Casey Luskin

Associate Director, Center for Science and Culture

Casey Luskin is a scientist and an attorney with graduate degrees in science and law, giving him expertise in both the scientific and legal dimensions of the debate over evolution. He holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Johannesburg where he specialized in paleomagnetism and the early plate tectonic history of South Africa. He earned a law degree from the University of San Diego, where he focused on First Amendment law, education law, and environmental law. His B.S. and M.S. degrees in Earth Sciences are from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied evolution extensively at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and conducted geological research at Scripps Institution for Oceanography. Dr. Luskin has been a California-licensed attorney since 2005, practicing primarily in the area of evolution-education in public schools and defending academic freedom for scientists who face discrimination because of their support for intelligent design (ID).

In his role at Discovery Institute, Dr. Luskin works as Associate Director of the Center for Science and Culture, where he helps direct the ID 3.0 Research Program, and assists and defends scientists, educators, and students who seek to freely study, research, and teach about the scientific debate over Darwinian evolution and ID. 

In 2001, Luskin co-founded the Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness (IDEA) Center, a non-profit helping students to investigate evolution by starting "IDEA Clubs" on college and high school campuses. Casey and the IDEA Club movement he co-founded were featured in the April 27, 2005 cover story of the journal Nature. 

Dr. Luskin has lectured widely on ID at university campuses and conferences on four continents, and has coauthored or contributed to multiple books. In 2006, he coauthored Traipsing Into Evolution: Intelligent Design and the Kitzmiller v. Dover Decision, a detailed critique of the first court ruling to assess the constitutionality of teaching ID in public schools. In 2012, he coauthored Science and Human Origins, reviewing fossil and genetic evidence which challenges human/ape common ancestry. He is coauthor of Discovering Intelligent Design, the first comprehensive introductory intelligent design curriculum, published in 2013. He co-edited with William Dembski and Joseph Holden The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions About Life and the Cosmos, which won an honorable mention in World magazine's 2021 "accessible science" book of the year awards. Luskin has also contributed to the volumes Intelligent Design 101: Leading Experts Explain the Key Issues; Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Theological, and Philosophical Critique (Crossway, 2017); The Praeger Handbook of Religion and Education in the United States; Dictionary of Christianity and Science (Zondervan, 2017); Signature of Controversy; The Unofficial Guide to Cosmos; Debating Darwin's Doubt; More than Myth; and the award-winning God and Evolution. 

Dr. Luskin has published in both technical law and science journals, including Journal of Church and State; Montana Law Review; Geochemistry, Geophysics, and Geosystems; South African Journal of Geology; Hamline Law Review; Liberty University Law Review; Trinity Law Review; University of St. Thomas Journal of Law & Public Policy; and Progress in Complexity, Information, and Design. He also contributed to The Archaean Geology of the Kaapvaal Craton, Southern Africa (Springer Nature, 2019) and Ancient Supercontinents and the Paleogeography of Earth (Elsevier, 2021).

A senior editor at Salvo Magazine, Luskin has published in a variety of print and online popular media. He has commented on the debate over evolution in hundreds of radio, TV, and other media sources, including the NY Times, LA Times, Nature, Science, U.S. News & World Report, Washington D.C. Examiner, Human Events, The Blaze, The Stream, The Federalist, Christianity Today, BeliefNet, Touchstone, World, Christian Science Monitor, Coast to Coast, NPR, CNN.com, C-SPAN, and Foxnews. Luskin is a regular contributor to Evolution News and the ID the Future Podcast.

Casey is a Christian with a Jewish background. His special interests include geology, science education, biological origins, and environmental protection. He and his wife reside in the Seattle region, where they enjoy hiking, camping, kayaking, sailing, and other outdoor activities.

Archives

The Good Earth

Insights from Geology on the Design of Our Planet for Life
Casey Luskin
May 24, 2022
Geologist Casey Luskin explains how Earth contains many intricate geological processes that are required for life and suggest intelligent design.

