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Michael Denton on Fire as a “Close Call”

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Intelligent Design
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On a new episode of ID the Future, biologist Michael Denton talks with Robert Crowther about fire as a “close call.” He means that for the existence and use of fire by beings like ourselves — key to the rise and flourishing of civilization — conditions on our planet and in our own physiology had to be exactly right, down to very specific, demanding parameters.

This is the subject of the newly released documentary from Discovery Institute, Fire-Maker: How Humans Were Designed to Harness Fire and Transform Our Planet, on sale now.

Download the podcast by clicking here:

Dr. Denton also talks about the unique fitness of the universe, down to the finest details, for fire-using creatures like us. It’s a concept that is often misunderstood in discussions of fine-tuning.

The uniqueness of the situation is, one might add, the thing that demands a conclusion of design. If the universe were fit for intelligent life forms of many kinds, existing in many different sorts of planetary environments, that would be one thing. But the facts are otherwise. The cosmos is fit for a very specific type of life, namely our own, implying purpose, prevision — intelligent design.

Image credit: © yuratosno — stock.adobe.com.

David Klinghoffer

Senior Fellow and Editor, Science and Culture Today
David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. He is the author of seven books including Plato’s Revenge: The New Science of the Immaterial Genome and The Lord Will Gather Me In: My Journey to Jewish Orthodoxy. A former senior editor at National Review, he has contributed to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other publications. He received an A.B. magna cum laude from Brown University in 1987. Born in Santa Monica, CA, he lives on Mercer Island, WA.
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