A Tale of Two Doctors: Finding Purpose in Medicine and Science

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

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

4 • 993 Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes Dr. Stephen Iacoboni, an award-winning cancer researcher and medical oncologist with 40 years of experience, to discuss the undeniable element of purpose in all living things. The conversation dives deep into the question of whether this purpose can be explained purely by the physical world, or if it points to a source beyond nature and science. Dr. Iacoboni shares his unique reconciliation between faith and science, as explored in his latest book, Telos: The Scientific Basis for a Life of Purpose. He recounts his personal journey and profound divergence from the "mechanistic consensus" prevalent during his medical school years in the 1960s and 70s, which viewed organisms, including humans, as "biologic machines without souls, products of an unguided process." Source

Transcript

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0:00.0	ID, The Future, a podcast about evolution and intelligent design.
0:10.0	I think most of us can agree that there's an undeniable element of purpose to all living things.
0:16.0	The question is, where does this purpose come from?
0:20.0	Can it be explained purely in terms of the
0:22.2	physical world? Or does it point to a source outside the realm of nature and science?
0:27.9	I'm going to probe these and other questions today with my guest, Dr. Stephen Yakoboni,
0:33.4	an award-winning cancer researcher and practitioner of medical oncology for 40 years.
0:39.1	In his personal memoir, The Undying Soul, he chronicles his spiritual journey and return to faith.
0:45.4	In his latest book, Tilos, The Scientific Basis for a Life of Purpose,
0:49.7	he offers a unique reconciliation between faith and science.
0:56.2	He also writes up a storm regularly at EvolutionNews.org, our flagship news and commentary website covering the evidence for intelligent
1:02.9	design and the debate over evolution. Stephen, welcome to idea of the future. Thank you, Andrew.
1:08.9	It's a real pleasure to be here. Well, this is actually
1:12.0	your first appearance on our podcast, so a hearty welcome. How long have you been writing at
1:17.2	EvolutionNews.org? I started in August of 22, so we're coming up on three years,
1:23.6	doing about one post a month. I'm still working full-time and living my life, so to speak.
1:31.3	And so I put a lot of time and effort into the posts.
1:35.3	And so as I'm doing more and more research on perhaps another book or just when I'm
1:42.3	expanding my knowledge on all of the information that comes out in modern science now,
1:48.0	which is a waft fire hose.
1:51.1	New insights that come up and something meaningful can be added to my narrative,
1:58.2	then I sit down and put something together for the publication.
	...

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