Smoke & Mirrors: Tour and Meyer Assess Origin of Life Experiments

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

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

4 • 993 Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2023

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have scientists made life in a laboratory? Two-thirds of the public think the answer is yes. What do you think? This episode of ID The Future is the third installment in a series of four conversations between philosopher of science Dr. Stephen Meyer, author of Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, and Dr. James Tour, a world-leading synthetic organic chemist at Rice University. Dr. Tour has recently been engaged in a series of back-and-forth responses to attacks on his work from YouTube science communicator Dave Farina. This has given Tour a new opportunity to critique experts in the field of abiogenesis and allows an interested public to better evaluate both sides of the argument. In Part 3, Meyer and Tour continue their critique of the claims of chemist Lee Cronin, including his experiments on the formose reaction, autocatalysis, his attempts to conjure up lipids in oil, and more. Along the way, Tour explains how he got into the debate in the first place, providing some background on his interactions with Farina and how it led him to call out experts in the field. Tour and Meyer are careful to remind us just what life is and what it takes to build it. And on several occasions, you’ll enjoy Meyer’s insight into the big picture. These simulation experiments, says Meyer “are actually showing the difficulty of making life-relevant molecules…via an undirected process.” In other words, origin of life researchers are doing sophisticated chemistry with multi-million dollar equipment that can only be done in a modern lab! In the process, they’re showing us just how implausible chemical evolutionary theories actually are. This is Part 3 of a 4-part series. Watch the video versions of these conversations at Dr. Meyer's YouTube Channel: @DrStephenMeyer

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0:00.0	I. D. the Future, a podcast about evolution and intelligent design. Welcome to I.D. the Future. I'm your host Andrew McDermott. Today we're happy to share the third installment of a four-part conversation series between philosopher of science Dr Stephen Meyer,
0:25.0	author of signature in the cell, DNA and the evidence for intelligent design,
0:29.0	and Dr James Tour, a world- leading synthetic organic chemist at Rice University.
0:36.2	The topic is the origin of the first life, and Dr. Tourser's assessment of the state of origin
0:41.3	of life research today.
0:43.0	These conversations were recorded in November and December 2022,
0:47.0	after Dr. Tour released a series of videos
0:50.0	in response to YouTube Science Communicator Dave Farina and his videos attacking Dr Tours research.
0:56.4	But for those who were not satisfied with that debate, or still have questions about the origin of life,
1:02.1	this set of conversations between Meyer and
1:04.7	Tour should bring much needed calm and clarity.
1:08.8	In Part 3, Meyer and Tour continue their critique of the claims of chemist Lee Cronin, including his experiments
1:15.7	on the foremost reaction, autocatalysis, his attempts to conjure up lipids in oil, and more. Along the way, Tour explains how he got into the debate in the first place,
1:26.4	providing some background on his interactions with Farina,
1:29.4	and how it gave him the opportunity to call out the work of experts in the field.
1:34.1	Tour and Meyer are careful to remind us just what life is and what it takes to build
1:39.8	it. And on several occasions you'll enjoy Meyer's insight into the big picture.
1:45.0	These simulation experiments, says Meyer, are actually showing us the difficulty of making life-relevant molecules via an undirected process.
1:55.0	In other words, origin of life researchers are doing sophisticated chemistry with
2:00.0	multi-million dollar equipment that can only be done in a modern lab. In the process
2:05.8	they're showing us just how implausible chemical evolutionary theories
2:09.7	actually are. A quick note these dialogues were recorded on video. The first voice you'll hear this time is
	...

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