A Microbiologist’s Journey to Intelligent Design

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

Society & Culture, Science, Astronomy, Life Sciences, Philosophy

4.3 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2026

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this classic episode of ID The Future out of the vault, host Eric Anderson sits down with microbiologist Dr. Scott Minnich to discover what led him to microbiology and how he became an intelligent design researcher. In Part 1, Minnich shares how he first learned about intelligent design, met philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer, and eventually became involved in the well-known documentary, Unlocking the Mystery of Life. Minnich also reflects on his childhood upbringing and his interest in the big questions even as a high school student. His plans for an eventual military career took a turn as a result of the Vietnam War, and he began studying history and sociology instead. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Source

Transcript

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0:00.0	ID The Future, a podcast about evolution and intelligent design.
0:12.0	Welcome to ID the Future.
0:13.7	I'm Eric Anderson, and today I'm pleased to continue our series with members of the
0:17.5	intelligent design community talking about their stories, their backgrounds and
0:21.0	experiences, why they're involved with intelligent design, some of the challenges they've faced,
0:26.0	and the importance of following the evidence where it leads. In short, why it matters. Today I'm
0:31.0	joined by Dr. Scott Minnick, Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture,
0:35.8	and Professor of Microbiology at the University of
0:38.3	Idaho. Minnick is perhaps most well known for his extensive work on the bacterial flagellum. Welcome, Scott.
0:44.4	Oh, thank you. It's good to participate. So when I first got interested in intelligent design,
0:50.2	probably, gosh, 20 years ago, I saw this wonderful documentary unlocking the mystery of life
0:55.2	and remember seeing you talk about this amazing molecular system, the bacterial flagellum.
1:00.1	How did you get involved in that project?
1:02.0	It was really interesting.
1:04.0	I had done a postdoc at Purdue.
1:06.0	It was pretty much applied in molecular genetics.
1:10.0	We had, or I had cloned the bacillus therengensis
1:13.0	delta toxin gene, which is the beechi toxin that was in Monsanto put into plants and took
1:20.3	a job in industry, but really didn't like it. I had collaborated with a friend at Purdue
1:26.7	on detection of Yerssinia, and that involved
1:31.2	the phlogen, you know, identifying phlegelin structures that are pretty unique that we could use
1:37.2	antibodies for, and it kind of intrigued me. As I read about the flagellum, just some basic biology of it,
	...

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