Debra Conley‘s Review:
How many times have you engaged in a conversation with someone who cannot accept the idea of Creation because it is not “scientific”? Have you sat under a biology or chemistry professor who “proved’ evolution by matching monkey parts to modern men and wished you had a credible, scientific rebuttal? Unfortunately, as Christians we often take a back seat to real education (i.e., truth) that can set us free of charlatan philosophies. Now Christians have available texts such as this one to use as a study companion.
Darwin’s Black Box contains numerous scientific refutations to the theory of natural selection promoted by Charles Darwin. Michael Behe is a full Professor of Biochemistry at Lehigh University. As a scientist intrigued by recent discoveries in molecular biology, Behe responsibly gathers research information from all scientists and researchers involved in this field. His explanations of how each research project succeeds in explaining where new discoveries “fit” will not leave the layman lost in scientific jargon. The last decade has propelled such advances in the study of tiny organisms like cilia and flagella, thought by Darwin to be the simple starting point of evolution. Now we know that these organisms are extremely complex, containing thousands of specifically tailored parts. As Behe reviews evolutionary scientist’s explanations of these discoveries, he shows the reader how the research always skips the initial problem question of natural selection: How did that one very complex, tailored organism arrive on earth in the first place? Behe shows through a number of scientific experiments how many researchers now know that these organisms could not have evolved (Chapters 9, 10). They are irreducibly complex (see July’s review of Intelligent Design. The magnitude of these complex systems is also staggering. It’s not just about one function or trigger within each cilia or flagella. It’s about thousands of functions, triggers, and particularly the codes sent from one to another that are so intertwined that no one could have been added on through time.
Behe also addresses the skepticism and the hard core educational community determined not to give way to any other ideas, citing such examples as for centuries respected scientists who believed the earth to be flat. Indeed, they nearly executed Galileo for continually promoting an ‘earth revolves around the sun’ theory.
Behe defines the two approaches this way: “ Intolerance does not arise when I think that I have found the truth. Rather it comes about only when I think that, because I have found it, everyone else should agree with me. Richard Dawkins (evolutionary researcher Behe refutes) has written that anyone who denies evolution is either ‘ignorant, stupid, or insane, or wicked.’ John Maddox, editor of Nature, says, ‘it may not be long before the practice of religion must be regarded as anti-science.’ In his recent book, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, author Daniel Dennett compares religious believers to wild animals who may have to be caged, and he says that ‘these parents may have to be prevented from misinforming their children about the truth of evolution’” (p. 250). Michael Behe gives a complete and extensive bibliography worth the price of the book.