[Home] [Site map] [Updates] [Quotes, Unclassified, Classified]
The following are quotes added to my Unclassified Quotes database in November 2005. The date format is dd/mm/yy.
[Jan-Feb] [Mar; Apr; May-Jun; Jul (1), (2); Aug; Sep] [Oct; Dec]
1/11/2005
"Q.[Mr Muise] Sir, what is intelligent design? A.[Prof. Behe] Intelligent design is a scientific theory that
proposes that some aspects of life are best explained as the result of design, and that the strong appearance
of design in life is real and not just apparent. Q. Now Dr. Miller defined intelligent design as follows: Quote,
Intelligent design is the proposition that some aspects of living things are too complex to have been
evolved and, therefore, must have been produced by an outside creative force acting outside the laws of
nature, end quote. Is that an accurate definition? A. No, it's a mischaracterization. Q. Why is that? A. For
two reasons. One is, understandable, that Professor Miller is viewing intelligent design from the perspective
of his own views and sees it simply as an attack on Darwinian theory. And it is not that. It is a positive
explanation. And the second mischaracterization is that, intelligent design is a scientific theory. Creationism
is a religious, theological idea. And that intelligent design is -- relies rather on empirical and physical and
observable evidence plus logical inferences for its entire argument. Q. Is intelligent design based on any
religious beliefs or convictions? A. No, it isn't. Q. What is it based on? A. It is based entirely on observable,
empirical, physical evidence from nature plus logical inferences." (Behe, M.J.*, "Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area
School District, et al.," transcript, October 17, 2005, morning session)
1/11/2005
"Q. [Mr Muise] Is intelligent design based on any religious beliefs or convictions? A. [Prof. Behe] No, it
isn't. Q. What is it based on? A. It is based entirely on observable, empirical, physical evidence from nature
plus logical inferences. Q. Dr. Padian testified that paleontologists makes reasoned inferences based on
comparative evidence. For example, paleontologists know what the functions of the feathers of different
shapes are in birds today. They look at those same structures in fossil animals and infer that they were used
for a similar purpose in the fossil animal. Does intelligent design employ similar scientific reasoning? A. Yes,
that's a form of inductive reasoning, and intelligent design uses similar inductive reasoning. Q. Now I want
to review with you the intelligent design argument. ... A. .... The first point is that, we infer design when we
see that parts appear to be arranged for a purpose. The second point is that the strength of the inference,
how confident we are in it, is quantitative. The more parts that are arranged, and the more intricately they
interact, the stronger is our confidence in design. The third point is that the appearance of design in aspects
of biology is overwhelming. The fourth point then is that, since nothing other than an intelligent cause has
been demonstrated to be able to yield such a strong appearance of design, Darwinian claims
notwithstanding, the conclusion that the design seen in life is real design is rationally justified. Q. Now
when you use the term design, what do you mean? A. Well, I discussed this in my book, Darwin's Black Box,
and a short description of design is shown in this quotation from Chapter 9. Quote, What is design? Design
is simply the purposeful arrangement of parts. When we perceive that parts have been arranged to fulfill a
purpose, that's when we infer design." (Behe, M.J.*, "Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area
School District, et al.," Transcript, October 17, 2005, Morning session)
1/11/2005
"Q. [Mr Muise] Can you give us a biochemical example of design? A. [Prof. Behe] ... I think the best, most
visually striking example of design is something called the bacterial flagellum. This is a figure of the bacterial
flagellum taken from a textbook by authors named Voet and Voet, which is widely used in colleges and
universities around the country. The bacterial flagellum is quite literally an outboard motor that bacteria use
to swim. And in order to accomplish that function, it has a number of parts ordered to that effect. This part
here, which is labeled the filament, is actually the propeller of the bacterial flagellum. The motor is actually a
rotary motor. It spins around and around and around. And as it spins, it spins the propeller, which pushes
against the liquid in which the bacterium finds itself and, therefore, pushes the bacterium forward through
the liquid. The propeller is attached to something called the drive shaft by another part which is called the
