Book Insights

Recommended by reading The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel.

The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution.

Science has taken great strides in understanding nature, and within the last half century, modern science has come to realize that the basis of life resides in biomolecules.  More recently, biochemistry has exploded in its research and understanding of the molecular phenomenon.  

Biochemist Michael Behe explores the vast complexity of how biomolecules work and how they provide the nuts and bolts, gears and pulleys to biological systems.  In doing this, Behe challenges Darwin's theory that evolution outlines the origin of life by combatting the principle that Darwin thought life on a small scale was simple, and basically came into existence out of nothing.  On the contrary, new technologies have been developed since Darwin's time, and this black box of the basis of life left behind by Darwin is becoming unearthed by our knowledge of biochemisty.  Behe explains in detail how new discoveries in complex biomolecular systems disprove Darwin's theory of evolution: a process whereby life arose from non-living matter and subsequently developed entirely by natural means. 

If you wish to understand the complexity of life, read on, for this is an excellent read.  The book is very detailed and may prove difficult for comprehension sake for those that have not studied organic chemisty, biochemistry, or biology.  Behe does translate the technical jargon down into simple terms, however. 

My first thought when reading this book is a desired challenge for those that claim evolution and Darwinism as true to study the information presented.  More specifically, I ask to Darwinists: "To what basis are you establishing your claim?  From science of the 19th century or from your own actual research from science that uses the assistance of technology in the 21st?"

Behe states that science has continued to prove its dynamic ability to become unearthed, just as Einstein's theories caused scientists to revamp at how they define the laws of physics.  Therefore, Behe claims that we should move away from theories during a time when scientists believed flies were spontaneously generated from spoiled milk, and rather, investigate the "black box" that Darwin did not have the resources to study: biochemisty.

I'll post more thoughts as I read through the book.  Thus far, this book is great for logical debate.

Below is a very critical section by Behe, which I find as the basis for the book and the crux of his argument:

Michael Behe (1996), Darwin's Black Box, First Free Press Paperback Edition (2003), NY, p.39:

Darwin knew that his theory of gradual evolution by natural selection carried a heavy burden:

Charles Darwin (1872), Origin of Species, 6th ed. (1988), New York University Press, NY, p. 154:

If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.

It is safe to say that most of the scientific skepticism about Darwinism in the past century has centered on this requirement. From Mivart's concern over the incipient stages of new structures to Margulis's dismissal of gradual evolution, critics of Darwin have suspected that his criterion of failure had been met. But how can we be confident? What type of biological system could not be formed by "numerous, successive, slight modifications"?

Well, for starters, a system that is irreducibly complex. By irreducibly complex I mean a single system composed of several well-matched, ineracting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts casuses the system to effectively cease functioning. An irreducibly complex system cannot be produced directly (that is, by continuously improving the initial function, which continues to work by the same mechanism) by slight, successive modifications of a precursor system, because any precursor to an irreducibly complex system that is missing a part is by definition nonfunctional.  An irreducibly complex biological system, if there is such a thing, would be a powerful challenge to Darwinian evolution. Since natural selection can only choose systems that are already working, then if a biological system cannot be produced gradually it would have to arise as an integrated unit, in one fell swoop, for natural seleciton to have anything to act on.