The 2019 book by the biochemist Michael Behe.
The review was done by Jerry Bergman. Posted on their website on March 26, 2021.
Link: https://creation.com/review-darwin-devolves.
Some interesting excerpts:
''Behe argues it is not evidence that causes people to believe that evolution does all kinds of wonderful things, like turning dumb apes into intelligent men, but rather what is called in sociology groupthink, which has mesmerized the public and scientists alike. Attach the name ‘science’ onto some claim and it implies the claim is fact. Behe gives three nutrition examples that have been pushed for decades and are still widely believed, but which have turned out to be incorrect. These are, consuming foods high in fat, cholesterol, and salt are major contributors to heart disease, strokes, and cancer. We now realize these nutrients “may not significantly … increase the risk of heart disease: but high levels of sugar can” (p. 27).
As Behe notes, if nutritionists “can’t easily determine how one particular diet factor affects modern humans,” in spite of leading academics spending hundreds of millions of dollars researching this question using millions of intelligent subjects, often doctors and nurses, then the claim that evolutionists “know which—if any—of countless environmental factors drove evolutionary change in innumerable organisms in the distant past is ludicrous” (p. 28).''.
''Principle of Comparative Difficulty Concept
The Comparative Difficulty Concept idea is, if a task that requires a small amount of effort is too difficult to accomplish by natural laws alone, such as the origin of the spliceosome, then a task that requires more effort, such as the origin of mitochondria, is also too difficult to achieve by natural laws alone (p. 28). Unable to explain the origin of the simpler building blocks for evolutionary change, such as the origin of many critical polypeptides, many Darwinists jump to over-arching explanations for what they believe must have happened in evolution in order to obtain the many life forms existing today, but if
“… modeling even minor evolutionary effects is quite problematic, then the types of studies done by Stuart Kauffman, Andreas Wagner, and many others—which hope to account for massive evolutionary changes that occur over lengthy time frames—are simply pushing mathematical tools far past what they already labor unsuccessfully to explain. Mathematical models can’t explain greater evolutionary changes if they can’t account for lesser ones. They yield only a pretense of knowledge” (pp. 113–114).''.
''Behe cites a report that the observed six species of ground finches are actually one species. Thus, rather than 14 total species, there are far fewer, possibly even one (p. 147)! Furthermore, this study, one of the most detailed evolutionary studies ever completed, found that millions of generations and billions of birds produced only minor swings of a few traits, and no new trait. In Behe’s words,
The review was done by Jerry Bergman. Posted on their website on March 26, 2021.
Link: https://creation.com/review-darwin-devolves.
Some interesting excerpts:
''Behe argues it is not evidence that causes people to believe that evolution does all kinds of wonderful things, like turning dumb apes into intelligent men, but rather what is called in sociology groupthink, which has mesmerized the public and scientists alike. Attach the name ‘science’ onto some claim and it implies the claim is fact. Behe gives three nutrition examples that have been pushed for decades and are still widely believed, but which have turned out to be incorrect. These are, consuming foods high in fat, cholesterol, and salt are major contributors to heart disease, strokes, and cancer. We now realize these nutrients “may not significantly … increase the risk of heart disease: but high levels of sugar can” (p. 27).
As Behe notes, if nutritionists “can’t easily determine how one particular diet factor affects modern humans,” in spite of leading academics spending hundreds of millions of dollars researching this question using millions of intelligent subjects, often doctors and nurses, then the claim that evolutionists “know which—if any—of countless environmental factors drove evolutionary change in innumerable organisms in the distant past is ludicrous” (p. 28).''.
''Principle of Comparative Difficulty Concept
The Comparative Difficulty Concept idea is, if a task that requires a small amount of effort is too difficult to accomplish by natural laws alone, such as the origin of the spliceosome, then a task that requires more effort, such as the origin of mitochondria, is also too difficult to achieve by natural laws alone (p. 28). Unable to explain the origin of the simpler building blocks for evolutionary change, such as the origin of many critical polypeptides, many Darwinists jump to over-arching explanations for what they believe must have happened in evolution in order to obtain the many life forms existing today, but if
“… modeling even minor evolutionary effects is quite problematic, then the types of studies done by Stuart Kauffman, Andreas Wagner, and many others—which hope to account for massive evolutionary changes that occur over lengthy time frames—are simply pushing mathematical tools far past what they already labor unsuccessfully to explain. Mathematical models can’t explain greater evolutionary changes if they can’t account for lesser ones. They yield only a pretense of knowledge” (pp. 113–114).''.
''Behe cites a report that the observed six species of ground finches are actually one species. Thus, rather than 14 total species, there are far fewer, possibly even one (p. 147)! Furthermore, this study, one of the most detailed evolutionary studies ever completed, found that millions of generations and billions of birds produced only minor swings of a few traits, and no new trait. In Behe’s words,
“If millions of years of such intense selection on finches as documented by Peter and Rosemary Grant can’t produce anything other than a finch, then what reason … is there to suppose it could produce significant new variations on a preexisting flagellum?” (p. 290).''.