hook region which acts as a universal joint. The purpose of a universal joint is to transmit the rotary motion
of the drive shaft up from the drive shaft itself through the propeller. And the hook adapts the one to the
other. The drive shaft is attached to the motor itself which uses a flow of acid from the outside of the cell to
the inside of the cell to power the turning of the motor, much like, say, water flowing over a dam can turn a
turbine. The whole apparatus, the flagellum has to be kept stationary in the plane of the bacterial membrane,
which is represented by these dark curved regions. As the propeller is turning, much as an outboard motor
has to be clamped onto a boat to stabilize it while the propeller is turning. And there are regions, parts,
protein parts which act as what is called a stator to hold the apparatus steady in the cell. The drive shaft has
to traverse the membrane of the cell. And there are parts, protein parts, which are, which act as what are
called bushing materials to allow the drive shaft to proceed through. And I should add that, although this
looks complicated, the actual -- this is really only a little illustration, a kind of cartoon drawing of the
flagellum. And it's really much more complex than this. But I think this illustration gets across the point of
the purposeful arrangement of parts. Most people who see this and have the function explained to them
quickly realized that these parts are ordered for a purpose and, therefore, bespeak design.." (Behe, M.J.*,
"Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover
Area School District, et al.," Transcript, October 17, 2005, Morning session)
1/11/2005
"Q. [Mr Muise] Now does the conclusion that something was designed, does that require knowledge of a
designer? A. [Prof. Behe] No, it doesn't. .... I discussed that in Darwin's Black Box in Chapter 9, the chapter
entitled Intelligent Design. Let me quote from it. Quote, The conclusion that something was designed can be
made quite independently of knowledge of the designer. As a matter of procedure, the design must first be
apprehended before there can be any further question about the designer. The inference to design can be
held with all the firmness that is possible in this world, without knowing anything about the designer. Q. So
is it accurate for people to claim or to represent that intelligent design holds that the designer was God? A.
No, that is completely inaccurate. Q. Well, people have asked you your opinion as to who you believe the
designer is, is that correct? A. That is right. Q. Has science answered that question? A. No, science has not
done so. Q. And I believe you have answered on occasion that you believe the designer is God, is that
correct? A. Yes, that's correct. Q. Are you making a scientific claim with that answer? A. No, I conclude that
based on theological and philosophical and historical factors." (Behe, M.J.*, "Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area
School District, et al.," Transcript, October 17, 2005, Morning session)
1/11/2005
"Q. [Mr Muise] Do sciences recognize evidence of design in nature? A. [Prof. Behe] Yes, they do. Q. And
do you have some examples to demonstrate that point? A. Yes, I do. On the next slide is the cover of a book
written by a man named Richard Dawkins, who is a professor of biology at Oxford University and a very
strong proponent of Darwinian evolution. In 1986, he wrote a book entitled The Blind Watchmaker, why the
evidence of evolution reveals a universe without design. Nonetheless, even though he is, in fact, a strong
Darwinist, on the first page of the first chapter of his book, he writes the following. Quote, Biology is the
study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose, close quote.
So let me just emphasize that here's Richard Dawkins saying, this is the very definition of biology, the study
of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose. Q. Does he explain
why they appear design, how it is that we can detect design? A. Yes, he does. And that is shown on the
next slide. It is not because of some emotional reaction. It is not due to some fuzzy thinking. It's due to the
application of an engineering point of view. He writes on page 21 of the first chapter, quote, We may say
that a living body or organ is well designed if it has attributes that an intelligent and knowledgeable
engineer might have built into it in order to achieve some sensible purpose, such as flying, swimming,
seeing. Any engineer can recognize an object that has been designed, even poorly designed, for a purpose,
and he can usually work out what that purpose is just by looking at the structure of the object, close quote.
