Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution Summary and Reviews

Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution
by Michael J. Behe

Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution
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Book Summary Information

Author: Michael J. Behe
Brand: Simon & Schuster
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-03-07
ISBN: 0743290313
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Free Press
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Book Reviews of Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution

Book Review: "Expelled"...For a Good Reason!
Summary: 1 Stars

Don't buy the hype. Evolution isn't a theory in crisis. Evolutionary theory is the most successful scientific theory currently available. Behe's idea of "irreducible complexity", which he defines as "a single system composed of several well-matched interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, where in the removal any one of the parts causes the system to cease functioning", is the most recent creationist argument against evolution. Unfortunately for Behe, irreducible complexity is only an argument against his own misconceived caricature of evolution theory, not the rigorous theory utilized by biologists across the globe.

In his book Behe provides the bacterial flagellum as an example of irreducible complexity. He maintains that the removal of any of the many protein subunits that compose the bacterial flagellum will result in its complete loss of function. Shortly after Behe's book was published, scientists discovered a bacterial organelle, the type III secretion apparatus, that was composed of a combination of some, but not all the proteins of the bacterial flagellum. It seems that Behe didn't take into account that systems of interacting parts can change function as parts are added or taken away. If components of the supposedly irreducibly complex bacterial flagellum are taken away, it may lose function as a flagellum, but it functions perfectly well as the type III secretion apparatus.

Behe didn't take into account a fundamental premise of evolutionary theory, that through natural selection new functions are discovered for preexisting structures. As described by François Jacob in 1977, evolution acts as a tinkerer, not an engineer. The mammalian inner ear bones are known to have evolved from jaw bones of mammalian ancestors, for example. As the proteins that compose the bacterial flagellum were slowly cobbled together by evolutionary processes, the intermediate stages need not, and most likely didn't, function as a flagellum.

Behe's "irreducible complexity" is not repairable. Evolutionary theory already provides mechanisms that produce supposedly irreducibly complex systems. Even if an organ was discovered that could be proven to be irreducibly complex, that would only be evidence against natural selection, not evidence in favor of Intelligent Design. Genetic drift is one evolutionary mechanism that allows evolving lineages to explore "adaptive landscapes" and discover new adaptive possibilities that would have been invisible to natural selection alone. Irreducible complexity is a failed negative argument against evolutionary theory, not a positive argument in favor of Intelligent Design.

For those reading this review that are actually interested in how evolutionary processes have produced the diversity of life we see in nature, I recommend Climbing Mount Improbable, The Blind Watchmaker, and The Ancestors Tale by Richard Dawkins and Endless Forms Most Beautiful and The Making of the Fittest by Sean B. Carroll. These books are easy to read and full of amazing examples of evolution in action and the power of evolutionary theory. Behe's ideas have been expelled from the scientific community, for good reason!
Climbing Mount ImprobableThe Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without DesignThe Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of EvolutionEndless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo DevoThe Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution

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