Science and Culture Today | Discovering Design in Nature

Today

“Harm Reduction” Harms the Homeless

_{Wesley J. Smith
November 12, 2025
5
Medicine}

San Francisco was allowing harm reducers to give away “starter kits” to people so they could begin injecting drugs!

Near-Death: Explaining vs. Explaining Away

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 12, 2025
6
Neuroscience & Mind}

The first rule of a scientific approach should be to take seriously what is happening before rushing in with a “science can explain this” hypothesis.

Good or Evil: James Watson’s Contradictory Legacy

_{David Klinghoffer
November 11, 2025
4
Genetics}

Let’s hope that whoever writes the future history of science will, like the bidder for that Nobel medal, be merciful to him.

Astrobiology as a Secular Quest for Meaning

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 13, 2025
6
Astronomy}

I don’t think this stuff does any harm — as long as it is understood as drama and not given undue importance in science or philosophy.

China Jumps on the Transhumanism Train

_{Wesley J. Smith
November 12, 2025
4
Bioethics}

It is said to be is devoting much energy and many resources to the life-extension project.

War Between Evolutionary Biologists May Be Looming

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 11, 2025
5
Biology}

Nathan Lents says it doesn’t make a lot of sense” to think of sex in humans as binary. Colin Wright says, “Stop misleading the public.”

Can Protein Design Outpace Directed Evolution?

_{Emily Reeves
November 11, 2025
3
Engineering}

What is polyurethane and where is it used? It’s a type of plastic and it is pretty much everywhere: shoes, clothes, yoga mats, mattresses, couch cushions.

ID the Future

with Andrew McDiarmid

Life’s Informational Discontinuities: Where Unintelligent Processes Fail

_{2134
Michael Kent
November 12, 2025}

Here’s an experienced scientist who thinks YOU should have the power to settle the question of design in nature, not the scientific experts. Why? Because the majority of scientific authorities are committed scientific materialists, a view that hinders unbiased scientific inquiry by forbidding explanations outside the material realm. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his conversation with recently retired bio-scientist Dr. Michael Kent. In Part 2, Dr. Kent continues to unpack the scientific discoveries of the last century that have changed the debate over design in nature and made materialism an increasingly irrational view of the history of life and the universe. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation.

Don’t Let Scientific Elites Settle the Question of Design in Nature For You.

_{2133
Michael Kent
November 10, 2025}

What you believe about the origin of life and the universe affects everything you do. So it’s crucial that you decide for yourself whether the design that’s evident in nature is the product of a designer or the outcome of a blind, unguided process. Today on ID The Future, retired bioscientist Dr. Michael Kent explains how we can take back important scientific decisions that belong to us and not to a scientific elite largely guided by materialist assumptions. Kent also reviews some of the top evidence for intelligent design, including the revolutionary discoveries that the universe had a beginning and is finely tuned for human life. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 2 in a separate episode.

Why Scientific Materialism is No Match for Truth, Beauty, and Goodness

_{2132
Ann Gauger
November 7, 2025}

Is the world a good place? Is truth relative? Can beauty be defined? On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, host David Klinghoffer speaks with Dr. Ann Gauger, Director of Science Communication and a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, about her article “The Transcendental Treasury of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness” at Science & Culture Today. These abstract concepts don’t derive from the material world, yet we feel impoverished without them; they’re foundations of a life worth living. Materialistic evolutionary explanations for truth, beauty, and goodness are out there, but they fall flat upon closer inspection. Some of them even reduce these qualities to mere illusion. Gauger holds that truth, beauty, and goodness are hallmarks of a designed world. Meditating on them can promote a spirit of gratitude, an important part of a healthy, happy life.

Latest Videos

Living in a 3-D World

_{The Center for Science and Culture
November 3, 2025
Intelligent Design
Secrets of the Human Body}

Human beings possess uncanny abilities to perceive and navigate within a three dimensional world. In this episode of Secrets of the Human Body , join medical doctor Howard Glicksman and systems engineer Steve Laufmann as they investigate the hidden systems that make our astounding spatial awareness possible.