So let me just emphasize that he, in other words, is stating that we recognize design by the purposeful
arrangement of parts. When we see parts arranged to achieve some sensible purpose, such as flying,
swimming, and seeing, we perceive design. Q. Now is it fair to say that he's looking at, and intelligent design
proponents look at physical structures similar to like the paleontologist does and then drawing reasonable
inferences from those physical structures? A. That's exactly right. What intelligent design does is look at
the physical, observable features and use logic to infer deductions from that. Q. Now you, as well as
Dawkins in the slides that we've just been looking at, refer to purpose. Now when you use -- when you were
using purpose, are you making a philosophical claim by using that term? A. No. The word purpose, like
many other words, can have different meanings. And the purpose here used by Professor Dawkins and in
intelligent design does not refer to some fuzzy purpose of life or some such thing as that. It's purpose in the
sense of function. And I think on the next slide, I emphasize that Dawkins is using some sensible purpose,
such as flying, swimming, seeing. An engineer can work out the purpose of an object by looking at its
structure. He's talking about purpose in the sense of function. Q. Now this appearance of design, is this a
faint appearance? A. No, indeed. This is not just some marginal vague impression. Richard Dawkins, a
strong proponent of Darwinian evolution, insists, he says, quote, Yet the living results of natural selection
overwhelmingly impress us with the appearance of design, as if by a master watchmaker, impress us with the
illusion of design and planning, close quote. Let me make two points with this. He thinks that this is an
illusion because he thinks he has an alternative explanation for what he sees. Nonetheless, what he sees
directly gives him the overwhelming impression of design.." (Behe, M.J.*, "Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area
School District, et al.," Transcript, October 17, 2005, Morning session)
1/11/2005
"Q. [Mr Muise] Have other scientists made similar claims regarding the evidence of design in nature? A.
[Prof. Behe] Yes. On the next slide is a quotation from a book written by a man named Francis Crick. Francis
Crick, of course, is the Nobel laureate with James Watson who won the Nobel Prize for their discovery of the
double helicle structure of DNA. In a book published in 1998, he wrote, quote, Biologists must constantly
keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved. So apparently, in the view of Francis
Crick, biologists have to make a constant effort to think that things that they studied evolved and were not
designed." (Behe, M.J.*, "Tammy
Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al.," Transcript, October 17, 2005, Morning
session)
1/11/2005
"Q. [Mr Muise] I want to return to Richard Dawkins here for a moment and The Blind Watchmaker. Did he
borrow his title from somewhere? A. [Prof. Behe] Yes, the watchmaker of his title has an illusion which he
explained on page 4 of his book. He says, quote, The watchmaker of my title is borrowed from a famous
treatise by the 18th century theologian William Paley. And he starts to quote William Paley. So he is using
his book as an answer to, or an argument to, William Paley's discussions of these issues. And he treats
William Paley with the utmost respect. ... Paley is best known for what is called his watchmaker argument.
And that is briefly this. He says that, when we walk -- if we were walking across a field, and we hit our foot
against a stone, well, we wouldn't think much of it. We would think that the stone might have been there
forever. But if we stumble across a watch and we pick it up, then Paley goes on to say, when we come to
inspect the watch, we perceive that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose; for example,
that they so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point out the
hour of the day. Let me close quote here, and say that, he is talking about the purposeful arrangement of
parts. Let me continue with a quotation from William Paley. Quote, he says, The inference we think is
inevitable, that the watch must have had a maker, close quote. So he is inferring from the physical structure
of the watch to an intelligent designer. Q. Is that a theological argument? A. No, this is a scientific argument
based on physical facts and logic. He's saying nothing here about any religious precept, any theological
notion. This is a scientific argument. Q. Does Richard Dawkins himself recognize it as an argument based on
logic? A. Yes, he does, and he goes to great lengths to address it in his book, The Blind Watchmaker."
(Behe, M.J.*, "Tammy Kitzmiller, et al.
