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Frightening Abuses of Science: A Conversation with Wesley J. Smith

The Center for Science and Culture
October 30, 2023
Experiments on the living unborn. Organ harvesting. Reckless biotech. Radical environmentalism. These are not horror stories playing at your local movie theater. They’re playing out in labs, hospitals, and institutes across America. On this episode of ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid speaks with bioethicist Wesley J. Smith about frightening abuses of science being done in the name of progress. In this unnerving exchange, Smith discusses examples of biotechnology that are advancing faster than our ethical considerations, including synthetic human embryos, genetic engineering, and fetal farming. He unpacks recent attempts by environmental activists to give rights to non-living things like rivers and oceans. He explains the difference between animal rights and animal welfare, …

How to Glorify God in Your Family with Social Media (2023 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith)

The Center for Science and Culture
October 17, 2023
How do you keep your family safe from the dangers of social media and other technologies? How can you use technology to promote human flourishing rather than dehumanization? Cultural commentator Andrew McDiarmid explores the answers to these questions and more. This talk took place at the 2023 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. Andrew McDiarmid is Director of Podcasting and a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute. He is also a contributing writer to MindMatters.ai. He produces ID The Future, a podcast from the Center for Science & Culture that presents the case, research, and implications of intelligent design and explores the debate over evolution. He writes and speaks regularly on the impact of technology on human living. His work has appeared in numerous publications, …

Molecules Don’t Care About Life! (2023 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith)

The Center for Science and Culture
October 10, 2023
What does the science REALLY show about the origin of life? Renowned chemistry professor James Tour and philosopher of science Stephen Meyer explain. This session was part of the 2023 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith sponsored by Discovery Institute. A synthetic organic chemist, James Tour is the T. T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Computer Science, and Professor of Materials Science and Nano-Engineering at Rice University. Stephen Meyer directs the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute in Seattle. He is author of the New York Times-bestseller “Darwin’s Doubt” (2013) as well as the books “Signature in the Cell (2009) and “Return of the God Hypothesis” (2021). …

Science Doesn’t Say Anything—Scientists Do (2023 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith)

The Center for Science and Culture
October 3, 2023
Author Frank Turek dissects the biases and assumptions of some who claim to speak for science in our culture. President of CrossExamined.org, Dr. Turek is co-author of books such as “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist” and “Legislating Morality.” He has debated prominent atheists including Christopher Hitchens and Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine. Turek has appeared on hundreds of radio programs and many top TV networks including Fox News, ABC, and CBS. A former aviator in the US Navy, Frank has a master’s degree from George Washington University and a doctorate from Southern Evangelical Seminary. This talk was delivered at the 2023 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith sponsored by Discovery Institute. …

The Codes of Life: Your Amazing Information

Long Story Short Episode 10
The Center for Science and Culture
September 12, 2023
Inside your body a massive amount of encoded information that makes your life possible. Your body also contains sophisticated computer-like hardware that reads this coded information and builds the things you need for a living system. Explore the mystery of the amazing information codes inside you in this first installment of the “Codes of Life” mini-series produced as part of the Long Story Short show on YouTube. …

Origin of Life: Reality Check

Long Story Short, Episode 9
The Center for Science and Culture
April 26, 2023
Can you trust everything you hear about the origin of life? The short answer is “No.” Many popular science expositors overstate the evidence for the natural, chemical origin of life and promote gross misinformation to the public on this topic. This video reviews popular claims made about the origin of life and shows why they are contradicted by the evidence, misleading, or flat out false. This is the sixth of several episodes about the origin of life presented as part of the Long Story Short series. If you enjoyed this one, you will like all the others. Clever, humorous, substantive, brief, Long Story Short, is an occasional video series that compresses key points in the debate between Darwinism and intelligent design into a very welcome format: concise, accessible, and …

Darwin Comes to Africa

The Center for Science and Culture
February 21, 2023
Charles Darwin fathered not just a scientific theory, but a toxic social ideology that fueled racist colonial policies in Africa. In this sobering book, African scholar Olufemi Oluniyi traces the insidious impact of Darwinian ideas on British imperial policies in Northern Nigeria. Drawing on official documents, public statements, and well-attested historical events, Oluniyi documents how concepts such as evolutionary racism and survival of the fittest were systematically used to demean black Africans, consigning some people to a status of permanent inferiority. Rejecting Social Darwinism, Oluniyi makes a compelling argument for the equality of all human beings, and for recognizing Africa’s many seminal contributions to the history of human civilization. For more information, visit …

Origin of Life: Replication (with References)

Long Story Short, Episode 8
The Center for Science and Culture
February 14, 2023
What is life and how did it originate? Many origin of life researchers claim that life started as a primitive self-replicating molecule, and evolved from there into all the complex forms of life we observe. But does the evidence support this? This video reviews obstacles to forming a self-replicating system, challenging the “RNA World” and “RNA-Peptide World” hypotheses and other supposed examples of self-replicating molecules. This is the fifth of several episodes about the origin of life presented as part of the Long Story Short series. More episodes here. References and Notes Sources and notes from the video. Note: Replicating DNA is a very complex process. This paper shows that it takes a minimum of 14 different enzymes (made of 25 proteins) to …

Origin of Life: Energy Harnessing

Another Challenge to the Origin of Life
The Center for Science and Culture
August 1, 2022
Chemical evolution would have required a continuous supply of energy to create the first life. But are the energy sources that have been proposed for chemical evolution realistic?

