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The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism, by Michael J. Behe
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Michael J. Behe launched the intelligent design movement with his first book, Darwin's Black Box, by demonstrating that Darwinism could not account for the complexity of biochemistry. Now he takes a giant leap forward. In The Edge of Evolution, Behe uses astounding new findings from the genetics revolution to show that Darwinism is nowhere near as powerful as most people believe. Genetic analysis of malaria, E. coli, and the HIV virus over tens of thousands of generations, not to mention analysis of the entire history of the genetic struggle between them and "us" (humans), make it possible for the first time to determine the precise rates, and likelihood, of random mutations of varying kinds. We now know, as never before, what Darwinism can and cannot accomplish. The answers turn conventional science on its head and are certain to be hotly debated by millions. After The Edge of Evolution, life in the universe will never look the same.
- Sales Rank: #210055 in Books
- Published on: 2007-06-05
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.04" h x 6.39" w x 9.23" l, 1.10 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 336 pages
From Publishers Weekly
With his first book, Darwin's Black Box, Behe, a professor of biology at Lehigh University, helped define the controversial intelligent design movement with his concept of "irreducible complexity." Now he attempts to extend his analysis and define what evolution is capable of doing and what is beyond its scope. Behe strongly asserts, to the likely chagrin of young earth creationists, that the earth is billions of years old and that the concept of common descent is correct. But beginning with a look at malaria and the sickle cell response in humans, Behe argues that genetic mutation results in only clumsy solutions to selective pressures. He goes on to conclude that the statistical possibility of certain evolutionary changes taking place is virtually nil. Although Behe writes with passion and clarity, his calculations of probability ignore biologists' rejection of the premise that evolution has been working toward producing any particular end product. Furthermore, he repeatedly refers to the shortcomings of "Darwin's theory-the power of natural selection coupled to random mutation," but current biological theory encompasses far more than this simplistic view. Most important, Behe reaches the controversial conclusion that the workings of an intelligent designer is the only reasonable alternative to evolution, even without affirmative evidence in its favor.
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Review
"With this book, Michael Behe shows that he is truly an independent thinker of the first order. He carefully examines the data of evolution, along the way making an argument for universal common descent that will make him no friends among young-earth creationists, and draws in new facts, especially the data on malaria, that have not been part of the public debate at all up to now. This book will take the intelligent design debate into new territory and represents a unique contribution to the longstanding question of philosophy: Can observation of the physical world guide our thinking about religious questions?"
-- Professor David Snoke, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh
"In The Edge of Evolution Michael Behe carefully assesses the evidence of what Darwin's mechanism of random mutation and selection can achieve in well documented cases, and shows that even in those cases that maximize its power as a creative force it has only been able to generate very trivial examples of evolutionary change. Could such an apparently impotent and mindless force really have built the sophisticated molecular devices found throughout nature? The answer, he insists, is no. The only common-sense explanation is intelligent design."
-- Michael Denton, M.D., Ph.D., author of Nature's Destiny
"In crystal-clear prose Behe systematically shreds the central dogma of atheistic science, the doctrine of the random universe. This book, like the natural phenomena it so elegantly describes, shows the unmistakable signs of a very deep intelligence at work."
-- JEffrey M. Schwartz, M.D., Research Psychiatrist, UCLA, and author of The Mind & The Brain
"Until the past decade and the genomics revolution, Darwin's theory rested on indirect evidence and reasonable speculation. Now, however, we have begun to scratch the surface of direct evidence, of which this book offers the best possible treatment. Though many critics won't want to admit it, The Edge of Evolution is very balanced, careful, ¬and devastating. A tremendously important book."
-- Dr. Philip Skell, Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, at Pennsylvania State University, and member of the National Academy of Sciences
"With this book, Michael Behe shows that he is truly an independent thinker of the first order. In a day when the media present all issues in the football metaphor as two teams fighting, the intelligent design debate is presented simplistically as authors who are lapdogs for young-earth creationists versus evolutionists who are lapdogs for atheists. Michael Behe is no lapdog. He carefully examines the data of evolution, along the way making an argument for universal common descent that will make him no friends among young-earth creationists, and draws in new facts, especially the data on malaria, that have not been part of the public debate at all up to now. This book will take the intelligent design debate into new territory and represents a unique contribution on the longstanding question of philosophy: can observation of the physical world guide our thinking about religious questions?"
- Professor David Snoke, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh
"Until the past decade and the genomics revolution, Darwin's theory rested on indirect evidence and reasonable speculation. Now, however, we have begun to scratch the surface of direct evidence, of which this book offers the best possible treatment. Though many critics won't want to admit it, The Edge of Evolution is very balanced, careful, and devastating. A tremendously important book."
