Casey Luskin

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. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Center for Science and Culture.

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); Science and Faith in Dialogue (Aosis, 2022); 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

Roundup of Functions for “Junk DNA” Supports the New RNA Gene Paradigm

_{Casey Luskin
November 29, 2023}

The junk DNA paradigm may have caused us to miss the precise DNA that helps makes a species unique.

Defending Douglas Axe on the Rarity of Protein Folds

_{Brian Miller and Casey Luskin
November 29, 2023}

The following examination and defense of Dr. Axe serves as a direct, empirical test of Rope Kojonen’s design hypothesis.

The New Post-Junk-DNA Paradigm of Molecular Biology: RNA Genes

_{Casey Luskin
November 28, 2023}

RNA genes have many functions but a large proportion entail gene regulation-related functions that fall within the category of epigenetics.

Peer-Reviewed Paper Reviews Ten “Anomalies” that Contradict the Junk DNA Paradigm

_{Casey Luskin
November 27, 2023}

John Mattick uses the language of historian of science Thomas Kuhn to predict that we are witnessing a “paradigm shift” away from the concept of junk DNA.

Newly Published Paper in BioEssays Recognizes Kuhnian “Paradigm Shift” Against Junk DNA

_{Casey Luskin
November 22, 2023}

A new theory “emerges first in the mind of one or a few individuals” but then it spreads because the field faces “crisis-provoking problems.”

I Just Want to Say One Word to You: Graphene

_{Casey Luskin
November 17, 2023}

Graphene was first characterized in 2004 when two researchers took graphite and exfoliated individual sheets of graphene using scotch tape.

Were Neanderthals and Humans the Same Species?

_{Casey Luskin
November 16, 2023}

The evidence does not demonstrate that humans evolved from some kind of humanlike yet intellectually primitive precursor.

Journal Rejects Claims that Homo naledi Buried Dead, Made Rock Art, Used Fire

_{Casey Luskin
November 15, 2023}

Researchers, led by Lee Berger, had claimed in a Netflix documentary that the species buried its dead, used fire, used tools, and made rock art.

Must AI Inevitably Degenerate into Nonsense, through “Model Collapse”?

_{Casey Luskin
November 10, 2023}

AI works because humans are real creative beings, and AIs are built using gigantic amounts of diverse and creative datasets made by humans.

Passing the Turing Test Is No Guarantee of True AI

_{Casey Luskin
November 9, 2023}

A person who speaks no Chinese whatsoever inhabits a room full of file cabinets full of questions and answers — all written in Chinese.

Ray Kurzweil Predicts: The “Singularity” by 2045

_{Casey Luskin
November 8, 2023}

Under Kurzweil’s transhumanist vision of the future, AI promises us superhuman capabilities complete with heaven on earth and eternal life.

Luskin and Miller Share Highlights of Recent African Speaking Tour

_{Casey Luskin
October 18, 2023}

Is there interest and support for intelligent design in other countries besides the United States? As today's interview will show, the answer to that question is a resounding yes! On this ID The Future, geologist and attorney Casey Luskin and physicist Brian Miller talk with host Andrew McDiarmid about their recent speaking trip to South Africa and Kenya. Accompanied by historian Richard Weikart for portions of it, the trio gave a total of 65 lectures to over 4,000 people on 7 university campuses and other locations. The response was inspiring. As Luskin puts it in his blog post detailing the trip, support for intelligent design is burning brightly across the continent of Africa. Tune in to learn more about this remarkable experience.

Discovery Institute Speakers Get a Hearty Reception in Africa

_{Casey Luskin
October 11, 2023}

At the University of Eldoret, in Kenya, we were greeted with — no joke — a band and a red carpet.

Not Enough Evidence: Casey Luskin on Recent Homo Naledi Claims

_{Casey Luskin
October 9, 2023}

A recent ABC News article says the latest research about the hominid species Homo naledi "erases the idea of human exceptionalism." A new Netflix documentary suggests that humans are not that special after all. Should we believe the media hype? Or is there more to the story? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid speaks with Dr. Casey Luskin to get an update on the Homo naledi controversy. In this episode, Dr. Luskin reviews each of the three main claims about Homo naledi made by Dr. Lee Berger and his team and gives us a summary of the strongest counter-arguments. He also gives his thoughts on the recent Netflix film. "It's very important to communicate scientific ideas to the public," says Luskin. "And I think it's great when scientists do that, when they do it carefully and responsibly and they're making sure that the evidence has been thoroughly worked out...in this case, there was a sense that they had sort of put the cart before the horse."