Douglas Axe: Dragonflies, Cookies, and Our Built-In Design Intuition

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

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

4.3 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2026

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This classic ID the Future out of the archive brings in protein scientist Douglas Axe to discuss his contribution to the book, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Axe and host Casey Luskin discuss Axe’s thinking on the design intuition, the evidence that it’s triggered almost universally in small children when they observe things like dragonflies or fresh-baked cookies, and why he’s convinced that this intuition is a rational one rooted in our true sense of what sorts of things require know-how for their creation.

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0:00.0	ID the Future, a podcast about evolution and intelligent design.
0:11.9	Can we trust our intuition that tells us that nature was designed?
0:16.2	Hello and welcome to ID the Future.
0:18.4	I'm Casey Luskin, and today I'm speaking with Douglas Axe, Maxwell
0:22.1	Professor of Molecular Biology at Biola University, the founding director of Biologic Institute
0:27.5	and the founding editor of the journal Bio Complexity. He's also the author of Undeniable,
0:32.7	how biology confirms our intuition that life is designed. Doug earned his PhD in biochemical engineering
0:38.7	from Caltech, did postdoc work at the University of Cambridge, and has published his research
0:43.6	in top journals like the Journal of Molecular Biology and Proceedings of the National Academy
0:48.3	of Sciences. So, Doug, it's a real pleasure to have you on the podcast today. It's great to be here.
0:53.2	Thank you, Casey.
0:59.1	Sure, and the occasion is that we're talking about your two chapter contributions to a book that's being released in October of 2021 titled The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith,
1:05.1	exploring the ultimate questions about life and the cosmos. It's available on Amazon,
1:09.5	and I'm a co-editor along with William
1:11.7	Damski and Joseph Holden. We really appreciated your two chapters that you contributed to this book,
1:16.9	Doug. One is titled, Is Our Intuition of Design and Nature Correct? And another is titled,
1:22.2	Can New Proteins Evolve? So I was hoping I could pick your brain about these chapters today
1:27.0	and maybe wet our listeners'
1:28.6	appetite for what you have to say in those chapters.
1:31.2	Sounds good.
1:31.9	Let's do it.
1:32.7	Okay.
	...

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