-- Dr. Philip Skell, Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, at Pennsylvania State University, and member of the National Academy of Sciences
About the Author
Michael J. Behe is a Professor of Biological Science at Lehigh University, where he has worked since 1985. From 1978 to 1982 he did postdoctoral work on DNA structure at the National Institutes of Health. From 1982 to 1985 he was Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Queens College in New York City. He has authored more than forty technical papers, but he is best known as the author of Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. He lives near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with his wife and nine children.
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
A Balanced Appraisal of Evolutionary Limits
By Phil D
In The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism (2007), Michael Behe explores the statistical boundaries of random mutation and natural selection in light of recent scientific discoveries. Behe, who is probably most well known for his advocacy of intelligent design and his bestselling book, Darwin’s Black Box, holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and has over 35 peer-reviewed articles to his credit. He currently serves as a Professor of Biological Sciences at Lehigh University where his research involves delineation of design and natural selection in protein structures.
The Edge of Evolution’s purpose is to provide a “sober appraisal of what Darwinian processes can and cannot do.” It juxtaposes this objective against the notion that Darwinism is an all-or-nothing affair, where one must either accept the entire theory, or dump the baby with the bathwater. On Behe’s view, both avenues are mistaken. In fact, he highlights certain merits of Darwinian theory throughout the book and devotes an entire chapter to “What Darwinism Can Do.” Readers unfamiliar with Behe’s views will quickly learn that he affirms common descent, and also regards random mutation and natural selection as viable explanations of certain natural phenomena. His main thesis, however, concerns the limits of these central Darwinian mechanisms, which mustn’t be ignored in light of compelling scientific data.
To that end, Behe frames his argument within ten chapters which are accessibly-written for a popular audience. While some material is necessarily technical, a corresponding appendix provides a helpful primer, though the main points come through regardless of one’s mastery of the details. Similarly, chapter 1 (“The Elements of Darwinism”) provides sufficient background information with respect to the basic contours of Darwinism, while chapter 2 sets the stage for discussing evolutionary limits by contrasting competing Darwinian paradigms: “Arms Race or Trench Warfare.” The statistical components upon which Behe basis his conclusions receives thorough treatment in chapter 3, “The Mathematical Limits of Darwinism,” while chapters 4 and 5 survey “What Darwinism Can” and “Can’t Do,” respectively. Chapter 6 (“Benchmarks”) defines criteria by which to assess the proposed limits, while chapter 7 delves into their applicability to protein-binding processes. Behe uses chapter 7 to address possible objections to his argument, and then “crosses the edge” in chapters 9 and 10 to explore the implications of nonrandom mutation and the extent to which such considerations apply to the universe at large.
An inherent liability of any popular treatment which tackles technical matters, is the risk of losing an audience, either in a maze of technicalities or through sheer boredom; thus, to be effective, even persuasive data and sound reasoning must be made accessible and engaging. Thankfully for his readers, Behe hits the mark on both counts. Setting the argumentation aside for the moment, The Edge’s greatest strengths are its masterful and frequent use of analogy to illustrate abstract points, along with its appropriate wit and light-hearted humor, which make it truly enjoyable to read. With respect to analogy, it deserves mentioning that Behe is careful not to use it as anything more than a teaching device (i.e., he avoids arguing the analogy). Similarly, and also to his credit, he avoids other common informal fallacies such as attacking strawmen and ad hominems.
Of course, if The Edge was merely an enjoyable read at the expense of cogency, then it would rightly suffer a fate of ineffectiveness. But here again, Behe hits the mark—this time, by way of concrete examples based on credible research and sound mathematical reasoning. For example, he appeals to the work of Oxford malariologist, Nicholas White, in citing that resistance to the anti-malarial drug, chloroquine, requires approximately 10^20 replications of the malarial cell (a factor that Behe refers to as a “chloroquine complexity cluster,” or “CCC”)—a beneficial mutation (from the standpoint of malaria). He further reasons that a cluster which exhibits twice the complexity of CCC (a “double-CCC”) would require 10^40 replications to achieve a beneficial mutation, since the odds against two independent events is the multiple of the odds against each event. Finally, in light of University of Georgia research, which estimates that the entire number of cells throughout Earth’s history is just shy of 10^40, Behe observes that “we have no statistical right to expect that random mutation can include the changes that have been credited to it” beyond the threshold of a double-CCC—the tentative edge of evolution.
Behe also introduces criteria which prove helpful in distinguishing random from nonrandom mutation: steps and coherence. With regard to steps, he observes that if two mutations must occur before conferring a net benefit on an organism, then evolutionary explanations which appeal to merely random mutation encounter significant problems. By way of analogy, Behe invites readers to imagine a single missing step on a stairwell; though a couch potato could likely traverse the obstacle, a frail old man could not. He likens the couch potato in this scenario to malaria, given its ability to figuratively skip steps by virtue of its vast probabilistic resources (i.e., a population size of ~10^20); whereas the frail old man represents humans and large animals, whose population pales in comparison at ~10^9. Citing the observation of evolutionary biologists, Jerry Coyne and Allen Orr—that the goal of a theory is not to determine what is theoretically possible, but what is biologically reasonable—Behe concludes that random mutation is reasonable to a point, but suffers severe limitations when evolution must traverse multiple steps.