…

Engineered for Oxygen

_{The Center for Science and Culture
September 1, 2025
Intelligent Design
Secrets of the Human Body}

Without enough oxygen, your body will die. In Episode 1 of Secrets of the Human Body, learn about the astonishing engineering of the body that allows it to harness oxygen’s power and keep us alive.

…

The Common Woodpecker: Chance or Design?

_{Raymond Bohlin
August 25, 2025
Intelligent Design
2025 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith}

Biologist Ray Bohlin explores the incredible intelligent design of the common woodpecker. Dr. Bohlin is a Fellow of the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute. This talk was presented at the 2025 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. …

Secrets of the Human Body Trailer

_{The Center for Science and Culture
August 15, 2025
Intelligent Design
Secrets of the Human Body}

Premiering September 1, 2025, Secrets of the Human Body is a new YouTube series that will unravel the mysteries of the human body and explore its exquisite intelligent design.

…

Intelligent Design

Life in 3-D: Not a Big Deal? It’s a VERY Big Deal

_{David Klinghoffer
November 6, 2025
2
Intelligent Design}

Living in three dimensions is crucial not only for athletes, who excel at exploiting the body’s abilities, but for any one of us walking down the street.

Engineering on Steroids

_{Andrew McDiarmid
November 4, 2025
3
Intelligent Design}

Every day your body must solve hundreds of hard engineering problems simultaneously, or else you’ll die.

Emergence and Irreducible Complexity

_{Stephen J. Iacoboni
October 29, 2025
7
Intelligent Design}

We are all familiar with the duality — structure and function — from both technology and biology.

Information, Intelligence, and Decision

_{William A. Dembski
October 29, 2025
8
Intelligent Design}

Darwin’s great coup was to co-opt the term “selection,” previously associated with the conscious choice of purposive agents.

Historical Sciences

Origin of Life

Interview with Edward Peltzer on Origin of Life

_{William A. Dembski
August 20, 2025
70
Origin of Life}

A student of Stanley Miller and Jeffrey Bada explains the failure of materialistic origin-of-life scenarios.

From Dead Ends to Design

_{Andrew McDiarmid
August 7, 2025
3
Intelligent Design}

“Molecules,” chemist James Tour notes, “have “no propensity… to move toward life.”

The Unsolved Mystery of Life’s Origin

_{Andrew McDiarmid
August 4, 2025
2
Evolution}

How did life originate? For decades, many scientists clung to “primordial soup” models.

Evolution

Will Other Evolutionary Biologists Speak Out?

_{Science and Culture
November 10, 2025
2
Evolution}

So, what does it matter if visually compelling but absolutely rubbishy videos give kids and their parents entirely the wrong perception of evolutionary theory?

A Matter of Insinuation: Chance in Darwin’s Theory

_{Neil Thomas
November 10, 2025
11
Evolution}

Think of a rock dislodged by happenstance, tumbling down a mountain, and coming to rest in some particular spot.

Book Excerpt: Why Is a Fly Not a Horse?

_{Giuseppe Sermonti
November 9, 2025
8
Evolution}

Evolutionism is really more of a paradigm or methodology than a theory. For its supporters, the important thing is that it was due to natural causes.

Paleontology

Ancient Eyes, Modern Design

_{Emily Reeves
October 23, 2025
3
Paleontology}

Does this discovery suggest that the principles of compound vision emerged nearly half a billion years ago as the authors concluded?

Luskin Answers Objections to Intelligent Design

_{Andrew McDiarmid
September 3, 2025
3
Paleontology}

Dr. Luskin highlights a “large unbridged gap” in the fossil record between ape-like species like Lucy and human-like species.

Fossils as Magical Darwin Relics

_{David Coppedge
May 25, 2025
12
Paleontology}

Fossils can be handled in the present, but how they are used by evolutionists in stories of history resembles the practices of overeager medieval churchmen.

Cosmology

Murray and Others Rediscovering God: No Accident

_{Denyse O’Leary
October 19, 2025
5
Faith & Science}

Not what you heard? Well, if you heard something else from traditional media, maybe those media aren’t so reliable any more.

