Every summer for the past twenty years, Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture has held a subsidized seminar on intelligent design, intended primarily for college and university students, and a few other scholars and professionals.
I was part of the 2026 cohort, gathering at a scenic resort location in Colorado. What I learned throughout the course was for me, and might be for you, reason enough to apply. Watch this space for information about when applications will open for 2027 — this past year it was in January — or be in touch in advance with Daniel Reeves at dreeves@discovery.org or 206-826-5557.
What was it like? Well, at the closing dinner, everyone, students and instructors, had an opportunity to share reflections about their week. In stark contrast to an increasingly timid and fragile culture around us, I sensed in many seminar grads a conviction like this: This information is vital, and it has inspired me to take courage and press forward.
Here are some things I heard (my paraphrase):
- “I was cynical, especially after Covid, but hope has returned. I know what it’s like to be called a pseudoscientist. Now is the time to take ID forward.”
- “I found my purpose. I am encouraged to pursue a career in science.”
- “This is the best thing I’ve been a part of in a long time.”
- “Aristotle and the Greeks said design is obvious, but we’ve been taught that it’s not. ID presses well beyond, “Design is obvious.” ID is a science starter, not a science stopper.”
- “The university is supposed to be a place where knowledge comes together. Design provides a unifying umbrella. I have the two worlds, and they can hold together.”
- “I’m not easily pleased, but this week has blown my mind.”
- “Darwinian evolution doesn’t inspire awe or conviction. ID does. As a prospective academic, this is a scary fight to go into, but I want to dedicate my life to it.”
- “I have discovered that ID scientists are not just good scientists. They are genuine and kind people.”
- “Darwinism is like social AIDS. I now feel more equipped to respond to questions our young people ask.”
While ID is limited to what can be known or inferred based on the evidence, there are metaphysical implications that follow from the design inference. Some reflections ventured into the theological and religious:
- “I grew up in a secular home. This week has changed my life.”
- “After being taught theistic evolution at my Christian college, I veered toward abandoning the faith. Now I have new confidence, both in my faith and in my plans to pursue a career in science.”
- “It’s been hard for me not to separate science and faith. Now I can see the beauty of the whole picture.”
- “This week has been the greatest evidence that God is real in my life.”
- “Stephen Hawking asked, ‘What is it that breathes fire into the equations?’ I have an answer. It is God who breathes fire into the equations.”
- “ID helps me to become an intellectually fulfilled Christian.”
A few of the participants also asked, “Why didn’t I know about this information years ago?” Why, indeed.
Forging of a Fellowship
For me, a great blessing lay in the relationships formed and community shared with fellow seekers of knowledge — meaning true knowledge in the longstanding philosophical sense of “justified true belief.”
Seminar grads become part of a fellowship. In the context of the Lord of the Rings metanarrative, if you will, that word means something like:
A committed company of very different people bound together by a shared mission against formidable opposition. The company is sustained by loyalty, sacrifice, and quiet providence rather than by raw power or rigid uniformity.
In my experience, this describes the ID community.
Leaving Darwin Behind
The Summer Seminar was launched against a historical backdrop. When Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution by natural selection in the 19th century, the intellectual climate in Europe, and to a lesser extent in America, had already been primed to accept a materialistic explanation of biological life, indeed of all of reality.
How well has Darwin’s theory withstood the many challenges raised by a century and a half of scientific advances? What effects have a century and a half of Darwinian thinking produced in modern society? With respect to the current state of the sciences, where does the evidence lead? And, especially important for prospective academics and scientists wanting to follow the evidence wherever it leads, what might they need to know to pursue that aspiration wisely and shrewdly? These are a sampling of the kinds of questions the Summer Seminar addresses.
Seminar applicants choose one of two tracks. The Seminar on Intelligent Design in the Natural Sciences is more science-heavy and suited for those involved in the sciences, while the C. S. Lewis Fellows Program on Science and Society surveys how materialistic thinking has affected such aspects of our lives as policymaking and the arts and humanities. The tracks share a common core-ID curriculum, which accounts for about half of the sessions, but both home in on the design framework as a superior heuristic all around — how it’s more evidentially supportable (by miles, if not by parsecs) and how it provides superior approaches to doing research and addressing social issues. Applicants should also know that if accepted, they will be expected to complete a course of assigned readings and videos prior to the weeklong in-person seminar.
The Seminar Community
In my cohort, ages ranged from early 20s up, and our areas of interest ran the gamut from biochemistry, entomology, and meteorology to education, medicine, and more.
Some of the faculty were pioneers in questioning Darwin, such as Dr. Michael Behe, whose Darwin’s Black Box just celebrated its 30th anniversary, having broken new ground and withstood its critics ever since. Some are former Seminar students, such as Dr. Brian Miller, who said the Seminar was a turning point in own life. Most have paid a cost for being associated with ID, but none wear their battle scars on their sleeve.
On the contrary, the ID community exhibits remarkable humility. As George Montañez noted,
Being an ID scientist isn’t easy. Though we’ve weathered backlash, we remain cautious and vulnerable. We are survivors in a lifeboat….
It takes persistence to remain on board. Not everyone is cut out for the life of a maligned academic. It costs….
There is no room for ego on such a boat. As a rule, ID scholars tend to be fairly humble. They don’t push themselves to the forefront or demand recognition. After all, what’s the point of being at the front of a lifeboat?
I came away grateful and also humbled by the privilege of sharing in the weeklong experience and taking part in the mission going forward.
Silenced No Longer
I also came away encouraged. In an essay titled “The Silenced Generation,” Daniel McCarthy, editor of Modern Age, wrote about college students willingly imposing political correctness on themselves and their peers. Conditioned to believe that good-faith arguments about a serious subject are offensive (someone’s feelings might get hurt), most students self-censor, both in class and in their personal lives, for fear of swift and public ostracism. Unfortunately, this dynamic isn’t limited to young people.
But the ID community is refreshingly different. ID is all about the good-faith pursuit of truth, which inherently requires making arguments about serious subjects, come what may.
For Love of Truth and Knowledge
Fortunately, graduates won’t be alone. A bonus for Seminar grads in academia is the opportunity to be connected with a mentor who will help them navigate the hostile environment ahead, which we can assume will resist surrendering a millimeter of ground that might risk allowing a design foot in the door.
Ken Boa has observed that, “The heart cannot rejoice in what the mind rejects.” Materialistic thinking in general, and scientistic Darwinism in particular, have exacted a devastating toll on the Western mind and psyche. Combine being taught ad infinitum that science is the only way to know truth and that science says we are merely products of blind material forces, why wouldn’t we expect there to be widespread dejection and cynicism, even nihilism, pervading our culture?
The design inference, if true — and the evidence to support it is astonishing! — gives us reason to believe that our lives are meaningful. But that’s not all. Design-based science is proving to be fruitful in advancing knowledge about our world, the justified true belief kind of knowledge. For the love of truth and the integrity of science, we need to engage with, support, and spread the word about the evidence for design.