Darwin Devolves: The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution

by Michael J. Behe

Paperback, 2020

Status

Available

Call number

576.8

Genres

Science & Nature

Nonfiction

General Nonfiction

Religion & Spirituality

All Topics

Collections

Religion, Science

Publication

HarperOne (2020), Edition: Reprint, 352 pages

Description

"In his controversial bestseller Darwin's Black Box, biochemist Michael Behe challenged Darwin's theory of evolution, arguing that science itself has proven that intelligent design is a better explanation for the origin of life. In Darwin Devolves, Behe advances his argument, presenting new research that offers a startling reconsideration of how Darwin's mechanism works, weakening the theory's validity even more. A system of natural selection acting on random mutation, evolution can help make something look and act differently. But evolution never creates something organically. Behe contends that Darwinism actually works by a process of devolution, damaging cells in DNA in order to create something new at the lowest biological levels. This is important, he makes clear, because it shows the Darwinian process cannot explain the creation of life itself. 'A process that so easily tears down sophisticated machinery is not one which will build complex, functional systems,' he writes. In addition to disputing the methodology of Darwinism and how it conflicts with the concept of creation, Behe reveals that what makes Intelligent Design unique, and right, is that it acknowledges causation. Evolution proposes that organisms living today are descended with modification from organisms that lived in the distant past. But Intelligent Design goes a step further asking, what caused such astounding changes to take place? What is the reason or mechanism for evolution? For Behe, this is what makes Intelligent Design so important."--Amazon.com.… (more)

Media reviews

Wiley Online Library

Academic buildings can be quirky places. Like proteins they evolve, adapting to new functions while holding on to traces of their past, occasionally performing tasks that are in conflict with one another. Iacocca Hall is no exception. Once home to the research and development division of Bethlehem

Steel, the mountaintop building now houses Lehigh University's Department of Biological Sciences. The most infamous (among scientists) and celebrated (among creationists) of our 22 faculty is Michael Behe, a well‐known proponent of intelligent design and a tenured member of our department who recently released his third book, Darwin Devolves: The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution (HarperOne, 2019, 352 pp.). ... By reviewing Behe's latest book, we run the risk of drawing attention—or worse, giving credibility—to his ideas. Books like Darwin Devolves, however, must be openly challenged and refuted, even if it risks giving publicity to misbegotten views. Science benefits from public support. Largely funded by federal grants, scientists have a moral responsibility (if not a financial obligation) to ensure that the core concepts of our respective fields are communicated effectively and accurately to the public and to our trainees.

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The Washington Post

The notion of “intelligent design” arose after opponents of evolution repeatedly failed on First Amendment grounds to get Bible-based creationism taught in the public schools. Their solution: Take God out of the mix and replace him with an unspecified “intelligent designer.” They added some

irrelevant mathematics and fancy biochemical jargon, and lo: intelligent design, which scientists have dubbed “creationism in a cheap tuxedo.” But the tuxedo is fraying, for intelligent design has been rejected not just by biologists but also by judges who recognize it as poorly disguised religion. Nevertheless, its advocates persist. Among the most vocal is Michael J. Behe, a biology professor at Lehigh University whose previous books, despite withering criticism from scientists, have sold well in a country where 76 percent of us think God had some role in human evolution.

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Science Magazine

Behe asserts that new functions only arise through “purposeful design” of new genetic information, a claim that cannot be tested. By contrast, modern evolutionary theory provides a coherent set of processes—mutation, recombination, drift, and selection—that can be observed in the laboratory

and modeled mathematically and are consistent with the fossil record and comparative genomics. Ultimately, Darwin Devolves fails to challenge modern evolutionary science because, once again, Behe does not fully engage with it. He misrepresents theory and avoids evidence that challenges him.

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