#21: Reframing the “Evolution or Creation” Debate?

My guest today is Dr. Charles Thaxton, a chemist who is one of the founders of a movement that reframed the debate over evolution and creation. He co-authored The Mystery of Life’s Origin: Reassessing Current Theories, which sparked what has come to be known as the “Intelligent Design” movement in the study of origins. This reframing of the creation/evolution debate has both strong supporters and strong critics. In our conversation we delve into exactly what “ID” is and is not, the data that supports this approach to origins, what critiques are made of this approach, and how he responds to these criticisms.

In this podcast we discuss:

• How he came to co-author The Mystery of Life’s Origin: Reassessing Current Theories
• How he came to reject the standard chemical explanation of the origin of life (and the experiments that support the standard model, most notably the Miller experiment)
• How this new view that emerged from his (and other’s) research came to be called “Intelligent Design” (ID)
• A concise description of ID and “specified complexity”
• The common scientific methodology between ID and NASA’s search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI) program
• How discoveries of the DNA code further support the ID thesis
• The push-back and controversy ID generated among non-Christians
• The pushback received from some Christians who are “theistic evolutionists”
• Why he believes all these objections fail
• How ID differs from “Creationism”
• The philosophical issues underlying the rejection of ID
• Why ID is not “religion” or “bringing God into science”
• Some of the best resources to better understand ID

Resources mentioned during our conversation:

• Charles B. Thaxton, Walter L. Bradley, Roger L. Olson, The Mystery of Life’s Origin: Reassessing Current Theories
• Thaxton, Bradley, Olsen, Tour, Meyer, Wells, Gonzalez, Miller, The Mystery of Life’s Origin: The Continuing Controversy
• Stephen C. Mayer, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design
• The Discovery Institute
• Philip E. Johnson, Darwin on Trial
• Jonathan Wells, Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth? Why Much of What We Teach About Evolution is Wrong