I d the future a podcast about evolution and intelligent design

welcome to I d the. I'm your host Andrew McDermott. Today I'm

pleased to welcome to the program author and professor Robert Shedinger

to discuss his new book Darwin's Bluff, the mystery of the book Darwin never finished.

Dr. Shedinger is the Wilford A Johnson chair of biblical studies and professor of religion

at Luther College in Iowa. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from Temple

University and is the author of several books, most recently The Mystery of Evolutionary

Mechanisms, Darwinian Biology's grand narrative of triumph, and the subversion of religion.

Robert, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you, it's nice to be with you.

Well, let's take a minute to set the stage for today's conversation.

Tucked away in Charles Darwin's surviving papers is a manuscript of almost 300,000 words that he never completed. It was his sequel to the origin of species.

It was the book he had promised would finally supply solid empirical evidence for the creative power of natural selection.

Evidence he admitted was absent from the origin, which he repeatedly described as a mere abstract.

Darwin soon abandoned his sequel, though he never revealed that decision to those who awaited its appearance.

The mystery of why Darwin didn't finish his sequel has never been satisfactorily resolved.

Dr. Shetinger's new book Darwin's Bluff is satisfactorily resolved.

Dr. Shetinger's new book, Darwin's Bluff,

is a fascinating piece of historical detective work,

drawing on Darwin's letters, private notebooks,

and the unfinished manuscript itself to piece together the puzzle and reveal an embarrassing

truth. Darwin never finished his sequel because in the end he couldn't deliver the promised

...