An Important Book
Saturday, August 18th, 2007
Michael Behe has written an important book. Again.
You may recall him as the Lehigh University Biochemistry Professor who shocked the scientific community by claiming, in his book Darwin’s Black Box, that certain aspects of the cell are “irreducibly complex” Irreducible complexity implies that a component could not have evolved from something less complex because the less complex entity would not have been functional and thus would not have afforded the organism the advantage it needed to survive as “the fittest”.
Now, 10 years later, Behe gives us The Edge of Evolution. In this fascinating book, Behe advances the claim that there is conclusive evidence that Darwinian evolution (random mutation + survival of the fittest) can produce only tiny changes in organisms - nowhere near what is necessary to go from primordial goo straight through to homo sapiens as Darwinists insist must have happened. He finds the design inference inescapable.
Much of the book is devoted to detailed consideration of malaria. Decades have passed since the discovery of DNA, giving us opportunity to observe the results of several billion billion births of malarial organisms. During that time, malaria has been under intense evolutionary pressure due to the drugs humans have thrown at it. It has developed resistance to only those drugs it can do so through trivial changes. If resistance to a given drug requires multiple simultaneous mutations, it becomes a virtual statistical impossibility. Since mammals, for example, reproduce at a much slower rate than microbes, there have not been enough generations since the beginning of life on earth to produce anywhere near the amount of mutations the Darwinists require.
Obviously Darwinists will find this book challenging to their beliefs. However, many supporters of intelligent design will too, since Behe offers convincing evidence for the veracity of common descent. But this may win him an audience among the Darwinists: here’s an obviously brilliant guy who accepts two of the three tenents of their faith (common descent and natural selection). He just has this flakey idea that a designer, not random mutation, is necessary to create the complexity and diversity of life as we know it.
Please read this book. Or at least, read a more lengthy review of it such as the one offered by Fritz Ward here.
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Michael Behe has written an important book. Again.
You may recall him as the Lehigh University Biochemistry Professor who shocked the scientific community by claiming, in his book Darwin’s Black Box, that certain aspects of the cell are “irreducibly complex” Irreducible complexity implies that a component could not have evolved from something less complex because the less complex entity would not have been functional and thus would not have afforded the organism the advantage it needed to survive as “the fittest”.
Now, 10 years later, Behe gives us The Edge of Evolution. In this fascinating book, Behe advances the claim that there is conclusive evidence that Darwinian evolution (random mutation + survival of the fittest) can produce only tiny changes in organisms - nowhere near what is necessary to go from primordial goo straight through to homo sapiens as Darwinists insist must have happened. He finds the design inference inescapable.
Much of the book is devoted to detailed consideration of malaria. Decades have passed since the discovery of DNA, giving us opportunity to observe the results of several billion billion births of malarial organisms. During that time, malaria has been under intense evolutionary pressure due to the drugs humans have thrown at it. It has developed resistance to only those drugs it can do so through trivial changes. If resistance to a given drug requires multiple simultaneous mutations, it becomes a virtual statistical impossibility. Since mammals, for example, reproduce at a much slower rate than microbes, there have not been enough generations since the beginning of life on earth to produce anywhere near the amount of mutations the Darwinists require.
Obviously Darwinists will find this book challenging to their beliefs. However, many supporters of intelligent design will too, since Behe offers convincing evidence for the veracity of common descent. But this may win him an audience among the Darwinists: here’s an obviously brilliant guy who accepts two of the three tenents of their faith (common descent and natural selection). He just has this flakey idea that a designer, not random mutation, is necessary to create the complexity and diversity of life as we know it.
Please read this book. Or at least, read a more lengthy review of it such as the one offered by Fritz Ward here.
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