Casey Luskin and Adam Shapiro Debate Intelligent Design, Pt. 2

Casey Luskin
April 6, 2022
This ID the Future continues the debate between design theorist Casey Luskin, an editor of The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith, and science historian Adam Shapiro, co-author of Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction. Justin Brierley, of the popular British debate program Unbelievable?, hosts. In this second half of the conversation, Shapiro argues that intelligent design’s popularity seems to have waned. Casey Luskin counters, arguing that the number and frequency of New York Times articles on ID is a superficial metric and that the ID research program is exploding, with the number of peer-reviewed ID papers growing every year, and the number of interested graduate students, ID hubs, and conferences expanding around the world, including ID conferences attended by high-level scientists, including Read More ›

Casey Luskin and Adam Shapiro Debate Intelligent Design, Pt. 1

Casey Luskin
April 4, 2022
On today’s ID the Future, design theorist Casey Luskin, an editor of The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith, and science historian Adam Shapiro, co-author of Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction, debate the meaning and prospects of intelligent design. Here in this first half of their conversation with host Justin Brierley of the Unbelievable? podcast, the focus is on how the term intelligent design is used, or misused, and its relationship to theological issues. The interview is used by permission of Justin Brierley.

Casey Luskin with Hank Hanegraff on the Existence of Adam and Eve

Hank Unplugged Podcast
Casey Luskin
March 31, 2022
Hank Hanegraaff, the host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast and the Hank Unplugged podcast, is joined by Dr. Casey Luskin, associate director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, and author of “Lessons Learned (and Not Learned) from the Evangelical Debate Over Adam and Eve” in the upcoming issue of the Christian Research Journal. Hank and Dr. Luskin Read More ›

Is Intelligent Design Advancing or In Retreat?

Casey Luskin
March 25, 2022
Casey Luskin of the Discovery Institute, and editor of The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith argues that the Intelligent Design movement has never been stronger. Science historian Adam Shapiro, co-author of Science and Religion: A very short introduction responds.

Casey Luskin: Biogeography Is No Friend of Common Descent

Casey Luskin
January 12, 2022
On this ID the Future, geologist Casey Luskin discusses biogeography and the problems it poses for the idea of universal common descent. To make it work, evolutionists have to propose, for instance, that old world monkeys rafted across the Atlantic from Africa to South America on a natural raft. Really? That’s some raft. And how did the monkeys not starve to death? Or die of thirst? They couldn’t drink salty ocean water, after all. And talk about a genetic bottleneck! That’s just one of several problems Luskin raises with the idea that all species gradually evolved from a universal common ancestor. In his conversation with host Emily Reeves, he also touches on the problem of convergence, as when two creatures Read More ›

Casey Luskin on the Nature and Fruits of Intelligent Design

Casey Luskin
December 15, 2021
On today’s ID the Future, guest Casey Luskin and host Eric Anderson untangle the differences between creationism, intelligent design, and theistic evolution. There are important distinctions as well as areas of overlap, Luskin explains, but the theory of intelligent design focuses on the book of nature, rather than on the Bible or some other sacred book, and offers evidence that certain features of the natural world are best explained by reference to an intelligent cause. The case for intelligent design includes negative arguments against competitor explanations, such as neo-Darwinism, as well as positive evidence for design. And Luskin notes that increasingly this paradigm is fueling fruitful scientific research in everything from protein science to pharmacology and cosmology. To support this Read More ›

Casey Luskin on Successfully Defending Intelligent Design

Casey Luskin
December 13, 2021
On today’s ID the Future, Casey Luskin further discusses his recent essay, “What Is Intelligent Design and How Should We Defend It,” in the new book The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. In his conversation with host Eric Anderson, Luskin rebuts the claims that intelligent design isn’t science (it is), doesn’t produce peer-reviewed research (it does), and is just a negative argument against evolution. He also offers advice on handling personal attacks and objections that you’ve never encountered before. To consider supporting the work of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and its brave scientists, click here for options.

Casey Luskin on Why Intelligent Design is Worth Defending

Casey Luskin
November 29, 2021
Today’s ID the Future spotlights The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Host Eric Anderson interviews one of the anthology’s co-editors and contributors, geologist Casey Luskin. The two focus on just one of Luskin’s contributed essays, one that addresses two primary questions: Is intelligent design true? And is it worth expending the energy to defend it against powerful opposition? Luskin answers both questions in the affirmative, and explains why he sees the new anthology as a great resource in the cause of intelligent design.

