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Major “Ibero-American Intelligent Design Congress” Reaches the Spanish-Speaking World

Photo source: Casey Luskin.

This past weekend Steve Meyer and I participated in an exciting Spanish-language conference on intelligent design, the “I Congreso Iberoamericano de la Teoría Del Diseño Inteligente” (translated: the “First Ibero-American Congress on the Theory of Intelligent Design”). The conference was exceptionally well produced, and was hosted, in part, by Dr. Marcos Eberlin, who is seen with me on the screen in the image above. The main host, however, was Dr. AM (also pictured above, at right), a PhD chemist and extremely bright scientist who is doing ID research with the ID 3.0 Research Program at Mackenzie University’s Center on Intelligent Design in São Paulo, Brazil. 

Evolution or ID as Science?

At the Congress, Dr. Meyer spoke on “Return of the God Hypothesis,” a lecture based upon his eponymous book. His lecture was in two parts. I gave a talk on “Fósiles homínidos y diseño inteligente”— which as you might guess means, “Hominid fossils and intelligent design.” I took four years of Spanish in school, received a “5” score on the AP Spanish exam, and lived in Central America (Costa Rica and Honduras) for about seven weeks during the summer after high school. But that was some 25 years ago, and to call my Spanish rusty would be generous. I had fantastic translation assistance from a Summer Seminar alumnus and valued colleague, Quezia Salgado, and the talk went well.

Other speakers at the Congress included Marcos Eberlin, who discussed how biochemical complexity challenges Darwinian evolution, and AM, who asked whether naturalistic chemical processes alone could have produced the first life. Chilean biology professor Dr. Ricardo Bravo Méndez explained how modern evolutionary biology has failed to account for the origin of new body forms. Dr. Juan Manuel Torres, a philosopher of science who asked whether evolution or intelligent design should be considered as “science.” Dr. Roberto Biaggi, a biologist with expertise in paleontology, spoke on whether fossils support intelligent design. Antonio Roman Martinez Fernandez, a PhD in medicine, also lectured on biochemical evidence for intelligent design. Cristian Aguirre Del Pino, an accomplished engineer who has written many books on intelligent design, spokeabout evidence for intelligent design. Philosopher Felipe Aizpun spoke on intelligent design as a historically scientific theory. Lastly, mathematician and ID advocate Saulo Reis spoke about how information helps us to detect design.

A Global Reach

The participant map, shared by the conference organizers below shows that the conference’s impressive reach of people all around the Spanish-speaking world, and beyond:

I hope there will be future Ibero-American Congresses on Intelligent Design. If and when that happens, we will keep you posted!