Learn about Alfred Russel Wallace’s fascinating journey of discovery starting Saturday, January 21, with the online premiere of the new documentary short Darwin’s Heretic at www.darwinsheretic.com.
Everyone seems to know that Wallace co-discovered the engine of modern evolutionary theory, natural selection. What they forget is that Wallace grew critical of the evidence that purportedly showed natural selection to be a blind, unguided process, and instead came to embrace and champion the idea of design and purpose in nature: what we today call intelligent design.
The 21-minute film is based on Discovery Institute Fellow and University of Alabama Birmingham Professor Michael Flannery’s biography Alfred Russel Wallace: A Rediscovered Life (Discovery Institute Press 2010).
Darwin’s Heretic was directed and produced by Center for Science & Culture Associate Director Dr. John G. West and shows how Wallace grew disenchanted with natural selection as a theory capable of explaining life’s complexity.
Along with the book and film, Wallace’s ideas are the subject of another website, www.alfredwallace.org, which features educational resources, including videos, book excerpts, and additional biographical information about Wallace.