v. Dover Area School District, et al.," Transcript, October 17, 2005, Morning session)
1/11/2005
"Q. [Mr Muise] What sort of reasoning or argument is this that we're talking about, this scientific argument
that you're referring to? A. [Prof. Behe] This is an instance of what is called inductive reasoning ... the
Encyclopedia Britannica says, quote, When a person uses a number of established facts to draw a general
conclusion, he uses inductive reasoning. This is the kind of logic normally used in the sciences... It is by
this process of induction and falsification that progress is made in the sciences. So this William Paley's
argument, the kind of argument that, say, Professor Padian made about bird feathers and so on are all
examples of inductive reasoning, and they are all examples of scientific reasoning. Q. This is the sort of
reasoning that is employed in science quite readily? A. Yes. As the article makes clear, this is the normal
mode of thinking in science. Q. Is that the sort of reasoning you employ to conclude design, for example, in
your book Darwin's Black Box? A. Yes, this is exactly the kind of reasoning that I used in Darwin's Black
Box. On this slide here, which includes an excerpt from Chapter 9 entitled Intelligent Design, I say the
following. Quote, Our ability to be confident of the design of the cilium or intracellular transport rests on the
same principles as our ability to be confident of the design of anything, the ordering of separate
components to achieve an identifiable function that depends sharply on the components, close quote. In
other words, the purposeful arrangement of parts." (Behe, M.J.*, "Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area
School District, et al.," Transcript, October 17, 2005, Morning session)
1/11/2005
"Q. [Mr Muise] Again, I would ask you to, if we could return to the summary of the argument for intelligent
design. A. Yes. Thank you. Here again is the slide that we looked at earlier summarizing the argument for
intelligent design, and perhaps, in retrospect, more of it will be understandable. The first part is that we infer
design when we see that parts appear to be arranged for a purpose. Not only I do that, not only did William
Paley do that, but Richard Dawkins and David DeRosier do the same thing. The strength of the inference is
quantitative. The more parts that are arranged, and the more intricately they interact, the stronger is our
confidence in design. The third part is, the appearance of design in aspects of biology is overwhelming, as
everybody, including Richard Dawkins, admits. And the final point is that, since nothing other than an
intelligent cause has been demonstrated to be able to yield such a strong appearance of design, Darwinian
claims, notwithstanding, the conclusion that the design seen in life is real design is rationally justified. If I
could just take a moment to point out something. This argument for design is an entirely positive argument.
This is how we recognize design by the purposeful arrangement of parts." (Behe, M.J.*, "Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area
School District, et al.," Transcript, October 17, 2005, Morning session)
1/11/2005
"Q. [Mr Muise] And have you argued that intelligent design is science in your writings? A. [Prof. Behe]
Yes, I have. Q. Is intelligent design falsifyable? [sic] A. Yes, it is.Q. ... When you say you are relying on
logical inferences, you're referring to inductive reasoning, correct? A. Yes, inductive reasoning. Q. And ...
do you have an example of this sort of reasoning, inductive reasoning that's used in sciences? A. Well, I
think an excellent example of inductive reasoning is the Big Bang theory. Most people forget that in the
early part of the 20th century that physicists thought the universe was timeless, eternal, and unchanging.
Then in the late 1920's, observations were made which led astronomers to think that galaxies that they could
observe were rushing away from each other and rushing away from the Earth as if in the aftermath of some
giant explosion. So they were using inductive reasoning of their experience of explosions to, and applying
that to their astronomical observations. And let me emphasize that they were -- the inductive method, as
philosophers will tell you, always extrapolates from what a we know to instances of what we don't know. So
those scientists studying the Big Bang were extrapolating from their knowledge of explosions as seen in,
say, fire crackers, cannon balls, and so on, and extrapolating that to the explosion of the entire universe,
which is quite a distance from the basis set from which they drew their induction. But nonetheless, they
were confident that this pattern suggested an explosion based on their experience with more familiar objects.