Further Objections to “God in 3 Minutes”

_{Bruce Gordon, Casey Luskin and Brian Miller
October 17, 2025
16
Physics}

A transcendent, supernatural first cause is necessary to explain why our universe and all of its matter and energy exist.

Innovative Book Complements God Hypothesis

_{Brian Miller
October 13, 2025
4
Cosmology}

Kurt Gödel is not as widely known in popular culture as Einstein, but mathematicians consider his work just as revolutionary and foundational.

Human Origins

“First Multi-Purpose ‘Swiss Army Knives’ Made by Hominins”

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 7, 2025
5
Human Origins and Anthropology}

The tools date from about 2.75 through 2.44 million years ago (Pliocene). They underwent little change over the years, despite the changing environment.

Could Neanderthals Create Art?

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 6, 2025
2
Human Origins and Anthropology}

Materialists have long sought to show that Neanderthals were less mentally evolved than modern humans.

Skulls Push Our Species Back to 1 Million Years?

_{Casey Luskin
October 3, 2025
11
Human Origins and Anthropology}

How many times have we been told that some new paleoanthropological find is “rewriting the story of human evolution”?

Archaeology

More Discoveries Point to Neanderthal Intelligence

_{Denyse O’Leary
December 5, 2024
5
Archaeology}

This very ancient people we know the most about can’t be the missing link that many paleontologists are looking for.

The Joy of (Neanderthal) Cooking

_{Denyse O’Leary
July 30, 2024
5
Archaeology}

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.

Dallas Conference: Archaeology & the Life of Jesus

_{Titus Kennedy
January 19, 2024
1
Archaeology}

My presentation will explore archaeological discoveries illuminating a major event in the life of Jesus — his trial in Jerusalem.

History of Science

Science Before the Rise of Modern Science

_{William A. Dembski
October 27, 2025
25
History of Science}

An interview with Winston Ewert about his fascinating new book on the interaction between science and faith before Copernicus.

Darwin as a Prefiguration of Postmodern Man

_{Neil Thomas
August 25, 2025
17
History of Science}

Whether we like it or not, Erasmus Darwin’s simple and predictable world is no more, and we now find ourselves subject to a profoundly mysterious cosmos.

The Legacy of Baruch Spinoza

_{Andrew McDiarmid
April 2, 2025
1
History of Science}

Join host and geologist Casey Luskin and historian of science Michael Keas for a lively conversation puncturing a series of anti-Christian myths.

Geology

The Wonders of a Hard Mineral

_{David Coppedge
September 5, 2025
11
Geology}

Explore the features of a remarkable mineral erupted from volcanoes that is found in our teeth. How did it get there?

Plate Tectonics and Scientific Discovery

_{Guillermo Gonzalez
September 3, 2024
4
Geology}

Plate tectonics is important for advanced life in multiple ways and planets with plate tectonics are very rare.

Luskin: Our Intelligently Designed Planet

_{Science and Culture
November 3, 2022
1
Geology}

Dr. Luskin offers an additional design argument, this one aesthetic in nature, and takes questions from the audience.

Life Sciences

Fireweed: An Example of Intelligent Latent Design

_{Eric Hedin
February 5, 2025
7
Life Sciences}

The photo with fireweed in the foreground at the top of this article was taken by my father, Robert Hedin, at Mount Shuksan in Washington State.

Biological Information in Static Electricity

_{David Coppedge
December 5, 2024
5
Life Sciences}

The influence of static charge in pollination is one demonstrable case — not only for bees, but for moths and hummingbirds as well.

Plant Missile Technology: A Peek in the Armory

_{David Coppedge
December 2, 2024
5
Life Sciences}

Ballistic missiles are common in plants and fungi. Take a look at how they launch their payloads.

Neuroscience

Murray and Pinker Debate Terminal Lucidity

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 5, 2025
7
Neuroscience & Mind}

Pinker himself is fresh from getting a book tour Canceled by a humanist group. He’s apparently not one of the atheist heroes any more.

Researchers Find Memory Outside the Brain

_{Science and Culture
October 30, 2025
3
Neuroscience & Mind}

It it is very difficult to look at the natural world seriously and not see a mind in there somewhere.