''Many of the arguments against Behe include the claim that his ideas are creationist rhetoric, not science, by claiming he is arguing that “God did it”. Ironically, many reputable scientists use the same argument, only reverse it, claiming “God wouldn’t have done it that way”, basing their “conclusions almost completely on a sort of reverse theology. What God would or would not do is not within the competency of science to inquire” (p. 290).''.
''In chapter 9 Behe expands on the IC concept with the ‘comprehensively complex’ systems and ‘Mini-IC’. The basic idea is that, as one moves research analysis closer to the biomolecular level, many of the IC systems Behe discussed in his first book are actually made up of many Mini-IC systems. Not only are the parts IC, but so also are the mechanisms that must identify and supply the proper raw components in the right proportions at the right locations at the proper time in the proper order to function.''
''The lack of knowledge of the cell’s workings was the theme of Behe’s first book, appropriately titled Darwin’s Black Box. In short,
''Many of the arguments against Behe include the claim that his ideas are creationist rhetoric, not science, by claiming he is arguing that “God did it”. Ironically, many reputable scientists use the same argument, only reverse it, claiming “God wouldn’t have done it that way”, basing their “conclusions almost completely on a sort of reverse theology. What God would or would not do is not within the competency of science to inquire” (p. 290).''.
''In chapter 9 Behe expands on the IC concept with the ‘comprehensively complex’ systems and ‘Mini-IC’. The basic idea is that, as one moves research analysis closer to the biomolecular level, many of the IC systems Behe discussed in his first book are actually made up of many Mini-IC systems. Not only are the parts IC, but so also are the mechanisms that must identify and supply the proper raw components in the right proportions at the right locations at the proper time in the proper order to function.''
''The lack of knowledge of the cell’s workings was the theme of Behe’s first book, appropriately titled Darwin’s Black Box. In short,
“The appropriate straightforward criterion is this: if there are good physical reasons to think Darwinian routes wouldn’t work, and if after a diligent search no evidence is found that they do, then the [evolution] theory has failed” (p. 232).''.
Richard Lenski’s research
''The results show that, after tens of thousands of generations and multibillions of bacteria, they are all still the same species, identical in most ways. Few, if any, substantive changes have occurred. As shown by the latest technology used to compare genomes, virtually all of the changes, even those that appear to add new functionality, occur by subtracting existing genetic information, not by the addition of new information. Thus no ‘gain-of-FCT’ occurred. The Darwinian mechanism does not occur in the direction so many people have assumed since Darwin’s Origin of Species was published.''.
''Behe also points out other examples that found the same result as the Lenski research, such as the African cichlid population whose time in their natural lake home was supposedly 500 times longer than Lenski’s bacteria were observed, i.e. 15,000 years. After all that time, all the cichlid varieties are still in the same family. Behe also cited the Lake Malawi cichlid study that produced a few million estimated years of random mutation and natural selection, and the Lake Tanganyika study that produced an estimated 10 million years, or about 333,000 times longer than Lenski’s in-lab results. These studies, contrary to the goals of each study, have provided no support for any type of evolutionary change beyond the genus level.
If nobody can point to contrary biomolecular evidence, then Behe’s argument stands. As he explains, the reality today, at least for the short term, is that the facts boil down to who can tell the best story, or who has the most power to control what is presented and taught as truth in the universities and in the media; actual truth be damned.''.
I wonder what folks here, either creationists or evolutionists, have to say about these points?
Richard Lenski’s research
''The results show that, after tens of thousands of generations and multibillions of bacteria, they are all still the same species, identical in most ways. Few, if any, substantive changes have occurred. As shown by the latest technology used to compare genomes, virtually all of the changes, even those that appear to add new functionality, occur by subtracting existing genetic information, not by the addition of new information. Thus no ‘gain-of-FCT’ occurred. The Darwinian mechanism does not occur in the direction so many people have assumed since Darwin’s Origin of Species was published.''.
''Behe also points out other examples that found the same result as the Lenski research, such as the African cichlid population whose time in their natural lake home was supposedly 500 times longer than Lenski’s bacteria were observed, i.e. 15,000 years. After all that time, all the cichlid varieties are still in the same family. Behe also cited the Lake Malawi cichlid study that produced a few million estimated years of random mutation and natural selection, and the Lake Tanganyika study that produced an estimated 10 million years, or about 333,000 times longer than Lenski’s in-lab results. These studies, contrary to the goals of each study, have provided no support for any type of evolutionary change beyond the genus level.
If nobody can point to contrary biomolecular evidence, then Behe’s argument stands. As he explains, the reality today, at least for the short term, is that the facts boil down to who can tell the best story, or who has the most power to control what is presented and taught as truth in the universities and in the media; actual truth be damned.''.
I wonder what folks here, either creationists or evolutionists, have to say about these points?
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