Jonathan M

Discovery Institute’s Dr. Jonathan Wells will be presenting to my LIVE “Apologetics Academy” webinar and fielding audience Q&A today, Saturday, at 8pm GMT / 3pm EST / 2pm CST / 12noon PST. He will be speaking on the subject of “Design Beyond DNA”. I hope some of you can join us. Please click the link below to join the webinar at or shortly before the meeting’s start time: https://zoom.us/j/457736238 Doing so will immediately prompt you to download the Zoom webinar platform we use (if you have not already done so). This should only take a minute or two. You will then be automatically connected to our webinar room. Skeptics are welcome, and there will be plenty of opportunity to engage and Read More ›

Later today, Dr. Douglas Axe of the Biologic Institute will be presenting to the Apologetics Academy, a weekly free, live interactive webinar with top scholars representing positions from across the theological and philosophical spectrum. Normally, the webinar takes place on Saturday. However, this week, Dr. Douglas Axe will be speaking today, Friday. His topic is his recent book, Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life is Designed. The webinar officially begins at 8pm GMT / 3pm EST / 2pm CST / 12noon PST, and can be accessed by clicking on the following URL: https://zoom.us/j/457736238 Doing so will immediately prompt you to download the Zoom software we use. You will then be automatically connected to the webinar room. Whatever your position, Read More ›

This coming Saturday (July 16th), I am going to be hosting my weekly Apologetics Academy webinar session. This week, we are blessed to have German pro-ID paleontologist Dr. Günter Bechly presenting to us on the implications of the fossil record for neo-Darwinian evolution. The session begins at 8pm GMT (9pm Central Europe / 3pm EST / 2pm Central America / 12noon Pacific). To join, click the following URL at or shortly before the meeting’s start time: https://zoom.us/j/457736238 Doing so will prompt you to download the Zoom webinar platform that we use. This should only take a minute or two. Once downloaded, you will be automatically connected with our room. I hope to see many of you there!

I thought readers might be interested in this recent conversation I had with Scottish apologist David Robertson (of the SOLAS Centre for Public Christianity) in Dundee, Scotland, on God and science. Enjoy!

Readers may be aware that I host a weekly webinar series called the Apologetics Academy. Every week, I bring in a different scholar to talk to my group, representing viewpoints from across the theological and philosophical spectrum. The floor is then opened for Q&A and further discussion. Participants can watch and listen anonymously, participate in the chatbox, submit questions anonymously, or engage the speaker using their microphone and/or webcam. I have had Ann Gauger and Mike Behe present to the group about intelligent design in the past. This coming week (June 4th / tomorrow), we have Matt Dillahunty of the Atheist Experience coming to talk to us on the subject of “Why I Am An Atheist.” Join us for what promises Read More ›

Dr. Michael Behe is going to be presenting an interactive online webinar on May 7th (8pm GMT / 3pm Eastern / 2pm Central / 12noon Pacific) to my group, the Apologetics Academy (http://www.apologetics-academy.org). Behe will present on the biochemical evidence for design for approximately 1 hour and then field questions from the floor. I run these sessions every week with different speakers. You can engage the speaker with live audio and video, submit questions anonymously, participate in the chatbox, or simply watch and listen anonymously. Be aware that the sessions are normally recorded for later upload to YouTube. We can accommodate up to 100 participants. The currently confirmed speaker lineup can be viewed here. To participate in next Saturday’s Webinar, click Read More ›

Last week, I launched my new website, AdvancedApologetics.net. The website contains information on my upcoming speaking engagements and debates, as well as upcoming online meetings of my Advanced Apologetics mentoring group. It also features a blog, and links to the collection of videos available at my YouTube Channel. My interests that are covered on the website include intelligent design, as well as other areas relating to worldview and philosophy. Check it out here.

On Friday night I participated in an interview, along with philosopher J.T. Bridges, on the Trinity channel on the subject of ID and evolution. Here is the recording.

A frequently made claim in the scientific literature is that protein domains can be readily recombined to form novel folds. In Darwin’s Doubt, Stephen Meyer addresses this subject in detail (see Chapter 11). Over the course of this article, I want to briefly expand on what was said there. Defining Our Terms Before going on, it may be useful for me to define certain key terms and concepts. I will be referring frequently to “exons” and “introns.” Exons are sections of genes that code for proteins; whereas introns are sections of genes that don’t code for proteins. Proteins have multiple structural levels. Primary structure refers to the linear sequence of amino acids comprising the protein chain. When segments within this chain Read More ›

I want to draw readers’ attention to a great debate that recently took place at the University of Texas at Dallas, between Blake Giunta, the founder of a recently-developed online apologetics resource called “TreeSearch“, and Justin Schieber, the host of the Reasonable Doubts radio show and podcast. Blake posted a postmortem review of the debate at his website. That, along with a video of the debate itself, can be found here. I highly recommend watching this debate for yourself and reading the summary over at the TreeSearch website. Blake is an up-and-coming intellectual who is supportive of ID (this comes out in the debate) and has shown himself to be widely read, thoughtful and reflective, and winsome in his approach. I am sure we Read More ›

It’s that time of year again. 2012 is winding down and 2013 looms on the horizon.  Intelligent design has had another productive year in 2012, and we look forward to the challenges and successes of the coming year. So what has the intelligent design community accomplished in the past 12 months? This year saw the publication of the ENCODE discovery that our genome, far from being replete with nonsensical ‘junk DNA’, is in fact alive with pervasive biochemical activity such as transcription, transcription factor binding, and histone modification (as much as 80% exhibiting such activity). This evidence is highly suggestive that our genome may be far more functional than has been traditionally assumed. The take-home message from the results is that at least “20% of Read More ›

Today I received an inquiry from a friend who is an atheist regarding the question of suboptimal design in nature. He was interested in learning how I would respond to “apparent instances of poor design, both in humans and throughout the animal kingdom.” He gave a few examples, “rang[ing] from technical design flaws such as the recurrent laryngeal nerve, to vestigial features such as the marsupial mole having non-functioning eyes hidden under its skin, to ‘commonsense’ features such as using the same mouth for both eating and breathing, leading to an untold number of deaths through choking.” In response, I identified four fundamental flaws with the argument from suboptimal design in nature. Here is my reply: Thanks for your question. Read More ›

On Friday, Dr. Stephen C. Meyer joined Dr. Ravi Zacharias in a discussion on Moody Radio’s In The Market with Janet Parshall. You can read the details here. Hour 1, which you can download here, features Ravi Zacharias. The website’s description states, Respected apologist Ravi Zacharias was once sharing his faith with a Hindu who asked: “If the Christian faith is truly supernatural, why is it not more evident in the lives of so many Christians I know?” The question hit hard, and led Dr. Ravi Zacharias to write Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend. Dr. Ravi Zacharias will join us today to talk about the importance of equipping Christians everywhere to simultaneously defend the faith and be transformed Read More ›

Critics of modern evolutionary theory have an intellectual responsibility to strive to understand the paradigm that they are critiquing, preferably to a level where they can clearly articulate the key propositions of evolutionary theory and offer a standard defense of them. Richard Hoppe, at the Panda’s Thumb blog, drew my attention to a free online course on the subject of genetics and evolution. You can, as I have done, sign up for (and read about) the course at this link. The course description states, “Introduction to Genetics and Evolution gives interested people a very basic overview of the principles behind these very fundamental areas of biology.  We often hear about new “genome sequences,” commercial kits that can tell you about Read More ›