Q. And basically, we don't have any experience with universes exploding, correct? A. I do not, no. Q. And
scientists do not? A. No, scientists don't either. Q. Again, , is this similar to the reasoning used in
paleontology? For example we haven't seen any live pre-historic birds, for example, but they have features
that resemble feathers, as we know them from our common experience today, and we infer that they were
used for flying or similar functions, again based on our common experience? A. Yes, that's right. That's
another example of induction from what we know to things we don't know. Q. Again, that's scientific
reasoning? A. Yes, it is." (Behe, M.J.*, "Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area
School District, et al.," Transcript, October 17, 2005, Morning session)
1/11/2005
"Q. [Mr Muise] Can science presently tell us what caused the Bang? A. [Prof. Behe] No. I'm not a physicist,
but I understand the cause of the Big Bang is still unknown. Q. Is that similar to intelligent design's claim
that science presently cannot tell us the source of design in nature? A. Yes, that's very similar. All theories,
when they're proposed, have outstanding questions, and intelligent design is no exception. And I'd like to
make a further point that I just thought of and was going to make earlier, but that, that induction from
explosions of our experience to explosions of the universe is analogous to, similar to the induction that
intelligent design makes from our knowledge of objects, the purposeful arrangements of parts in our familiar
world and extrapolating that to the cell as well. So that, too, is an example of an induction from what we
know to what we have newly discovered. Q. Now was the Big Bang theory controversial when it was first
proposed? A. Yes, it turns out that the Big Bang theory was, in fact, controversial because -- not because of
the scientific data so much, but because many people, including many scientists, thought that it had
philosophical and even theological implications that they did not like. And on the next slide, I have a
quotation of a man named Arthur Eddington, which is quoted in a book by a philosopher of science, Susan
Stebbing. Arthur Eddington wrote, quote, Philosophically, the notion of an abrupt beginning to the present
order of nature is repugnant to me, as I think it must be to most. And even those who would welcome a
proof of the intervention of a creator will probably consider that a single winding up at some remote epoch
is not really the kind of relation between God and his world that brings satisfaction to the mind, close quote.
Let me say a couple things. I don't think I mentioned that Arthur Eddington was a very prominent
astronomer of that age. The second point is that, notice that the reason that he does not like this theory, this
scientific proposal, is not because of scientific reasons, but because of philosophical and theological
reasons. But nonetheless, that does not affect the status of the Big Bang proposal, which was based
completely on physical, observable evidence plus logical inferences. And because of that, it was strictly a
scientific theory, even though Arthur Eddington saw other ramifications that he did not like." (Behe, M.J.*,
"Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover
Area School District, et al.," Transcript, October 17, 2005, Morning session)
1/11/2005
"Q. [Mr Muise] I believe you have another quote to demonstrate that point? A. [Prof. Behe] Yes. Here's a
passage from a book by a man named Karl von Weizsacker. Karl von Weizsacker was again an astronomer in
the middle part of the 20th century, and he wrote a book in 1964 entitled The Relevance of Science where he
recalled his interactions with other scientists when the Big Bang theory was being proposed. Let me quote
from that passage. Quote, He, and he's referring to Walter Nernst, who was a very prominent chemist of that
time, said, the view that there might be an age of the universe was not science. At first, I did not understand
him. He explained that the infinite duration of time was a basic element of all scientific thought, and to deny
this would mean to betray the very foundations of science. I was quite surprised by this, and I ventured the
objection that it was scientific to form hypothesis according to the hints given by experience, and that the
idea of an age of the universe was such a hypothesis. He retorted that we could not form a scientific
hypothesis which contradicted the very foundations of science. He was just angry, and thus the discussion,
which was continued in his private library, could not lead to any result. What impressed me about Nernst
was not his arguments. What impressed me was his anger. Why was he angry? Close quote. Let me make a
couple comments on this passage. This is an example of when people are arguing about what science is. To
Walter Nernst, the very idea that there could be a beginning to the universe was unscientific, and we could
not entertain that. On the other hand, von Weizsacker said that science has to take its hints from what
evidence is available. We have to form hypotheses according to the hints given by experience. And to me,
this is very similar to what I see going on in the debate over intelligent design today. Many people object
that this can't be science, this violates the very definition of science, whereas other people, myself
including, say that we have to form hypotheses according to the hints given by experience." (Behe, M.J.*,
"Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover
Area School District, et al.," Transcript, October 17, 2005, Morning session. )
1/11/2005
"Q. [Mr Muise] Does this make intelligent design a, quote, unquote, science stopper, as we heard in this
case? A. [Prof. Behe] No more than it makes the Big Bang a science stopper. The Big Bang posits a
beginning to nature which some people thought was the very antithesis of science. It presented a question,
the cause of the Big Bang, which could not be answered, and which has not been answered to this very day,
and nonetheless, I think most people would agree that a large amount of science has been done within the
Big Bang model. Q. So after the Big Bang theory was proposed, we didn't shut down all our science
departments and close up all the laboratories and just stop scientific exploration? A. Not to my knowledge."