Of course, this brief review merely skims the surface of a few key points, though Behe’s insightful project merits a much closer look by readers interested in the possible limits of Darwinian evolution. To that end, The Edge of Evolution is highly recommended for anyone who appreciates an engaging and substantive treatment of a topic that has not only permeated the life sciences, but has overflown into many other aspects of contemporary thought. As mentioned, the style makes this work accessible to a diverse audience, including high school and college students who have perhaps accepted the notion that Darwinian evolution is an unassailable theory that defies all limits.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Will make atheists tremble
By Anthony
WARNING: If you are an atheist, reading this book may change your views. As Alvin Plantinga has pointed out, DARWINIAN evolution (which is just to say, random evolution) is the only possible intellectual option that atheists have when discerning the origin of complex biological systems. Michael Behe gives some very powerful arguments in The Edge of Evolution to show that the likelihood of such systems evolving by a purely random and purposeless Darwinian process are extremely low as to be essentially impossible.
Malaria can evolve resistance to drugs, but it has not and probably never will develop resistance to Sickle cell hemoglobin; there is a limit to what Darwinian evolution can do.
Another example is fish who live in the antarctic that have a special anti-freeze "protein" in their blood which prevents ice crystals from forming in freezing cold water. This extremely rare and lucky mutation is not really constructive, because it's just a bundle of incoherent material that happens to act as antifreeze for the fish.
But in all of these example (the best examples of Darwinian evolution), there is a loss in some other aspect of the organism. To say that this same random process lead to the eagle's eye and the human brain is laughable. Darwinian evolution doesn't have a prayer.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
THE AUTHOR OF "DARWIN'S BLACK BOX" EXTENDS HIS ARGUMENTS
By Steven H Propp
Michael J. Behe (born 1952) is an American biochemist, author, and intelligent design (ID) advocate. He serves as professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and as a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. He has also written Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution and Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe. He describes himself as "a pretty conventional Roman Catholic" on pg. 228.
[NOTE: page numbers below refer to the 321-page hardcover edition.]
He wrote in the first chapter of this 2007 book, "By far the most critical aspect of Darwin's multifaceted theory is the role of random mutation... In Darwinian thinking, the only way a plant or animal becomes fitter than its relatives is by sustaining a serendipitous mutation... Yet until the random mutation appears, natural selection can only twiddle its thumbs. Random mutation, natural selection, common descent---three separate ideas wedded into one theory. Because of the welding of concepts, the question, Is Darwinism true? has several possible answers... If there is not a smooth, gradually rising, easily found evolutionary pathway leading to a biological system within a reasonable time, Darwinian processes won't work. In this book we'll examine just how demanding a requirement that is." (Pg. 2-3, 7)
He states, "It is crystal clear that the spread of the sickle gene is the result of Darwinian evolution---natural selection acting on random mutation... Perhaps, as advocates of Darwinian evolution argue, we can jump directly from this pristine example to the conclusion that all of life---the complex machinery of the cell, the human mind, and everything in between---can be explained the same way. But can we? The defense of vertebrates from invasion by microscopic predators is the job of the immune system, yet hemoglobin is not part of the immune system. Hemoglobin's main job is as part of the respiratory system, to carry oxygen to tissues. Using hemoglobin to fight off malaria is an act of utter desperation..." (Pg. 29-30)
He suggests, "let's consider the illustration of the cheetah and gazelle, but a bit more skeptically. How could a gazelle better avoid a faster cheetah? One way... is to become faster itself. But another way might be to become better at making quick turns, in order to dodge the predator in a chase. Or to develop stronger horns for defense... Or grow bigger. Or develop camouflage. Or graze where cheetahs aren't... Or any of a hundred other strategies... The Just-So story seems plausible at first only because it doggedly focuses its gaze on just one trait---speed---ignoring the rest of the universe of possibilities. But in the real world Darwinian evolution has no gaze to focus; it is blind. In a blind process, there can be no intentional building on a single trait... [Gazelles] would change over time in myriad, disjointed, jumbled ways. There is no reason to expect the coherent development of a single trait." (Pg. 41-42)
He acknowledges, "Over the next few sections I'll show some of the newest evidence from studies of DNA that convinces most scientists, including myself, that one leg of Darwin's theory---common descent---is correct." (Pg. 65) Later, he adds, "The bottom line is this. Common descent is true; yet the explanation of common descent---even the common descent of humans and chimps---although fascinating, is in a profound sense TRIVIAL. It says merely that commonalities were there from the start, present in a common ancestor. It does not even begin to explain where those commonalities came from, or how humans subsequently acquired remarkable differences. Something that is nonrandom must account for the common descent of life." (Pg. 72) He continues, "random variation doesn't explain the most basic features of biology. It doesn't explain elegant, sophisticate molecular machinery that undergirds life... What we'll discover is something quite basic, yet heresy to Darwinists: Most mutations that that built the great structures of life must have been nonrandom." (Pg. 83)
