Robert Shedinger

Robert F. Shedinger is Professor of Religion at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Temple University and is the author most recently of The Mystery of Evolutionary Mechanisms: Darwinian Biology's Grand Narrative of Triumph and the Subversion of Religion. He regularly teaches a course on the relationship between science and religion.

Archives

On the 70th Anniversary of His Death, Anything to Salute in the Thought of Teilhard de Chardin?

_{Robert Shedinger
April 10, 2025}

The significance of Teilhard's pointing out the incomplete nature of the evolutionary theory of his day should not be underestimated.

Intelligent Design Is Not Just for Conservatives

_{Robert Shedinger
April 3, 2025}

After a decade of immersing myself in Darwin studies, evolutionary theory, and intelligent design, I find myself unexpectedly supportive of the iD position.

Sorry, Dr. Coyne: There Is No Religion-Science Conflict

_{Robert Shedinger
December 26, 2024}

I dare say that Michael Behe has had a far greater influence on the field of evolutionary biology than Jerry Coyne has.

Shawn Otto and the “War on Science”

_{Robert Shedinger
December 4, 2024}

If evolutionary theory is so fundamental to medical research, why has no evolutionary biologist ever won a Noble Prize in physiology or medicine?

Is Assembling Life Like Assembling LEGOs?

_{Robert Shedinger
September 20, 2024}

Unfortunately, Sara Walker provides no clue as to what process does all the “constraining,” “funneling,” and “scaffolding.”

Reading Between the Lines: Intelligent Design in Philip Ball’s Non-ID Book

_{Robert Shedinger
June 4, 2024}

Ball, in describing this new biology, feels the need to appeal to design language despite his overt disavowal of any support for intelligent design.

What Really Happened at the Huxley-Wilberforce Debate?

_{Robert Shedinger
February 26, 2024}

The stereotype portraying Wilberforce as the pompous bishop rejecting Darwin on theological grounds is easily dispelled.

Darwin’s Bluff — Continued

_{Robert Shedinger
February 21, 2024}

Recently, I turned up some later letters showing that Darwin’s bluff extended well beyond 1863.

Darwin’s “God Wouldn’t Do It This Way” Argument

_{Robert Shedinger
February 20, 2024}

A book widely hailed as proposing a true mechanism for evolution actually reads more like an anti-creationist polemic.

Demythologizing Darwin: More on Darwin’s Bluff

_{Robert Shedinger
February 14, 2024}

Under the weight of modern scientific evidence, Darwin's theory of evolution is struggling. To better understand why, it's helpful to peel back the mythological status of its founder, Charles Darwin, and see the 19th century naturalist for who he really was. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his conversation with author and professor Dr. Robert Shedinger about his new book Darwin's Bluff: The Mystery of the Book Darwin Never Finished. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Don't miss Part 1!

Does the World Need Another Book About Darwin?

_{Robert Shedinger
February 13, 2024}

We need to let Darwin speak for himself. It turns out that Darwin, given the opportunity, is quite capable of dismantling his own mythology.

Darwin’s Bluff: An Interview with Robert Shedinger

_{Robert Shedinger
February 12, 2024}

Why didn't Charles Darwin finish and publish his promised sequel to On The Origin of Species? Is it possible to separate Darwin the Myth from Darwin the Man to find the answer? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid begins a conversation with author and professor Dr. Robert Shedinger about his new book Darwin's Bluff: The Mystery of the Book Darwin Never Finished. This is Part 1 of 2. Look for Part 2 next!

Darwin’s Bluff

_{The Mystery of the Book Darwin Never Finished}_{Robert Shedinger
February 12, 2024}

In this fascinating piece of historical detective work, Robert Shedinger draws on Darwin’s letters, private notebooks, and an unfinished manuscript to piece together a puzzle and reveal an embarrassing truth: Darwin never finished his sequel to The Origin of Species because in the end he could not deliver the empirical evidence he promised would validate his theory.

In Science, How “Assumed Atheism” Harms Religious Students

_{Robert Shedinger
January 5, 2024}

For all practical purposes, there seems to be little daylight today between methodological and metaphysical naturalism, at least in graduate science classes.

Cellular Cognition? So Much for Darwinism!

_{Robert Shedinger
September 11, 2023}

Following up in considering Daniel Nicholson’s challenge to the machine concept of the cell, I will examine intracellular transport and cellular behavior.

Is the Cell a Machine, or More Like a Mind?

_{Robert Shedinger
September 7, 2023}

At least as we’re accustomed to thinking in our age of AI, the alternative to a machine is a mind.

Reconsidering David Hume’s Critique of Design Thinking

_{Robert Shedinger
July 12, 2023}

There is no sense in which we can say that Hume destroyed the intellectual coherence of design thinking. William Paley could already see this in 1802.

“Professor Dave” and the Art of Projection

_{Robert Shedinger
May 24, 2023}

If I ever get asked to write a chapter on projection for a psychology textbook, Dave Farina’s outrageously disrespectful performance will be exhibit A.

Joseph L. Graves as the “Black Darwin”? Think Again

_{Robert Shedinger
May 12, 2023}

Darwin could never be considered the kind of anti-racist activist Graves makes him out to be.

Robert Shedinger: Darwin’s Sacred Cause is “Historical Fiction”

_{Robert Shedinger
March 29, 2023}

On today’s ID the Future, science-and-religion scholar Robert Shedinger makes the case that a well-known biography of Charles Darwin, Darwin’s Sacred Cause, is deeply misleading. Specifically, the book by Adrian Desmond and James Moore holds that Darwin was significantly motivated in his scientific work by abolitionist sentiments; and Shedinger says, not so fast. He had spent considerable time reading Darwin’s correspondence and had seen no evidence of this thesis, so he reread Darwin’s Sacred Cause, this time tracking down all the key citations the book offered as evidence, and a pattern soon emerged. The sources the authors cite didn’t actually support their thesis. Some were totally irrelevant. Some were cited completely out of context. In other cases, the authors gave …