(Behe, M.J.*, "Tammy Kitzmiller, et al.
v. Dover Area School District, et al.," Transcript, October 17, 2005, Morning session)
1/11/2005
"Q. [Mr Muise] Now another complaint that we've heard in the course of this trial is that intelligent design is
not falsifyable. [sic] Do you agree with that claim? A. [Prof. Behe] No, I disagree. And I think I further in
slides from my article in Biology and Philosophy in which I wrote on that. If you get to the next slide -- oh,
I'm sorry. Thank you. You got that. In this, I address it. I'm actually going to read this long quotation, so let
me begin. Quote, In fact, intelligent design is open to direct experimental rebuttal. Here is a thought
experiment that makes the point clear. In Darwin's Black Box, I claimed that the bacterial flagellum was
irreducibly complex and so required deliberate intelligent design. The flip side of this claim is that the
flagellum can't be produced by natural selection acting on random mutation, or any other unintelligent
process. To falsify such a claim, a scientist could go into the laboratory, place a bacterial species lacking a
flagellum under some selective pressure, for mobility, say, grow it for 10,000 generations, and see if a
flagellum, or any equally complex system, was produced. If that happened, my claims would be neatly
disproven. Close quote. So let me summarize that slide. It says that if, in fact, by experiment, by growing
something or seeing that in some organism such as a bacterium grown under laboratory conditions, grown
for and examined before and afterwards, if it were seen that random mutation and natural selection could
indeed produce the purposeful arrangement of parts of sufficient complexity to mimic things that we find in
the cell, then, in fact, my claim that intelligent design was necessary to explain such things would be neatly
falsified. Q. I got a couple questions about the proposal that you make. First of all, when you say you place
something under selective pressure, what does that mean? A. Well, that means you grow it under
conditions where, if a mutation -- a mutant bacterium came along which could more easily grow under those
conditions, then it would likely propagate faster than other cells that did not have that mutation. So, for
example, if you grew a flask of bacteria and let them sit in a beaker that was motionless, and the bacteria did
not have a flagellum to help it swim around and find food, they could only eat then the materials that were in
their immediate vicinity. But if some bacterium, some mutant bacterium were produced that could move
somewhat, then it could gather more food, reproduce more, and be favored by selection. Q. Is that a
standard technique that's used in laboratories across the country? A. Yes, such experiments are done
frequently. Q. And I just want to ask you a question about this grow it for 10,000 generations. Does that
mean we have to wait 10,000 years of some sort to prove this or disprove this? A. No, not in the case of
bacteria. It turns out that the generation time for bacteria is very short. A bacterium can reproduce in 20
minutes. So 10,000 generations is actually, I think, just a couple years. So it's quite doable. Q. Have
scientists, in fact, grown bacteria out to 10,000 generations? A. Yes, there are experiments going on where
bacteria have been grown for 40,000 generations. So again, this is something that can be done. Q. So this is
a readily doable experiment? A. That's correct." (Behe, M.J.*, "Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area
School District, et al.," Transcript, October 17, 2005, Morning session)
1/11/2005
"Q. [Mr Muise] Q. Sir, do you believe that natural selection is similarly falsifyable? [sic] A. [Prof. Behe] No.