He points out, "In my previous book, `Darwin's Black Box,' I described certain intricate biochemical structures as `irreducibly complex' and argued that step-by-step Darwinian processes could not explain them, because they depended upon multiple parts. Critics claimed that I was simply throwing up my hands at a difficult problem, and that it would eventually be solved. They may say it again, regarding this chapter. But the discoveries of the past decade have made the problem worse, not better, both at the level of protein machinery and at the level of DNA instructions." (Pg. 84) He observes that "in Darwin's Black Box I surveyed the scientific journals and showed that very few attempts had been made to explain how a cilium might have evolved in a Darwinian fashion---there were only a few attempts... An updated search of the science journals... again shows no serious progress on a Darwinian explanation for the ultracomplex cilium... in the more than ten years since I pointed it out the situation concerning the missing Darwinian explanations for the evolution of the cilium is utterly unchanged." (Pg. 94-95)
He asks, "Where is it reasonable to draw the edge of evolution? ... I intended to ... show examples of what I think clearly can and what clearly cannot be explained by random mutation and natural selection. Somewhere between those extremes, then, lies the edge." (Pg. 101)
He notes, "One of the more popular minority views, called `complexity theory' or `self-organization,' has been championed for decades by Stuart Kauffman [who wrote At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity; The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution]... [It's] completely unclear how the concept would apply to evolution. While it's certainly plausible that in some instances biological systems can self-organize in Kauffman's sense, there's no reason to think that self-organization explains how complex genetic systems arose... intraflagellar transport [IFT] might be self-organizing in the sense that it self-assembles, but self-organization doesn't explain how the structures that IFT depends on arose." (Pg. 159)
He asserts, "Each reader must make his own judgments about the adequacy of these possible explanations. I myself, however, find them all unpersuasive... The first possibility---sheer chance---is deeply unsatisfying when invoked on such a massive scale... advancing sheer chance as an explanation for profoundly functional features of life strikes me as akin to abandoning reason altogether... The second possibility replaces the astounding complexity of life with some unknown law that itself must be ultracomplex. The third possibility simply projects the functional complexity of life onto the environment... I conclude that another possibility is more likely: the elegant, coherent, functional systems upon which life depends are the result of deliberate intelligent design... The idea of intelligent design is quite compatible with common descent, which some religious people disdain... intelligent design is quite compatible with the view that the universe operates by unbroken natural law, with the design of life perhaps packed into its initial set-up... In the remainder of the book, I'll plainly treat the other side of the edge of evolution as the domain of design." (Pg. 165-166)
He observes, "the late astronomer Carl Sagan derided the Earth's location as a galactic backwater. But with the progress of science we now see that a planet suitable for life can't be too close to the center of things. Far from being a backwater, Earth's location is ideal for complex life." (Pg. 212)
He argues, "How might a multiverse help explain fine-tuning?... if a multiverse consisted of a huge collection of relatively isolated universes... the odds might be pretty good that some of the universes would have values that at least allow life. Most... who think about such things stop there, because they assume life would then be able to get going without too much trouble. As we've seen in this book, that's not the case... Notice that the multiverse scenario doesn't rescue Darwinism. Random mutation in a single multiverse would still be terribly unlikely as a cause for life. Incoherence and multiple steps would still plague any merely Darwinian scenario in any one universe... Still... the multiverse scenario would undercut design. If it were true, life wouldn't be due to either Darwin or design... it would be one big accident. Needless to say, the multiverse is speculative." (Pg. 221-222)
He comments on Darwin's letter to Asa Gray about the Ichneumonidae: "Wasp larvae feeding on paralyzed caterpillars is certainly a disquieting image, to say nothing of malaria feeding on children. So did Darwin concluded that the designer was not beneficent? Maybe not omnipotent? No. He decided---based on SQUEAMISHNESS---that no designer existed. Because it is horrific, it was not designed---a better example of the fallacy of non sequitur would be hard to find. Revulsion is not a scientific argument." (Pg. 238-239)
Not quite as "path-breaking" as his earlier book was, this book nevertheless clears up Behe's position admirably (and further distances himself from "biblical creationists"), and extends his arguments in many detailed ways. It will be "must reading" for anyone interested in the creation/evolution/intelligent design controversy, or for evolutionary theory in general.
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