It’s a “summer camp for science and humanities nerds,” says philosopher of biology Paul Nelson about Discovery Institute’s Summer Seminars on Intelligent Design. The Seminars, which are cost-free and include some travel scholarships, run from July 10 to 18, 2020, here in Seattle. If you’re interested, get busy applying now because the deadline for U.S. undergrad and graduate students is Wednesday, March 4. (We also set aside a few spots for professors and other professionals.)

Look here for more information and online applications:

• The C.S. Lewis Fellows Program on Science and Society; and
•  The CSC Seminar on Intelligent Design in the Natural Sciences

On a new episode of ID the Future, Dr. Nelson talks with host Rob Crowther about the many things that make the Seminars wonderful and exciting. As Paul says, they are like “an academic quarter or semester” squeezed into 9 days. There are two tracks, for the natural sciences and for the humanities. The former “starts with basic physics, cosmology, and works its way up to human origins.” Paul has been teaching in the Seminars since their inception in 2007, and he notes that students have gone on to faculty positions in the sciences and other fields, as a direct result of their experience. Download the podcast or listen to it here.

Heaven and Earth

“When I was an undergraduate, nothing like this existed and I would have moved heaven and earth to be accepted to a program like this,” Dr. Nelson says. It’s a remarkably stimulating environment, where challenges fly back and forth between students and teachers across packed days of learning, with opportunities for socializing also built in. Rob asks Paul if it’s true that marriages have come out of the Seminars? Yes the rumors are true, though Paul demurs that “we don’t advertise it.” We don’t? Oops, too late. Sorry.

The Stars of Intelligent Design

The teachers are the stars of the ID research movement. Look here for recent accounts of the experiences of past students and current instructors:

• “A Summer Seminar Grad Tells How Her Life Was Changed”
• “‘Safe to Question’ — Another Graduate of Summer Seminars on Intelligent Design Shares Her Story”
• “In the Beginning: How the Summer Seminars on Intelligent Design Got Their Start”
• “Summer Seminars on Intelligent Design Were a Turning Point for Me”

Applying is not hard but it is competitive. So don’t waste time, since as you’ll recall that March 4 deadline is almost here!

Photo: Center for Science & Culture Associate Director John West teaching at the Summer Seminars, by Daniel Reeves.