021 - Return of the God Hypothesis with Stephen C. Meyer

Apologetics 315 Podcast

In this episode, Brian Auten and Chad Gross interview Dr. Stephen C. Meyer on his latest book Return of the God Hypothesis.
0:43 - Intro to Dr. Stephen Meyer, author of Return of the God Hypothesis, Signature in the Cell, and Darwin’s Doubt.
3:00 - Dr. Meyer’s background, education, and how he got interested in the question of intelligent design.
9:58 - Meyer’s view of science and philosophy of science, the importance for understanding philosophy when doing science.
16:28 - reviewing five centuries of the history of science, the false idea that science and religion have always been at war.
23:49 - The reason for telling the story of the rise of science, the rejection of the God hypothesis, and its subsequent return based on the most recent scientific discoveries.
28:15 - Explaining the methodology of inference to the best explanation. How this fits within theistic apologetics.
36:30 - Is our goal truth, or a pre-commitment to naturalism? What challenges has Meyer faced when arguing for intelligent design?
39:45 - Are there problems with postulating a mind as an intelligent cause? Are certain explanations “out of bounds” when doing science?
43:00 - Shannon information
43:55 - The origin of the universe, the fine-tuning of the universe, and the information in the cell. Resistance to change from a materialistic worldview.
47:40 - Huge theistic implications and the corresponding push-back to them.
49:15 - Helpful illustrations to explain the fine-tuning of the universe for life.
53:38 - Douglas Adams’ “puddle objection” to the fine-tuning argument; the response, and a counter-analogy. The weak-anthropic principle.
58:50 - How might these arguments fit into an apologetic for Christianity? The role of natural theology and the need for special revelation. The false dichotomy between evidentialism and presuppositional apologetics.
www.returnofthegodhypothesis.com
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