The Case against Darwin - Evidence from Biochemistry or the system is irreducibly complex

Biochemistry is also giving Darwin problems. Dr. Michael Behe, biochemist at Lehigh University, has written Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. In this 1996 book, Behe describes how complex certain biochemical sys­tems are. If any component was missing, the sys­tem would have no function. Therefore it could not have evolved step-by-step. Behe calls this "irreducible complexity." For example, blood clotting swings into action when we get a cut. A clot may look simple to the naked eye. However, through a microscope, it is a very complex process involving more than a dozen steps. A person with hemophilia is missing just one clotting factor and is at high risk for bleeding.

Someone missing several components would have no chance for survival at all. To paraphrase Dr. Behe very simply, if blood clotting had evolved step-by-step over eons, creatures would have bled to death before it was ever perfected-and its incremental stages never passed on to subsequent generations. The system is irreducibly complex. Another example Behe gives: the immune sys­tem. When infections occur, it must distinguish invading bacterial cells from the body's own cells-otherwise the latter will be attacked (which is the case in "autoimmune" diseases). An anti­body identifies the bacterium by attaching to it. In a complex biochemical process, a variety of white blood cells-"killer cells"-are notified of the bac­terium's presence. These travel to the site, and, using the identifying antibody, attack the enemy.

Like blood clotting, this system is irreducibly complex. The parts are interdependent. What evolved first? The killer cells? Without the identi­fying antibody, they wouldn't know where to attack. But why would the identifier develop first, without killer cells to notify? And if the network evolved gradually, disease would have wiped crea­tures out long before it could have been perfected.

Behe demonstrates that other biochemical sys­tems, such as human vision, are also irreducibly complex-they cannot have evolved step-by­ step-giving clear evidence that they resulted from intelligent design.

By my count, this puts three strikes on Darwin. But let's say this last strike was only a foul ball strike-we'll keep him at the plate.

from: The Case against Darwin by James Perloff