I’ve been tediously trying to read through Michael
Behe’s latest book Darwin Devolves. Its
main premise is that Darwinian mechanisms do not build genetic information.
Instead, biological processes break apart DNA thus possibly creating animals
that are more adaptable in the short run but yet, in the long term, less
genetically fit and limited in the amount of variation they can produce. I was
reading into the book when I discovered even deeper design in living things
than I was already aware of.
Near the beginning of chapter two, Behe discusses a
group of insects called planthoppers. Young planthoppers have strange bumps in
their hind legs, and at one-time scientists did not know what they were.
However, a pair of British entomologists, using sophisticated high-speed video
equipment, revealed that these bumps are the teeth of gears which enable them
to jump. Behe says this “is the first example of a (relatively) large,
in-your-face, interacting gear system in an animal.”
After next discussing the putative bad wiring of the
vertebrate retina, Behe discusses the fact some migratory birds and other
animals can sense the magnetic field of the earth and use it to navigate. Microbiologist
Richard Blackmore demonstrated that magnetotactic (try to say that 5 times real
fast!) bacteria contain a line of iron-rich particles that act like a magnet
when the particles are in a line, and this orients the bacteria with the
magnetic field of the earth. Here’s where it gets more complicated. Those
bacteria don’t simply ingest minerals that happen to be lying around. They
manufacturer the right size and shape of the mineral they need and store it in
the correct membrane compartments and attach it in the right spot. All of this,
Behe says, “requires sophisticated control mechanisms in the cell to target the
right proteins to the right places at the right times throughout changing
external circumstances.” Behe goes into more detail on this.
This is no surprise to me as, for a while, I’ve known
about machine-like biological mechanisms ever since Behe, back in 1996,
discussed the bacterial flagellum as an example of such mechanisms. Since then
Jonathan Sarfati has devoted an entire book – By Design – to biological machine-like features. Quoting one or two
examples will not suffice here, so I’ll just quote one paragraph from a
reviewer on Creation.com.
There are two recurrent
themes in this section, apart from the evidence for design itself. One is the
acknowledgement by man of the superiority of the design in nature. It has been
said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and science is more and
more looking to nature to solve its engineering problems and provide new
technologies. Even the most committed evolutionist has to acknowledge and
admire the wisdom and ingenuity displayed in such incredible design; yet they
often ascribe that wisdom to nature itself, rather than to the true Designer.
The second theme is the complete inadequacy of evolutionary theory to explain
the design present in nature. Many of the design features are irreducibly
complex, meaning they could not have arisen through a series of “numerous,
successive, slight modifications” over time. Every part had to be in place and
fully functional for the whole to work at all. Other biological features
exploit the laws of physics in remarkable ways to achieve the desired result,
requiring a close correlation between biology and physics. While not
specifically stated as such in the book, this implies an intimate knowledge of
the fundamental laws of physics that is more consistent with an intelligent
designer than blind chance as the only “designer.”[1]
Drawing upon research of the limits to which animals
can change, Behe suggests that the family
is the animal classification level at which unguided processes no longer can
produce different unique animals. He says, “minor
random variations around a designed blueprint are possible and can be helpful,
but are severely limited in scope. For new basic designs such as those at
the biological level of family and above, additional information is necessary,
information that is beyond the ability of mindless processes to provide.” (p.
169)
Behe is no fundamentalist Christian as far as I read
him, but it’s interesting how what he says matches the Bible’s ideas of
“kinds.” An article at creation.com caught my eye where Pete Williams says,
citing S. R. Driver, that min (the Hebrew word translated as “kinds” in
Genesis) can be interpreted as a collective of a plurality of life-types.
Williams cites E. Zorell as claiming min “is a division of a thing into various
forms or types”[2] Oddly, this is just the sort of arrangement
Behe seems to be alluding to. Under each family - which seems to be the limit
to which natural selection can change
animals into new existing forms - there are multiple different forms possible.
This definition of kinds was discussed by creationist
Henry Morris back in the early 1970s.
Even though there may be
uncertainty as to what is meant by “kind” (Hebrew min), it is obvious that the word does have a definite and fixed
meaning. One “kind” could not transform itself into another “kind.” There is
certainly no thought here of an evolutionary continuity of all forms of life,
but rather one of definite and distinct categories. Furthermore, the sense of
the passage is that a great many different kinds were created in each of the
nine major groups (excluding man) that are specifically listed. There is
certainly room for variations within each kind, as is obvious from the fact
that all the different races and nations of men, with all their wide variety of
physical characteristics, are descended from the first man and are therefore
all included within the human “kind.” The same must be true for the other
kinds. Many different varieties can emerge within the basic framework of each
kind, but at the same time such variations can never extend beyond that
framework. [3]
I should mention that sometimes evolutionists show
they support such conclusions although they would never admit they support
Biblical creation. Here is an excerpt from my discussion of evolutionist
Stephen Gould from my review of Richard Dawkins at https://thesecularleftcritique.wordpress.com/the-delusional-dawkins-a-review-of-the-greatest-show-on-earth/
Gould seems to understand
these limits. He says that “few systems are more resistant to basic change than
the strongly differentiated, highly specified, complex adults of ‘higher’
animal groups.” How could you ever, for instance, convert an adult rhinoceros
or a mosquito into something different, he asks. Yet, he says, transitions
between major groups of animals have happened. To show the vanity of such
a search for transitions, Gould quotes classical scholar D’Arcy Wentworth
Thompson as saying
An
algebraic curve has its fundamental formula, which defines the family to which
it belongs. . . . We never think of “transforming” a helicoid into an
ellipsoid, or a circle into a frequency curve. So it is with the forms of
animals. We cannot transform an invertebrate into a vertebrate, nor a
coelenterate into a worm, by any simple and legitimate deformation. . . .
Nature proceeds from one type to another. . . . To seek for steppingstones
across the gaps between is to seek in vain, forever.
Along with other evidences, I find this stunning
confirmation of the accuracy of the Bible.
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