Discovery Institute’s Science Education Policy

What does Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture recommend for science education curriculum?
The Center for Science and Culture
April 7, 2022
As a matter of public policy, Discovery Institute opposes any effort to require the teaching of intelligent design by school districts or state boards of education.

Origin of Life: Cell Membranes

Long Story Short, Episode 6
The Center for Science and Culture
April 4, 2022
Cells can't exist without membranes to protect them. So any explanation of the origin of life needs to explain the development of cell membranes.

Untangler of Knots: The Amazing Topoisomerase Molecular Machine

The Center for Science and Culture
February 16, 2022
Topoisomerase II is an extremely important enzyme in your cells that is designed to untangle knots and supercoils in DNA strands that arise during replication and transcription. It does this by grabbing two tangled DNA segments, holding one steady while it breaks the other segment in two, and then passing the first segment through the break. The second segment is then reconnected, and the two DNA segments are released, having been successfully untangled. Without topoisomerases, chromosomes would become an impossible mess, making DNA replication, transcription, and cell duplication impossible.

Origin of Life: Polymerization!

An Episode of Long Story Short
The Center for Science and Culture
November 30, 2021
We’re often told that origin of life experiments have simulated the production of life’s building blocks under conditions that mimicked the early earth. Or at least that’s what many textbooks say. But is this really true? This video deals with one particular challenge to evolving life from chemicals: the challenge of creating biopolymers. Watch this video to appreciate how origin of life experiments don’t come anywhere close to accounting for the vast complexity of biology. This is the second of several episodes about the origin of life presented as part of the Long Story Short series. Related Where James Tour and Stephen Meyer DisagreeDavid Klinghoffer August 5, 20243Intelligent DesignBreakthrough in Understanding Life’s Origin?Brian Miller April 8, 20248Intelligent …

Challenge to Origin of Life Teaser

The Center for Science and Culture
November 18, 2021
We’re often told that origin of life experiments have simulated the production of life’s building blocks under conditions that mimicked the early earth. Or at least that’s what many textbooks say. But is this really true? This is a teaser for a new video that will tackle one particular challenge to evolving life from chemicals: the challenge of creating biopolymers. The video is an episode in the Long Story Short series on YouTube.

Science Uprising 08: Human Evolution

The Monkey Bias
Jonathan Wells, Casey Luskin and The Center for Science and Culture
October 13, 2021
Are we “modified monkeys”? Or does nature suggest we are something truly unique? How solid is the fossil evidence for human evolution? Explore this explosive topic in Episode 8 of the Science Uprising series with featured guests biologist Jonathan Wells and geologist Casey Luskin. Wells holds PhDs from Yale and the University of California, Berkeley and is author of the books Icons of Evolution, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design, The Myth of Junk DNA, and Zombie Science. Luskin holds a PhD in geology from the University of Johannesburg and is co-author of the book Science and Human Origins and co-editor of The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Learn more at scienceuprising.com. …

Origin of Life: The Basic Building Blocks

Long Story Short, Episode 4
The Center for Science and Culture
August 18, 2021
We’re often told that origin of life experiments have simulated the production of life’s building blocks under conditions that mimicked the early earth. Or at least that’s what many textbooks say. But is this really true? This video shows how origin of life researchers “cheat” by using purified chemicals that don’t reproduce actual natural conditions. Another dirty little secret is that prebiotic synthesis experiments often don’t report the bulk of the product: toxic garbage that destroys the building blocks’ ability to form more complex molecules. Watch this video to appreciate how origin of life experiments don’t come anywhere close to accounting for the vast complexity of biology. This is the first of several episodes about the origin of life presented as part of the …

The Paradigm Project

The Center for Science and Culture
May 4, 2021
Meet some of the world’s most dangerous minds — scientists who are daring to claim that nature provides compelling evidence of intelligent design. In this new video premiering May 4, join host Kutter Callaway as he investigates recent developments about the origin and evolution of life and what these developments may mean for humanity’s age-old search for faith and purpose.

Criticism and Response for Return of the God Hypothesis

The Center for Science and Culture
March 3, 2021
Dr. Meyer’s compelling arguments for intelligent design are not without their detractors, and his latest book Return of the God Hypothesis is no exception! Here we post criticism to the arguments of the book, along with appropriate responses from the intelligent design research community. Re: Scott Buchanan’s Summary of Scientific Responses Regarding “Scientists’ Responses to Stephen Meyer’s “Return of the God Hypothesis” by Scott Buchanan at Letters to Creationists (May 14, 2021). “From a Theistic Evolutionist, Long-Ago Answered Critiques of Stephen Meyer’s Book” by Casey Luskin at Evolution News (May 15, 2024). Re: Responding to Recent Attempts to Avoid a Cosmic Beginning to the Universe Regarding “How Could the Big Bang …