The latest Fiske college guide just came in the mail, an awesome and a dreadful thing as our family prepares to send our first two children to college over the next few years. Today I read contrasting perspectives on college, and I recommend both — one by Dennis Prager, in the wake of the current admissions scandal, pouring the utmost scorn on the Ivy League, and the other by National Review’s Jay Nordlinger, wonderfully recalling the late great Dartmouth English scholar Jeffrey Hart, whose nostalgia for these historical universities knew no bounds.

I’m torn between these views. One thing is certain, though. No matter where you send your young people to school, whether secular or religious, Ivy League or the nearest state university, they are almost certain to hear nothing substantive and accurate about one of the greatest questions that has ever bothered human beings: Does nature give objective evidence of design, or only of blind, material processes? Or rather, on this subject that has been debated by great minds for thousands of year, they will hear only one side. Think of it: Wealthy parents are bribing their kids’ way into universities where the ultimate mystery of existence doesn’t even get a hearing.

A Fraying Consensus

Aristotle argued for design, while the Roman philosopher Lucretius was a pioneering evolutionist. However, in science courses today, despite the best arguments of Kepler, Newton, and others for intelligent design, your son or daughter is likely to be informed that science has the question all wrapped up. Blind churning can answer every query about how complex life arose. Even many Christian colleges rush awkwardly to assure the world that they are on board with the “consensus,” even as the consensus itself looks increasingly frayed.

Against this background, Discovery Institute offers the Summer Seminars on Intelligent Design, July 5-13 this year here in the Seattle. Acceptance is competitive, but unlike some name-brand American universities, we don’t take bribes. And unlike Yale or USC, the Seminars are FREE. Thanks to our generous supporters, we can cover all costs including, in some cases of need, travel costs. Here’s the thing, though. The application deadline is almost here. It’s Tuesday, April 2. Applying is not difficult but time is running out.

Attention: Parents, Educators, and Students

If you’re a parent, please take note and let your kids know. If you’re an educator, please do the same. If you’re a student, also take note. This is a marvelous opportunity that undergraduates and graduate students can have to hear the evidence of design for themselves without the filter of biology and other science professors whose careers would be in jeopardy if they strayed from the reservation. Instructors in the Summer Seminars are the very best scientists and scholars in the field of ID research, including Stephen Meyer, Michael Behe, Douglas Axe, Ann Gauger, Paul Nelson, John West, Richard Sternberg, Jonathan Wells, and more.

For more information and an application, see here. There are two tracks, one with a focus on biology and cosmology, the other on the philosophical and cultural implications of origins science. But do remember the looming headline!

Photo credit: Edwin Andrade on Unsplash.