Jonathan Wells Evaluates Darwinian Evolution in New Online Course

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

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

4 • 993 Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2023

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

How strong is the evidence for Darwinian evolution? What are the limits of the Darwinian mechanism? How should concepts like evolution and science best be defined? On this episode of ID The Future, we bring to you the first three video lectures from a new online course by molecular and cell biologist Jonathan Wells. In the first brief lecture, Wells explains his own evolution; the evolution of his thinking about evolution, that is. You'll glean some interesting details about Wells's career here. In the second lecture, Wells defines the word evolution by reminding us of its various meanings and uses. He also describes how Darwin's theory of natural selection became the framework that bolstered a materialistic metaphysic that endures today. You'll learn that Darwin's proposal relied less on evidence-based science and more on theological and philosophical arguments. In the third lecture, Wells defines science, and explains what happens when the definition of science is confined to naturalistic explanations only. Every so often, says Wells, enough data accumulates to present a challenge to the prevailing scientific framework. It happened in Newton's day. It happened in Darwin's day. And it may happen again soon, if the mounting evidence supportive of intelligent design is any indication. Learn more about Wells's online course at discoveryu.org. Over 40 short video lectures, Wells explains the major concepts of both chemical and biological evolution, and he critically assesses the evidence for evolution offered by genetics, developmental biology, fossils, and more. Wells deals with some of the most popular “icons” of evolution found in standard textbooks, including Darwin’s finches, whales, antibiotic resistance, peppered moths, “junk” DNA, and more.

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0:00.0	I d the future a podcast about evolution and intelligent design
0:12.4	greetings I'm Tom Gilson.
0:14.0	The Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture offers online education we think you'll want to know about.
0:21.0	It's called Discovery You, and it's easy to find at
0:25.1	DiscoveryU.org. Today we have a preview for you. Three mini lectures about six or
0:32.0	seven minutes each from Discovery Institute Senior
0:35.2	Fellow Jonathan Wells introducing his course investigating evidence for
0:40.6	and against evolution.
0:43.0	We're taught in our public schools and universities that we all got here by evolution.
0:49.0	This is an important theory.
0:51.0	It's very prominent in our culture, and it's very important to know it to understand it.
0:56.5	So I'm going to take a critical look at evolution in these lectures.
1:00.3	I'm not going to be defending biblical creation or even intelligent design except in passing.
1:05.0	Instead what I'm going to be presenting is a critical analysis of arguments and evidence for and against evolution.
1:12.0	But my initial question, how did I get here, has it for and against evolution.
1:12.6	But my initial question, how did I get here,
1:14.8	has a double meaning.
1:16.1	The second part of the meeting is,
1:17.9	how did I get here personally in my own thinking?
1:21.5	I started out as an undergraduate college undergraduate at Princeton
1:24.9	University in 1960. I studied geology which in those days was quite exciting.
1:31.4	Those were the days when the theory of drifting continents was still controversial.
	...

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