Actually, I think that, in fact, natural selection and Darwinian claims are actually very, very difficult to
falsify. And let me go back to my article, Reply to my Critics from the journal Biology and Philosophy. And I
don't think I'm actually going to read this whole thing, because it refers to things that would take a while to
explain. But let me just try to give you the gist of it. Let me read the first sentence. Quote, Let's turn the
tables and ask, how could one falsify a claim that a particular biochemical system was produced by
Darwinian processes? Close quote. Now let me just kind of try to explain that in my own -- well, verbally
here. Suppose that we did that same experiment as I talked about earlier. Suppose a scientist went into a
laboratory, grew a bacterium that was missing a flagellum under selective pressure for motion, waited 10,000,
20,000, 30,000, 40,000 generations, and at the end of that time, examined it and saw that, well, nothing much
had been changed, nothing much had changed. Would that result cause Darwinian biologists to think that
their theory could not explain the flagellum? I don't think so. I think they would say, number 1, that we didn't
wait long enough; number two, perhaps we started with the wrong bacterial species; number 3, maybe we
applied the wrong selective pressure, or some other problem. Now leaving aside the question of whether
those are reasonable responses or not, and some of them might be reasonable, nonetheless, the point is
that, it's very difficult to falsify Darwinian claims. What experiment could be done which would show that
Darwinian processes could not produce the flagellum? And I can think of no such experiment. And as a
matter of fact, on the next slide, I have a quotation, kind of putting a point on that argument. In that same
article, Reply to my Critics, I wrote that I think Professor Coyne and the National Academy of Sciences have
it exactly backwards. And Professor Jerry Coyne is an evolutionary biologist who said that intelligent
design is unfalsifyable, and in a publication of the National Academy, they asserted the same thing. I wrote
that, A strong point of intelligent design is its vulnerability to falsification. A weak point of Darwinian
theory is its resistance to falsification. What experimental evidence could possibly be found that would
falsify the contention that complex molecular machines evolved by a Darwinian mechanism? I can think of
none, close quote. So again, the point is that, I think the situation is exactly opposite of what much -- of
what many arguments assume, that ironically intelligent design is open to falsification, but Darwinian claims
are much more resistant to falsification.." (Behe, M.J.*, "Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area
School District, et al.," Transcript, October 17, 2005, Morning session)
1/11/2005
"Prebiotic chemists do the same thing. They run a lot of reactions until they get the compound they want.
Once they have done this, no matter how many trials they needed or how low the yield of the desired
product, they feel free to go to the next step. In doing so, they start with a fresh, pure supply of the
compound they've made. They claim that they must cut a few corners to save time. "But look at the size of
the corner that Dr. Midas cut with Charlie. The chimp needed about 45 seconds to strike each letter at
random. For the 40-letter message, the total monkey typing time was 45 times 40 seconds, or 30 minutes. Left
alone, he would have faced odds of (45)40 to 1. As we saw a while ago, he probably would
have needed 1059 years or so to get the message right (though if he were very, very
lucky, he could of course get it on the first try). Not a bad trick to substitute 45 times 40 for
(45)40." (Shapiro, R., ": A Skeptic's Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth," Summit Books: New
York NY, 1986, p.180)
2/11/2005
"The Establishment Clause forbids the enactment of any law `respecting an establishment of religion.' The
Court has applied a three-pronged test to determine whether legislation comports with the Establishment
Clause. First, the legislature must have adopted the law with a secular purpose. Second, the statute's
principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion. Third, the statute must
not result in an excessive entanglement of government with religion. Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971). State
action violates the Establishment Clause if it fails to satisfy any of these prongs." (Edwards, Governor of
Louisiana, et al. v. Aguillard et al., Supreme Court of the United States 482 U.S. 578, December 10,
1986, Argued June 19, 1987)
2/11/2005
"Each evolution that we know about in some detail (genesis of amphibians, reptiles, mammals, history of the
various orders of mammals, and so on) forces us to admit that a phenomenon whose equivalent cannot be
seen in the creatures living at the present time (either because it is not there, or because we are unable to see
it) occurs in the course of it. For this phenomenon the cell is both the instrument and the effector; it paves
the way for the evolution of living things. It does so in accordance with the influence exerted on the
organism by external factors and by certain internal ones connected with the chemistry of living things."
(Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," [1973],
Academic Press: New York NY, 1977, p.208)
3/11/2005
"Opponents of the theory often insist that intelligent design emerged as a conspiracy to circumvent the
1987 Supreme Court decision, Edwards vs. Aguillard. There the Court struck down a Louisiana law
promoting the teaching of creation science in public school science classes. The theory of intelligent
design, critics insist, is merely a clever end-run around this ruling, biblical creationism in disguise. The
problem with this claim is the intelligent design predates Edwards vs. Aguillard by many years. ... In
By Design, a history of the current design controversy, journalist Larry Witham traces the immediate
roots of the intelligent design movement in biology to the 1950s and '60s, and the movement itself to the
1970s. Biochemists were unraveling the secret of DNA and discovering that it was part of an elaborate
information processing system that included nanotechnology of unparalleled sophistication. One of the first
intellectuals to describe the significance of these discoveries was chemist and philosopher Michael Polanyi,
who in 1967 argued that "machines are irreducible to physics and chemistry" and that "mechanistic
structures of living beings appear to be likewise irreducible." Biochemist Michael Behe would later develop
Polanyi's insights with his concept of irreducible complexity. ... Polanyi's work also influenced the seminal
1984 book The Mystery of Life's Origin ... Thaxton and his co-authors argued that matter and energy
can accomplish only so much by themselves, and that some things can only "be accomplished through
what Michael Polanyi has called `a profoundly informative intervention.'" ... We find more of the same in
molecular biologist Michael Denton's 1985 book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis: "The inference to
design is a purely a posteriori induction based on a ruthlessly consistent application of the logic of analogy.