The Culture Is Maturing Toward the Immortal Mind

_{David Klinghoffer
October 20, 2025
7
Neuroscience & Mind}

The existence of an immaterial reality, a soul, or a genome, is a concept that has been bubbling up, independently, across a range of minds.

Medicine

For a Long Time, Dementia Was the New Leprosy

_{Denyse O’Leary
October 24, 2025
5
Medicine}

I use the term “delay” rather than “prevention” for a reason: It may be that the human brain will inevitably start to break down after a century or so.

Consciousness and ID: Hear Dr. Simmons Tonight

_{Science and Culture
October 1, 2025
1
Medicine}

He tells us, “My patients have contacted me from all over the world having heard me on this show on previous occasions.”

Will We Care For or Kill Dementia Patients?

_{Wesley J. Smith
September 21, 2025
2
Medicine}

I understand that people are terrified of dementia. Believe me, I get it. My mother died of Alzheimer’s.

Biology

War Between Evolutionary Biologists May Be Looming

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 11, 2025
5
Biology}

Nathan Lents says it doesn’t make a lot of sense” to think of sex in humans as binary. Colin Wright says, “Stop misleading the public.”

Centrioles as Part of a Large Signaling Network

_{David Coppedge
October 24, 2025
10
Biology}

What molecular structure forms cartwheels, is architecturally beautiful, and is vital for cell division?

Ancient Eyes, Modern Design

_{Emily Reeves
October 23, 2025
3
Paleontology}

Does this discovery suggest that the principles of compound vision emerged nearly half a billion years ago as the authors concluded?

Physical Sciences

Physics

Building the Foundations: The Strong Nuclear Force

_{Eric Hedin
November 10, 2025
7
Physics}

If the strong force suddenly turned off, the nuclei in an object as small as a gold ring would explode with energy equivalent to a small atomic bomb.

The Forces that Shape our Universe: Gravity

_{Eric Hedin
October 31, 2025
9
Physics}

One of the most remarkable aspects of our universe is the discovery that just four fundamental forces of nature govern interactions among all particles.

Maturing Toward God: Update from Charles Murray

_{David Klinghoffer
October 20, 2025
3
Physics}

Why there is something rather than nothing is the question posed in our video, “Proof of God in 3 Minutes,” about the law of conservation of matter and energy.

Chemistry

When Science Degenerates into a Spoils System

_{Denyse O’Leary
November 2, 2025
5
Scientific Freedom}

Chemistry professor Anna Krylov forces us to look at that in discouraging detail.

Postcard from São Paulo

_{Casey Luskin
July 23, 2025
4
Intelligent Design}

Kristin Marais spoke about “How to Make Chemistry Fun by Teaching Intelligent Design and the Origin of Life.”

Homeschool High‑School Science Courses

_{Brian Westad
July 16, 2025
3
Science Education}

Give your high‑schooler a course that sparks curiosity today and prepares them for the science of tomorrow.

Astronomy

Rights for Planets, Moons, and Space Microbes?

_{Wesley J. Smith
September 29, 2025
3
Planetology}

The ultimate purpose in granting such rights would be to disincentivize investments in space exploration and keep us Gaia-bound.

An Icon of Intelligent Design

_{David Klinghoffer
August 6, 2025
2
Faith & Science}

If wokeness leads to promoting surgical sexual mutilation of children, maybe we need to rethink the whole thing.

Dave Farina Gives Avi Loeb the Hamas Treatment

_{David Klinghoffer
July 30, 2025
4
Evolution}

Farina was known to us before for his puerile attack videos aimed at intelligent design proponents.

Fine-Tuning

Geometric Design in the Solar System

_{Eric Hedin
August 11, 2025
8
Intelligent Design}

My favorite example of such geometric design arises from the mean orbits of our innermost two planets, Mercury and Venus.

We Are Children of Light and Water

_{Andrew McDiarmid
August 10, 2025
2
Intelligent Design}

“In this vast range, there’s only one…infinitesimally small band which has the right energy for photosynthesis,” a prerequisite for human life. Coincidence?

