The word “science,” as molecular and cell biologist Jonathan Wells notes, comes from the Latin scientia, or knowledge. There’s nothing about the idea that remotely suggests that knowledge about life, the universe, or their origins must be strictly materialist in nature. The notion that such knowledge must reject mind as a causal factor is a materialist presumption — not science.

In a new course from DiscoveryU, Dr. Wells asks what happens when we discard the ideology and ask candidly about biological origins without recourse to presumptions. This is what’s called empirical science, and it is open to natural explanations of phenomena, or explanations that include intelligent design. It all depends on the evidence! “Darwin,” says Jonathan Wells, “redefined science to exclude design,” but we needn’t accept that redefinition.

In 40 lectures, including quizzes, Dr. Wells leads students through the evidence that supports, or fails to support, chemical evolution at the origin of life, natural selection as a creative force in nature, Darwin’s tree of life, and more. At the DiscoveryU page, you can watch free previews of Lecture 1 and Lecture 2. It’s a fine resource for homeschool students, and public school and university students looking for a supplement to their biology coursework, and for anyone else curious to know what an objective consideration reveals about life, how it arose and attained the complexity we see today.

There couldn’t be a more qualified instructor to cover this material. Dr. Wells holds two PhDs, from UC Berkeley in molecular and cell biology, and from Yale in religious studies. He is a Senior Fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and the author of Icons of Evolutions, The Design of Life, The Myth of Junk DNA, and other books.