolutionary history.” News of the find reached the media early this month. Dubbed homo luzonensis due to discovery on the Philippine island of Luzon, it poses yet another challenge to neo-Darwinian theory. A fossil like this one should have been found in Africa, not the Philippines. It should have been a lot older than it is, and it confuses the human evolutionary tree even more than before. “Darwinian theory predicts there should be one true tree of life that should converge,” says Bechly, “but the fossil record respectfully disagrees, again and again.”

Günter Bechly: Human Evolution’s Once ‘Indisputable Facts’ Now “Dead Theory”

Günter Bechly
March 20, 2019
On this episode of ID the Future, Andrew McDiarmid interviews paleoentomologist Günter Bechly about human evolution, and how the story keeps getting rewritten. The “out of Africa” story was once “indisputable,” but recent evidence has overturned it; it’s now “dead.” The human phylogenetic tree is riddled with question marks. An original human pair is no longer out of the question. So much weakly founded evidence has been oversold in the past, says Bechly, it’s still wise to apply a healthy dose of skepticism toward today’s “indisputable facts” of human evolution. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast.

Günter Bechly: Rich Fossil Record Says No to Insect Evolution

Günter Bechly
March 11, 2019
On this episode of ID the Future, Dr. Günter Bechly, paleoentomologist and former curator for amber and fossil insects for the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany, talks with host Andrew McDiarmid about evidence for macroevolution among insects. The fossil record is “saturated,” Bechly says. By that he doesn’t mean there aren’t new fossil forms to discover. Bechly himself has discovered several. He means we have an extensive enough sampling to confidently discern the major patterns of change and stasis in the history of life. And it shows no sign of insect evolution. It shows no transition from marine arthropods to terrestrial insects, none from wingless insects to winged insects, and no gradual evolution to insects (such as beetles and butterflies) that go through a metamorphosis that includes a pupal stage. And evidence for common ancestry is either contradictory or missing. In short, Bechly argues, the insect fossil record is much better explained by intelligent design than blind evolution.

Living Fossils Really Do Live — and Pose Problems for Evolution

Günter Bechly
May 14, 2018
On this episode of ID the Future, German paleo-entomologist Dr. Günter Bechly explains the real, living problem of living fossils — a term resisted by evolutionists though coined by Darwin himself and undeniably a living reality. These plants and animals have remained unchanged over eons: in the case of the horseshoe crab, nearly half a billion years through enormous upheaval.

Scientist Names Dragonfly Species after Michael Behe. Gets Roasted. Shrugs.

Günter Bechly
May 7, 2018
On this episode of ID the Future, paleoentomologist Günter Bechly discusses the new dragonfly fossil that he discovered, described, and named after intelligent design theorist Michael Behe — Chrismooreia michaelbehei. Bechly describes what’s remarkable about this stunning fossil, explains some problems dragonflies poses for Darwinism, and shares some of the strangely uninformed criticisms he’s received for naming the species after Behe.

A Paleontologist on Why the “Cambrian Explosion” Label Persists

Günter Bechly
April 23, 2018
On this episode of ID the Future, Sarah Chaffee interviews German paleo-entomologist Günter Bechly on the Cambrian explosion, the relatively sudden appearance of new body plans in the fossil record an estimated 550 million years ago. Dr. Bechly explains how the Cambrian explosion has been challenged by non-experts with an anti-ID bias, yet remains very much a real event in the opinion of specialists in the field — and with the continuing failure of Darwinian explanations, a strong source of evidential support for intelligent design.

Günter Bechly on Fossils and Common Descent, Pt 2

Günter Bechly
February 26, 2018
German paleontologist Günter Bechly was co-author (with Stephen C. Meyer) of the chapter titled The Fossil Record and Universal Common Ancestry, in the major new book Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique.  In this second conversation with Sarah Chaffee on this topic, Bechly speaks of “life’s second ‘big bang,'” one of many discontinuities in the fossil record. “There’s no reasonable way,” he concludes, “to get from bacteria to mammals via evolutionary processes.”

Günter Bechly on Fossils and Common Descent, Pt 1

Günter Bechly
February 19, 2018
Sarah Chaffee interviews German paleontologist Günter Bechly on the book Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique, specifically his chapter with Stephen Meyer on The Fossil Record and Universal Common Ancestry. Bechly, who had been a prominent proponent of Darwinism, discovered late in his career that there are significant scientific reasons to doubt the evolutionary story. His chapter in the book describes some of these reasons.

Another New Discovery Disrupts Human Evolution Account

Günter Bechly
February 12, 2018
On this episode of ID the Future, German paleontologist Günter Bechly describes the Dali skull from China, and how it disrupts the conventional out-of-Africa account of human origins. There were already several significant discoveries in 2017 upending traditional scientific accounts of human evolution. And now another one. Bechly asks, “How many more major rewritings do we need to endure until a major rethinking is considered?” For more, read the essay on Evolution News.