[asa] Re: Behe's bad math

More on Behe's book

Sean B Caroll in Science

EVOLUTION: God as Genetic Engineer Sean B. Carroll

The Edge of Evolution The Search for the Limits of Darwinism by Michael J. Behe

Excerpts

<quote>
Is it possible that Behe does not know this body of
data? Or does he just choose to ignore it? Behe has
quite a record of declaring what is impossible and of
disregarding the scientific literature, and he has
clearly not learned any lessons from some earlier
gaffes. He has again gone "public" with assertions
without the benefit (or wisdom) of first testing their
strength before qualified experts.

For instance, Behe once wrote, "if random evolution is
true, there must have been a large number of
transitional forms between the Mesonychid [a whale
ancestor] and the ancient whale. Where are they?"
(12). He assumed such forms would not or could not be
found, but three transitional species were identified
by paleontologists within a year of that statement. In
Darwin's Black Box, he posited that genes for modern
complex biochemical systems, such as blood clotting,
might have been "designed billions of years ago and
have been passed down to the present  but not 'turned
on'." This is known to be genetically impossible
because genes that aren't used will degenerate, but
there it was in print. And Behe's argument against the
evolution of flagella and the immune system have been
dismantled in detail (13, 14) and new evidence
continues to emerge (15), yet the same old assertions
for design reappear here as if they were uncontested.
</quote>

In the mean time PZ Myers reviews another "ID" book called "Explore evolution"

<quote>The book is entirely about finding fault with evolution, under
the pretext of presenting the position of evolutionary biology (sort
of) together with a critique. The biology part is shallow, useless,
and often wrong, and the critiques are basically just warmed over
creationist arguments.</quote>

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/06/explore_evolutiondisplacing_go.php

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Received on Thu Jun 7 16:52:25 2007