Is the intelligent design movement a short-lived phenomenon that has come and gone? Or is its steady and consistent growth evidence of a flourishing scientific program? On a new episode of ID the Future, I conclude my conversation with Dr. Casey Luskin about his critique of a recent book from New York University Press, Designer Science: A History of Intelligent Design in America, by C. W. Howell, that portrays the ID movement as a short-lived political, cultural, and religious phenomenon that has produced little new research in the last two decades.
In Part 1 of the discussion, Luskin focused on one of the most significant errors in Designer Science: a wholly fabricated quote from pioneering ID scientist Dr. Michael Behe. In the second half of the conversation, Luskin turns to another major problem: Designer Science almost entirely ignores intelligent design’s post-2005 scientific progress, falsely claiming that the movement has produced no new arguments since the Dover trial.
As an example of how much the book leaves out, Luskin points out that out of roughly 500 bibliographic references in the book, only two cite peer-reviewed pro-ID scientific papers — both published in 2004 — completely omitting over 300 peer-reviewed papers published since then. Papers on evolutionary informatics by Dembski, Marks, and Ewert? Absent. Michael Behe’s 2010 peer-reviewed paper in Quarterly Review of Biology on molecular loss-of-function, part of the research that fueled his groundbreaking new argument in 2019’s Darwin Devolves? Not discussed by Howell. Stephen Meyer’s novel arguments in his 2013 bestseller Darwin’s Doubt? Non-existent in Designer Science. And the list goes on: experimental protein research from Biologic Institute, multiple post-Dover publications on human origins and the origin of the human mind and consciousness, and more.
As Luskin observes, by ignoring these publications, Designer Science presents a severely incomplete and inaccurate picture of the actual scientific output of the ID research program.
Download the podcast, listen to it, or watch it here. This is Part 2 of a two-part discussion. Watch or listen to Part 1!
Dig Deeper
- Watch this in-person, sit-down interview in video format on our YouTube channel!
- Read Dr. Luskin’s detailed critical response to Designer Science at Science and Culture Today.