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

Casey Luskin Talks Intelligent Design and Cultural Renewal on the Dr. Jeff Show

Casey Luskin
November 28, 2022
On this ID the Future, intelligent design scientist Casey Luskin sits down with Summit Ministries podcast host Dr. Jeff Myers to explain the heart of intelligent design theory and why it should matter to Christians and to anyone who prizes a culture committed to the view that life is meaningful and human beings more than matter in motion.

The Big Bang Origin of Homo

Casey Luskin
October 31, 2022
This unbridged gap between the ape-like australopithecines and the abruptly appearing human-like members of our genus challenges evolutionary accounts.

More from Casey Luskin on Our Intelligently Designed Planet—Plus Q&A

Casey Luskin
October 26, 2022
Today’s ID the Future continues geologist Casey Luskin’s presentation about how Earth is fine tuned in numerous ways for life, a talk he gave at the 2022 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. Here in the second half, he highlights the many ways Earth’s precise mix of atmospheric gases is strikingly fit for life. On top of that (or rather, beneath that), Earth’s active geology and water-rich surface—unique in our solar system—are masterful at helping maintain our life-friendly atmosphere over long ages. Luskin argues that these and other finely tuned characteristics of planet Earth strongly suggest intelligent design. He then offers an additional design argument, this one aesthetic in nature, and then takes questions from the audience. Part 1 of his talk Read More ›

Casey Luskin on the Intelligent Design of Earth for Life

Casey Luskin
October 24, 2022
On today’s ID the Future geologist Casey Luskin explains how Earth contains many intricate geological processes required for life. He argues that, taken together, this points to intelligent design rather than dumb luck. This episode is the first half of a talk Dr. Luskin presented at the 2022 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. Stay tuned for Pt. 2 and a Q&A with his original audience.

Casey Luskin on Why He Favors ID over Theistic Evolution

Casey Luskin
July 20, 2022
Today’s ID the Future continues intelligent design theorist Casey Luskin’s conversation with Apologetics 315 podcast hosts Brian Auten and Chad Gross. Here in Part 2, Luskin give a peek behind the scenes of ID 3.0, the current research program inspired by the intelligent design framework. Luskin is then asked to explain his reservations about theistic evolution, and Luskin points out the evidential, rhetorical, and logical problems he sees with the brand of theistic evolution advocated by Francis Collins and Biologos. What about the future of the intelligent design movement? Luskin says he’s optimistic, both because of the exciting research and publication breakthroughs of late, and because of the many converts he’s seeing to the ID framework. According to Luskin, many of these Read More ›

Casey Luskin Champions Intelligent Design at Apologetics 315

Casey Luskin
July 18, 2022
Today’s ID the Future features Apologetics 315 podcast hosts Brian Auten and Chad Gross interviewing scientist Casey Luskin about the past, present, and exciting future of the intelligent design movement. Here in Part 1, Luskin tells how he got into ID movement, gives the back story on the birth of a promising intelligent design research program known as ID 3.0, and relates how he ended up rushing back from his geology work in South Africa at the front end of the Covid-19 pandemic to rejoin Discovery Institute. From there Auten and Gross push Luskin to provide a clear, easily grasped definition of intelligent design and to explain how it differs from creationism. Luskin also makes the case that intelligent design Read More ›

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.

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

Casey Luskin
November 30, 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 ›

Review of William Lane Craig’s In Quest of the Historical Adam

Casey Luskin
November 30, 2021
Part 1: Introduction William Lane Craig is a well-respected Christian philosopher who has made important contributions to the case for cosmic design from fine-tuning and from the need for a first cause to explain the origin of the universe. His important books in both scholarly and popular venues include The Kalam Cosmological Argument; Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology, co-written with Quentin Smith Read More ›

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?