The “Nature of the Universe” Puzzles Physicists

_{Denyse O’Leary
June 27, 2025
7
Intelligent Design}

The more physicists know about the universe, the larger loom some questions about ultimate realities.

Earth Sciences

Geophysics

Aurora Borealis: Scientific and Aesthetic Design

_{Casey Luskin
May 12, 2024
9
Astronomy}

You appreciate the aurora borealis or aurora australis because you were not created by strictly material evolutionary processes.

Geoengineering on an Intelligently Designed Planet

_{Tova Levengood
August 30, 2023
4
Intelligent Design}

Scientists are still discovering how many systems, controls, and other aspects of planetary fine-tuning are in place to ensure that we have abundant life.

No Iron, No Life: Design in Iron Availability

_{Science and Culture
January 25, 2022
9
Biology}

As an exercise, count the number of lucky breaks that had to occur for the evolutionary story to work.

Environment

Great Science Cancellation Continues

_{David Klinghoffer
September 18, 2025
3
Scientific Freedom}

In the domination of science by ideology, by the myth of “settled science,” the stakes couldn’t be more profound.

COSM Will Feature Nobel Laureate John F. Clauser

_{Science and Culture
September 12, 2025
5
Physics}

Discovery Institute’s upcoming COSM 2025 tech conference will feature something a little different.

Put Mother Nature on the Board of Directors?

_{Wesley J. Smith
September 9, 2025
6
Ethics}

Nature can’t “own” anything. That’s a human construct. Moreover, nature would be represented by environmental “flesh flake” radicals.

Rare Earth

Study: Geological Habitability Parameters

_{Casey Luskin
August 14, 2024
8
Rare Earth}

One thing that is likely to get some pushback is the study’s claim that modern-style plate tectonics on Earth did not commence until the Neoproterozoic.

Earth and Mars — A Rare Gem and a Sharp Contrast

_{Eric Hedin
August 5, 2024
9
Rare Earth}

Apparently, simple living organisms must exist for eons on a planet before more advanced life can thrive.

Rare Earth: How Vital Minerals “Evolve”

_{David Coppedge
August 29, 2022
4
Rare Earth}

It’s intriguing that life as we know it depends on a seemingly un-natural distribution of minerals.

Planetology

The Search for ETs: Keeping Hope Alive

_{Denyse O’Leary
October 15, 2025
5
Planetology}

The question looms: How much can science avoid facts while retaining the character of science?

Rights for Planets, Moons, and Space Microbes?

_{Wesley J. Smith
September 29, 2025
3
Planetology}

The ultimate purpose in granting such rights would be to disincentivize investments in space exploration and keep us Gaia-bound.

Hope for Mars Life Is Dashed Again

_{David Coppedge
March 4, 2025
1
Planetology}

Subsequent landers discovered a high concentration of perchlorates in the soil. Perchlorates are chlorinated salts, often used in fireworks.

Culture

Human Exceptionalism

Nature Right Pushes Neo-Pagan Mysticism

_{Wesley J. Smith
September 25, 2025
3
Human Exceptionalism}

Most recently, the Harvard Kennedy School hosted a symposium on “nature rights” undergirded by “indigenous knowledge.”

Smithsonian Denigrates the Human Race

_{David Klinghoffer
August 20, 2025
3
Human Exceptionalism}

I have not yet heard that the Trump Administration is looking at what the NMNH says about human origins. But reforming the Smithsonian requires it.

C. S. Lewis and the Advent of the Posthuman

_{James A. Herrick
August 21, 2020
9
Human Exceptionalism}

In Julian Savulescu’s view, rapidly advancing brain science will provide some of the data necessary to shaping a better human race.

Arts

False Messiah: An Addendum on Darwin and Theism

_{Neil Thomas
October 22, 2025
12
Evolution}

The standpoint of poet John Keats is certainly gaining resonance in our doubt-ridden 21st century. I for one welcome its openness to questioning and wonder.

J. K. Rowling Comes Out Against Assisted Suicide

_{Wesley J. Smith
September 26, 2025
2
Bioethics}

Two of the core tenets of liberalism are (supposed to be) protecting vulnerable people from exploitation and promoting equality among all people.

