CFB/PHY3333: A Brief Introduction to Natural Selection, Creationism and Intelligent Design
Channel: Stephen Sekula
Date: 2012-11-17

A clear recording of the Nov. 14 and Nov. 19 (2012) lectures on Evolution, Natural Selection, Creationism, and Intelligent Design (ID). These lectures are part of a multi-day series in Cultural Formations B/Physics 3333, taught by myself and two other professors at Southern Methodist University. The course is on the scientific method and critical thinking.

This lecture is supposed to be given in two parts over two days, and is a primer on why and how Natural Selection is a successful scientific theory, why Creationism and Intelligent Design are neither scientific nor successful, and how the founders and proponents of the ID movement themselves have repeatedly stated that what they do is cultural, political, and social revolution, not science. 

The key take-away messages from this lecture should be: Natural Selection is the successful scientific explanation for the fact that life evolves. Creationism and Intelligent Design are religious ideas trying to masquerade as science, though their proponents are clear that their efforts are not scientific. Science is science (and demands evidence) and religion is religion (and requires no evidence). Mixing the two does a great disservice to both science and religion. Your faith should never be based on things that can be disproven by the next test, and your science should only be based on things that could be disproven by the next test.