John G. West

Senior Fellow, Managing Director, and Vice President of Discovery Institute

Dr. John West is Vice President and a Senior Fellow at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, where he also serves as Managing Director of the Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, which he co-founded with philosopher of science Stephen Meyer in 1996. His current research examines the impact of science and “scientism” on public policy and culture. His other areas of expertise include constitutional law, American government and institutions, and religion and politics.

Dr. West was previously an Associate Professor of Political Science at Seattle Pacific University where he chaired the Department of Political Science and Geography, and he has taught political science and history courses at California State University, San Bernardino and Azusa Pacific University. From 1986-1989, Dr. West served as Managing Editor of Public Research, Syndicated, which distributed essays on public affairs to more than 700 daily and weekly newspapers.

Dr. West has written or edited twelve books, including most recently the expanded edition of Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science, The Magician's Twin: C.S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society, and Walt Disney and Live Action. Other books include:

Additionally, Dr. West has directed and written several documentaries, including Revolutionary, Privileged Species, the award-winning Biology of the Second Reich and Human Zoos, Darwin’s Heretic, The War on Humans, The Magician’s Twin: C.S. Lewis and the Case Against Scientism, and The Magician’s Twin: C.S. Lewis and Intelligent Design. He also helped produce the popular YouTube series, Science Uprising. Listed in Who’s Who in America, he has been interviewed by Time, Newsweek, USA Today, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, and he has appeared on CNN, FoxNews, and C-SPAN.

Dr. West holds a PhD in Government from Claremont Graduate University and a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington. He is a recipient of several academic fellowships, including a Haynes Foundation Dissertation Grant, an Earhart Foundation Fellowship, a Richard Weaver Fellowship, and a Chevron Journalism/Economics Scholarship. Dr. West is a member of Pi Sigma Alpha (the national political science honor society) and Phi Beta Kappa.

Archives

Stockholm Syndrome Christianity

Why America’s Christian Leaders Are Failing — and What We Can Do About It
What if American culture isn’t collapsing because of crusading secularists? What if it’s failing because leading Christians identify more with secular elites than with their fellow believers? Those are the provocative questions posed by Stockholm Syndrome Christianity, which exposes how influential Christian leaders are siding with their anti-Christian cultural captors on everything from biblical authority and science to sex, race, and religious liberty.

C.S. Lewis’s Challenge to Scientocracy in Cambridge and Beyond

Beloved writer C.S. Lewis was a searing critic of the misuse of science for totalitarian ends. Dr. John West explores the increasing relevance of Lewis’s views for today in this talk delivered in Cambridge, UK in August 2024. As part of his talk, West also discusses Lewis’s move from Oxford to Cambridge and reveals little-known details about Lewis’s inaugural lecture in Cambridge that addressed the impact of science on modern culture. West is Vice President of Discovery Institute and editor of The Magician’s Twin: C.S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society. His newest book, Stockholm Syndrome Christianity, will be released in February 2025. Visit him online at

Walt Disney’s Views on Science and Its Dangers

On this episode of ID The Future from the archive, John West, Associate Director of the Center for Science & Culture and author of Walt Disney and Live Action, talks about how science is portrayed in Walt Disney’s films and theme parks. Disney’s worldview was an interesting blend of 19th century morals with a 21st century vision for science and technology. A futurist, Disney was given to techno-utopianism and his works tended to reflect this, but they have also offered warning messages about the dangers posed by both science and technology. John West explores these interests both in Disney’s exhibits and his film works. Dig Deeper Read the book by Dr. West that inspired this episode: Walt Disney and Live Action This is Part 2 of a two-part discussion. Listen to

Human Zoos: Socrates in the Studio with Dr. John West

The day after his Socrates in the City event on C.S. Lewis and Scientism, The Discovery Institute’s Dr. John West sits down with Host Eric Metaxas to discuss his documentary Human Zoos: America’s Forgotten History of Scientific Racism. Human Zoos tells the shocking story of how thousands of indigenous peoples were put on public display in America in the early decades of the twentieth century. To watch the full documentary, head to