Darwin, Faust, and the Alchemist: Unexpected Roots

_{Neil Thomas
September 25, 2025
19
Evolution}

Today we would of course brand both Faust and the Alchemist fantasists or “mad scientists” of the first order. Was Darwin prone to such wishful thinking?

Ethics

China Jumps on the Transhumanism Train

_{Wesley J. Smith
November 12, 2025
4
Bioethics}

It is said to be is devoting much energy and many resources to the life-extension project.

We Are Becoming a Suicide Nation

_{Wesley J. Smith
November 4, 2025
2
Bioethics}

We are well on the way now to becoming more like Canada, where we have seen how the euthanasia virus leads to terrible abuses.

Tucker Carlson: A Second Coming for the Alt-Right

_{David Klinghoffer
November 4, 2025
6
Bioethics}

The Alt-Right did more plundering of pseudo-science, while the Woke Right plunders Christianity while pretending to revere it.

Social Sciences

In Study of Human Psychology, the Power of “Maybe”

_{Denyse O’Leary
October 22, 2025
5
Psychology}

This is not science and is not a good look for a psychology that purports to have some relationship with science.

Can Evolution Explain Altruism or Heroism?

_{Andrew McDiarmid
September 20, 2025
2
Evolutionary Psychology}

Casey Luskin and I share separate recent examples of people who have run towards burning cars to save complete strangers.

If You Want Creative Storytelling, Look No Further

_{Andrew McDiarmid
September 19, 2025
2
Uncategorized}

If evolutionary psychology attempts to explain every behavior, including each behavior’s opposite, can it really explain anything?

Faith and Science

What Can Science Tell About the Existence of God?

_{Andrew McDiarmid
October 28, 2025
3
Faith & Science}

The worldview of materialism is increasingly at odds with the latest scientific discoveries of the last hundred years.

Discoveries That Make Materialism Irrational

_{Andrew McDiarmid
October 24, 2025
2
Faith & Science}

For the last 150 years, many have assumed science has ejected God from the picture, a quaint relic of a less enlightened past.

Murray and Others Rediscovering God: No Accident

_{Denyse O’Leary
October 19, 2025
5
Faith & Science}

Not what you heard? Well, if you heard something else from traditional media, maybe those media aren’t so reliable any more.

Science Education

ID Education Day Is Coming to Tacoma, November 6!

_{Kate Kavanaugh
October 1, 2025
2
Science Education}

This is a fantastic field trip opportunity for middle and high school students in homeschool and private school settings to interact directly with scientists.

Homeschool High‑School Science Courses

_{Brian Westad
July 16, 2025
3
Science Education}

Give your high‑schooler a course that sparks curiosity today and prepares them for the science of tomorrow.

DI Academy “Meet the Teachers” Zoom

_{Kristin Marais
May 28, 2025
4
Science Education}

If you weren’t able to drop by our booth in Florida, why don’t you consider joining our “Meet the Teachers” Zoom event on Thursday, May 29 at 5:00 pm (PDT).

Scientific Freedom

The Wrong Tool to Fix Woke Science Journals

_{Wesley J. Smith
May 3, 2025
2}

The government has no business pressuring medical journals about their content — no matter how biased.

Hysteria in the Science Sector Over DOGE

_{Wesley J. Smith
March 30, 2025
4}

Whatever problems now exist for the public medical research funding sector, the disappointing Francis Collins helped create them.

Stand Up for Science or… for Naked Ideology?

_{Wesley J. Smith
March 12, 2025
4}

“Stand Up for Science 2025” protests were clearly aimed at reaffirming control by the now discredited science establishment.

Science Reporting

On the Origin of Our New Name

_{Andrew McDiarmid
September 27, 2025
3
Science Reporting}

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.

On Genetic (Dis)Similarity, Give Credit Where Due

_{David Klinghoffer
September 10, 2025
4
Science Reporting}

Would anyone know that the 1 percent icon has finally fallen, if we hadn’t broken the story? It seems not.

Science Struggles with Reality

_{Denyse O’Leary
August 27, 2025
7
Science Reporting}

There seems to be little relationship between many science writers’ current concerns and the reasons that public trust in science has been steadily declining.