Science and Culture Today Discovering Design in Nature

ID the Future

with Andrew McDiarmid

Algorithms vs Souls: The Use of AI in Global Missions

2233
Dr. Don Barger
July 1, 2026
ID The Future listeners now get to enjoy two episodes each month from our sister podcast Mind Matters News, a production of the Discovery Institute’s Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence. The Mind Matters News podcast brings you insight from computer scientists, engineers, inventors, neurosurgeons, and other experts who bring sanity to the conversation about natural and artificial intelligence, going beyond the hype to explore the undercurrents of these important ideas. And although the Mind Matters News podcast will not often explicitly discuss intelligent design, it regularly explores the nature of intelligence, the origin of information, and the things that make us uniquely human, all concepts that are central to the theory of intelligent design. Enjoy today’s offering of Mind Matters News! AI is having impact everywhere. But what about global outreach initiatives? And specifically Christian missions? How are those in the mission field using artificial intelligence? On this episode of Mind Matters News, host Robert J. Marks and co-host Jonathan Swindell welcome Dr. Don Barger to the show. Barger is the Director of Innovation and Artificial Intelligence at the International Mission Board. Don works with new technology, especially AI, and helps people use it in smart and responsible ways. He thinks a lot about how AI can help in real-life situations, especially in global missions. He also understands the limits of AI and what it cannot do. In this conversation, we’ll discuss how AI is changing the world, how AI should be used responsibly in global outreach initiatives to other cultures and peoples, and what it all means for the future.

Take a Tour of the Cell in an Incredible Shrinking Submarine!

2232
Tom Woodward
June 29, 2026
Imagine you have been invited to a futuristic discovery center, a lavishly funded facility that has pioneered the ability to shrink people and objects many orders of magnitude. What if you could climb aboard an incredible shrinking submarine and travel into the heart of a living cell? This would be a tour like no other, to be sure! You’d get a glimpse of DNA, molecular machines, and cellular architecture, certainly, but you’d also bear witness to the workings of a hidden world of information and epigenetic controls operating beyond the physical structures of life. On this ID The Future, historian of science Dr. Tom Woodward reads an excerpt from his new book Epigenetics and the Architect, co-authored with Dr. James Gills. And rather than beginning with definitions and diagrams, he invites us on an imaginative journey inspired by sci-fi movie classics like Fantastic Voyage, Innerspace, or Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

Bijan Nemati on the Search for Habitable Planets

2231
Bijan Nemati
June 26, 2026
One of the most exciting areas of space research is the search for Earth-like planets around other stars. Since the first discovery some 30 years ago, thousands of exoplanets have been identified and catalogued, but the vast majority bear little resemblance to Earth and would not be conducive to even simple life, much less large organisms such as ourselves. However, during the same 30 years, planet-hunting technology has also vastly improved. Where do things stand today, and what can we expect over the next decade as the hunt continues? On this classic episode of ID the Future out of the vault, host and amateur astronomer Eric Anderson begins a two-part conversation with Bijan Nemati, professional astronomer and expert on exoplanet search technology, to review the history of exoplanet research and upcoming NASA missions. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.

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Junking the Myth of Human/Chimp Similarity — Casey Luskin

Casey Luskin
June 22, 2026
2026 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith
Casey Luskin shows how the common claim that humans are about 99% genetically similar to chimpanzees is misleading. Citing newer research, Luskin suggests the difference may be closer to about 15% when the entire genome is considered. Earlier comparisons overstated similarity due to methodological choices, such as aligning genomes in ways that minimized differences. Moreover, much of the genetic difference — especially in repetitive DNA — is functionally important, not “junk.” It influences things like brain development and gene regulation. Luskin notes that in any case percentage similarity alone cannot prove common ancestry, since similarities could also be explained by “common design.” The human genome, it turns out, supports a view of human uniqueness rather than

Intelligent Design

Misinterpreting Teleology

It’s a “self-evident truth,” as Thomas Jefferson, an early ID proponent himself, might have put it: organisms necessarily exist by virtue of purpose.

Historical Sciences

Origin of Life

Evolution

Paleontology

Cosmology

Human Origins

Archaeology

The Joy of (Neanderthal) Cooking

The Darwinian account of the human race would be much easier to believe in good faith if scientists could point to a clearly inferior and clearly human being.

History of Science

Geology

Life Sciences

Life Sciences

Neuroscience

Medicine

Biology

Physical Sciences

Physics

Chemistry

Astronomy

Fine-Tuning

Earth Sciences

Geophysics

Environment

Rare Earth

Planetology

Culture

Human Exceptionalism

Why AI Won’t Replace Us Spiritually

AI systems increasingly resemble human intelligence. But resemblance alone does not make them image bearers. It cannot. AI systems do not represent God.

Arts

E.T., Phoned In

Steve Deace has called the film a direct assault on Christianity. This wasn’t exactly my impression. I didn’t feel assaulted so much as vaguely condescended to.

Ethics

Social Sciences

Faith and Science

E.T., Phoned In

Steve Deace has called the film a direct assault on Christianity. This wasn’t exactly my impression. I didn’t feel assaulted so much as vaguely condescended to.

Science Education

Scientific Freedom

Science Reporting

On the Origin of Our New Name

First, the conversation delves into the site’s launch in December 2004, when the modern intelligent design movement and the Internet were both relatively new.

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