The Book Evangelical Elites Don’t Want You to Read

Megan Basham’s Shepherds for Sale is powerful, troubling—and necessary.
If you want to better understand what’s going on inside American evangelicalism’s elite, Shepherds for Sale (2024) by Megan Basham is a great place to start. And if you are a member of the evangelical elite yourself, you should read her book to understand what is going on among rank-and-file evangelicals. A journalist with The Daily Wire, Basham has spent the past several years chronicling the growing chasm between many evangelical leaders and those they are supposed to shepherd. Her reporting has defied the standard narrative. Most journalists who cover evangelicals obsess over pastors and ministry leaders who they think have sold their souls to right-wing populism. That’s a legitimate concern and worth reporting on. However, this way of framing coverage of evangelicals

We Hold These Truths: Exploring Intelligent Design through the Memorials of Washington DC

Celebrate July 4th weekend by exploring the importance of intelligent design to some of the greatest figures in American history through this brief tour of four iconic memorials in Washington, DC. We’ll visit the Jefferson Memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the Word War II Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. Your tour guide is Dr. John West, Vice President of Discovery Institute and co-founder of its Center for Science and

Ronald Reagan’s Deeply Personal Argument for Intelligent Design

On this ID The Future marking the anniversary of President Ronald Reagan's death, we're delighted to share Discovery Institute Vice President Dr. John West's recent conversation with radio host Michael Medved discussing Reagan’s deeply personal argument for intelligent design. During remarks given at a National Prayer Breakfast event in 1988, Reagan shared his argument for intelligent design in unscripted, humorous fashion. But as Dr. West explains, Reagan’s commitment to intelligent design went much deeper than a few off-the-cuff laugh lines. Reagan fought against atheism and materialism in his diplomacy as president and even in his role as a father.

Eric Metaxas, Francis Schaeffer, and The Great Evangelical Disaster

Two prophets and their critiques of compromised Christianity.
Forty years ago on May 15, evangelical Christian thinker Francis Schaeffer died after a long battle against cancer.   He went out with a bang, not a whimper. A few months before his passing, Schaeffer published his final book, The Great Evangelical Disaster. Many of his last weeks were spent promoting its message. Schaeffer’s book indicted the evangelical leadership class for abandoning historic Christianity in a quest for cultural acceptance—especially in the areas of biblical authority, the value of human life, sex and gender, and politics. “he problem of evangelical accommodation,” Schaeffer observed, “is that … has constantly been in one direction—that is, to accommodate with whatever is in vogue with the form of the world spirit which is dominant

C.S. Lewis on Evolution and Intelligent Design with John West (2024 Dallas Conf. on Science & Faith)

What were C.S. Lewis’s real views on evolution and intelligent design? Dr. John West, Vice President of Discovery Institute, explores this topic in this lecture from the 2024 Dallas Conference on Science & Faith sponsored by Discovery Institute. Dr. West is editor of The Magician’s Twin: C.S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society and co-editor of The C.S. Lewis Readers’ Encyclopedia. Find out more at Dr. West’s website,

Roundtable on Human Uniqueness

A roundtable discussion exploring what makes humans unique featuring Dr. John West, Vice President, Discovery Institute; Dr. Casey Luskin, Associate Director, Center for Science and Culture, Discovery Institute; Dr. Robert J. Marks, Director, Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence, Discovery Institute; and Dr. Mark Garcia, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary. This roundtable was part of the 2023 Westminster Conference on Science and Faith co-sponsored by Discovery Institute and Westminster Theological Seminary. The event took place in September

Darwinists Devolve

One sign of a robust scientific theory is the quality of its most prominent proponents. But serious advocates of Darwinism have become an endangered species.

Ten Questions to Ask When Evaluating a Christian College

As a former professor at an evangelical Christian university, I am sometimes asked by concerned parents to recommend a good Christian college for them to consider for their children. Because the spiritual health of specific colleges and universities can change radically over time, and because there can be a wide diversity of views even among different academic departments on the same campus, it is not always possible to provide specific recommendations. What I can provide are questions you can ask if you or your teens are seeking to find a biblically-faithful college or university. Don’t just rely on marketing materials produced by the college or university! Those materials will invariably stress how the institution integrates the Christian faith with learning in everything it does.