Behe Describes the 'Edge of Evolution' in Newest ID Book
Michael Behe, a leading biochemist at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., has released his second book detailing evidence for intelligent design (ID).
The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism, put on the market on June 5, explains the pros and cons that come with Darwinian theory, and how recent research does not completely support random mutations in nature. Instead, there is an overall end product that life evolves to, which is a strong indicator towards an "intelligent designer."
"My new book presents evidence disproving random mutation as a major part of evolution and shows that life developed non-randomly from cells to animals," explained the author in a statement. "As you can imagine, this direct challenge to Darwinism is highly controversial. Fortunately, The Edge of Evolution is more that just a critique of Darwin's theory. It develops a framework for intelligent design as a comprehensive scientific statement, defining the principles by which Darwinian evolution can be distinguished from design, and fits design theory together with the findings of cosmology, chemistry, and physics into an overarching theory of the universe."
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In 1996, Behe wrote his first ID book entitled Darwin's Black Box. In it, he explained the concept of "irreducible complexity" – that traditional evolution could not explain the complex machinery of cells.
With his newest book, the biochemist expounds on evolution theory by both showing the positive and negative aspects of the theory.
He does agree that the world is billions of years old and that all life did originate from a common ancestor, because "overwhelming anatomical, genetic, and fossil evidence exists for that claim."
The crux of his conclusion is that Darwin's mechanism for evolution is faulty, however, and that random mutations cannot account for the complexity of life.
"The crucial question remains: How did it happen?" asks the author on his publisher (Free Press)'s website. "Darwin's proposed mechanism – random mutation and natural selection – has been accepted largely as a matter of faith and deduction or, at best, circumstantial evidence. Only now, thanks to genetics, does science allow us to seek direct evidence."
Specifically by looking at how malaria and the sickle cell respond in humans, Behe shows how random mutation can only provide a flimsy alternative that does not last. The "edge" of evolution, as the book gets its name from, is the line that defines what is random and what is non-random mutation. According to his findings, most of the evolutionary changes that have defined life history have been non-random.
Thus, he concludes that the universe is "fine-tuned for life" and an overall creator had to have been behind the process.
"In crystal-clear prose, Behe systematically shreds the central dogma of atheistic science, the doctrine of the random universe," reviewed Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D., research psychiatrist at UCLA and author of The Mind & The Brain. "This book, like the natural phenomena it so elegantly describes, shows the unmistakable signs of a very deep intelligence at work."
