Pearcey on Darwin and Huxley: Philosophy, Not Evidence, Drove Them to Their Conclusions

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

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

4 • 993 Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2023

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

On this episode of ID the Future, host Andrew McDiarmid continues his series with Nancy Pearcey discussing the arguments of her 2018 article "You Guys Lost! Is Design a Closed Issue?". Here, Pearcey explains what historians know, but few of the rest of us do: If anything, Charles Darwin’s science grew out of his naturalistic philosophy, not the other way around. "He started with a philosophical conviction," says Pearcey, "and then started looking for a theory to validate it." Pearcey also discusses one of Darwin's fiercest defenders, his “bulldog” T.H. Huxley, who liked Darwinism more for its philosophy than its science. And even Darwin admitted the evidence wasn’t all it could or should be. A closer examination of Darwin's ideas, and his frank and honest acknowledgements about his own theory, shows he wasn't nearly as dogmatic as many of his followers. This is an important thing to remember as we continue to evaluate the legacy of Darwin's arguments today.

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0:00.0	Welcome to ID the Future, a podcast about intelligent design and evolution.
0:17.0	Welcome to ID the future. I'm Andrew McDermott.
0:18.6	Today my guest is Nancy Percy, author of Total Truth,
0:22.3	Saving Leonardo, and Love Thy Body. She is currently professor and scholar
0:27.0	and residence at Houston Baptist University, as well as a fellow of the Discovery Institute and editor at large of the Percy Report.
0:35.5	Over four episodes I'm speaking with Nancy about a chapter she wrote for a book called
0:39.3	Meir Creation, Science, Faith and Design, that was recently highlighted in four parts on the blog More than Cake.
0:47.0	It's called You Guys Lost. Is Design a Closed Issue?
0:52.0	Although many may hold that Darwin conquered the design argument over 150 years ago,
0:57.0	Nancy shows that there's good reasons for returning to the site of battle
1:01.0	and asking whether it was one Thar and Square.
1:04.8	In our first episode, Nancy addressed the question of why Darwin became the focal point of debate
1:09.8	in the 19th century, even for many who did not accept his theory.
1:14.3	On today's episode, she recounts her examination of the writings of Darwin's core supporters
1:19.2	in the 19th century, digging deeper to get to the real story of Darwin's work and the debate still going
1:25.0	on today that resulted from it.
1:27.6	Nancy, thanks for joining us today.
1:30.2	Thank you for having me.
1:32.3	So you hold that the typical story of how Darwin produced his theory
1:36.2	is different from the story professional historians tell.
1:39.6	Can you explain that a bit?
1:42.0	Right, we usually do think think as you put it that what we hear in the media on
	...

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