09: Fossils: Mysterious Origins

Günter Bechly
November 19, 2021
It’s often claimed that fossils provide convincing evidence for Darwinian evolution in the history of life. But is that really the case? In this newest episode of Science Uprising, join paleontologist Günter Bechly, geologist Casey Luskin, and evolutionary biologist Richard Sternberg as they explore the state of the debate over the fossil record and the evidence for Darwinian evolution. Plus, Read More ›

The Unique Origins of Humanity in the Fossil Record

Casey Luskin
November 2, 2021
Does the fossil record prove humans developed from ape-like ancestors? Or does it reveal that humans had a unique origin? In this lecture, geologist Casey Luskin offers some surprising evidence about the fossil history of humanity.

Fossil Evidence for Human Evolution

Hype or Good Science?
Casey Luskin
October 26, 2021
In this bonus interview released as part of the Science Uprising series, geologist Casey Luskin discusses fact and fiction when it comes to fossils that are said to support the evolution of humans from ape-like ancestors. What is media hype, and what is good science? What about specific fossils like Ardi, Lucy, and Homo naledi?

A Scientifically Weak and Ethically Uninspiring Vision of Human Origins: Review of Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens

Casey Luskin
October 25, 2021
When traveling through airports I love to browse bookstores, because it gives a sense of what ideas are tickling the public’s ears. For the last few years I’ve seen in airport bookstores a book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (HarperPerennial, 2015), stocked in large piles and prominently displayed. In fact it’s still being sold in airport bookstores, despite the fact Read More ›

08: Human Evolution

Jonathan Wells
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 Read More ›

Bidding Adieu to Steven Weinberg’s Take on Science and Faith

Casey Luskin
September 29, 2021
On today’s ID the Future, Casey Luskin, associate director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, discusses his Evolution News article about the recently deceased Steven Weinberg. On Weinberg’s view, one of science’s social functions is to undermine religion, which he sees as superstition. Luskin takes the opposite view and points to skilled and successful scientists he got to know in Africa. He says these scientists are convinced that the supernatural is real and would find Weinberg’s secular Western rejection of the supernatural as blinkered. Luskin and host Robert Crowther also discuss a hopeful trend among some atheists toward a more civil and respectful way of engaging intelligent design, even to the point of acknowledging that design theorists are Read More ›

Casey Luskin Talks Tectonics, Design and Hidden Beauty

Casey Luskin
September 27, 2021
On today’s ID the Future host Emily Reeves talks with geologist and intelligent design theorist Casey Luskin about his PhD. Luskin says his dissertation wasn’t focused on intelligent design at all; but the knowledge he gained and the methodology he employed well might provide him grist for ID-oriented work down the road. The wide-ranging conversation takes Luskin and Reeves from his geological work in Africa and the method known as uniformitarianism to plate tectonics, paleomagnetism, crustal recycling, and some books on how Earth appears fine-tuned for life. Luskin also tells about some astonishing beauty that lies hidden right under our feet, and how we can discover it for ourselves.

The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith

Exploring the Ultimate Questions About Life and the Cosmos
William A. Dembski
September 21, 2021
Science and faith are often presented as mutually exclusive, when in reality the scientific evidence provides powerful evidence that life and the universe were designed. The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions About Life and the Cosmos features more than 40 entries authored by over 30 qualified experts.

Casey Luskin Reviews Three Views on Christianity and Science

Casey Luskin
June 28, 2021
On today’s ID the Future, host Tom Gilson and guest Casey Luskin discuss a new book Luskin recently reviewed at Evolution News, Three Views on Christianity and Science. Luskin, associate director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, summarizes the three views covered in the book: the independence view presented by Michael Ruse, the dialogue view presented by Alister McGrath, and the constrained integration view presented by Bruce Gordon. Luskin critiques the first two and argues that the dialogue view, in practice, quickly devolves into a monologue where religion is supposed to sit down and shut up the moment there is a point of difference between religion and consensus science. He says this is doubly problematic because (a) scientists Read More ›

Casey Luskin Returns, Teases a New Book, Celebrates ID 3.0

Casey Luskin
January 27, 2021
On today’s ID the Future, Rob Crowther continues his conversation with Casey Luskin, the intelligent design proponent who previously worked for Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and has now returned. As Luskin explains, he left to pursue a PhD in geology at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. The two discuss the wild conspiracy theories circulated by opponents of intelligent design when Luskin stepped away from Discovery Institute five years ago. Luskin also tells about an upcoming book he’s been working on with William Dembski, another intelligent design proponent who stepped away from day-to-day ID work and is now putting a foot back in the ID waters. Also on tap in today’s conversation, Luskin and Dembski’s upcoming appearance Read More ›