Our friends at TDI Brasil, the Brazilian ID society, got together this month for the Third Brazilian Conference on Intelligent Design. They had a wonderful time, as you can see from the photos.

Things are never dull when the renowned chemist Marcos Eberlin is around. And the scenery for the three-day conference was magnificent: the venue was Rio de Janeiro’s Hilton Copacabana, on the world’s most famous beach, Copacabana. There were 21 distinguished speakers, mostly from the academic world, plus some graduate-level university students. Panels featured discussions of several aspects of intelligent design theory: the pillars of ID, whether ID is science or religion, the strongest evidence for ID, and more.

Our high-spirited Brazilian friends reserved a conference space at the hotel for 100. After two years of the pandemic, they were uncertain how many would attend. In the end, 150 people registered and the organizers had to add more chairs to accommodate everyone.

The participants’ enthusiasm was great, and there were many compliments on the high quality of the talks. Five universities co-sponsored the conference — Mackenzie, UNASP, UniEvangélica, Maçico de Baturite, and Unitas — as did Discovery Institute and eight companies representing the pharmaceutical, nutrition, and other industries.

There was a gala dinner to raise funds for the publication of a book, Coletânea Brasileira do Design Inteligente, collecting the work of 45 authors, scheduled to be published in 2023. All the lectures were videotaped and will be released on the YouTube channel of a Presbyterian Church in Brazil with more than a million subscribers. We’ll let you know when those are available.