The conclusion may have religious implications, but it does not depend on religious presuppositions." ...
The essential difference isn't whether the writer speaks of the "creation of DNA" versus the "intelligent
design of DNA." The difference is more substantive than stylistic. Creationism or Creation Science is
focused on defending a particular reading of the Genesis account, usually including the creation of the earth
by the Biblical God a few thousand years ago. The theory of intelligent design isn't based on religious
presuppositions but simply argues that an intelligent cause is the best explanation for certain features of the
natural world. Unlike the creationism on trial in Edwards vs. Aguillard, the theory of intelligent design does
not consider the identity of the designer nor does it defend the Genesis account (or that of any other sacred
text for that matter). This is why a former atheist like British philosopher Antony Flew, who rejects the Judeo-Christian God, can
nevertheless embrace the intelligent design argument for the origin of life. The fact that intelligent design
doesn't identify the source of design is not political calculation but precise thinking, refusing to go beyond
what the scientific evidence tells us. Consider intelligent design's most famous design inference, the
bacterial flagellum. Michael Behe shows that this microscopic rotary engine, like an automobile engine,
needs all of its machinery in place to function at all. The best explanation for this irreducibly complex
machine is intelligent design, but there's no inscription on the bushing of this little motor that identifies its
maker. To discover the identity of its designer(s), one has to look beyond science." (Witt J.*, "Origin of Intelligent Design: A brief history of the scientific theory of intelligent design," Discovery
Institute: Seattle WA, October 1, 2005)
3/11/2005
"However, our review of the KSES [Kansas Science Education Standards] ... finds that evolution is singled
out as an area of science where there is major scientific controversy because of alleged weaknesses in the
theory. In fact, the vast majority of scientists accept evolution as the most compelling explanation for how
the diversity of life arose on this planet. Data collected from scientists in many disciplines and published in
tens of thousands of peer-reviewed papers both support and continue to strengthen evolution as the
underlying basis for understanding biology. The only controversies lie in understanding the possible
mechanisms by which evolution operates, but these kinds of disagreements are found in all areas of science.
Indeed, they are essential to scientific progress. The revised KSES attempts to portray evolution as a theory
in crisis and raises "controversies" (e.g., the Cambrian explosion) that evolutionary scientists have refuted
many times using the available evidence." (Cicerone R.J., President, National Academy of Sciences, Letter to Dr. Alexa Posny,
Assistant Commissioner of Education, Kansas State Department of Education, Topeka, Kansas,
October 26, 2005)
3/11/2005
"Perhaps most troubling, however, is the attempt by those who prepared the revisions to redefine what
constitutes science, from a search for natural explanations of observable phenomena, to one that does not
require natural explanations (page xi). The power of science results from a strict adherence to seeking natural
mechanisms and explanations for natural phenomena. By removing this critically important caveat from the
KSES [Kansas Science Education Standards], the line between science and other ways of knowing becomes
blurred. Kansas students will be both confused and ill-served by an explanation of science that allows for
supernatural explanations of the natural world." (Cicerone R.J., President, National Academy of Sciences,
letter to Dr. Alexa
Posny, Assistant Commissioner of Education, Kansas State Department of Education, Topeka, Kansas,
October 26, 2005)
3/11/2005
"Perhaps most troubling, however, is the attempt by those who prepared the revisions to redefine what
constitutes science, from a search for natural explanations of observable phenomena, to one that does not
require natural explanations (page xi). The power of science results from a strict adherence to seeking natural
mechanisms and explanations for natural phenomena. By removing this critically important caveat from the
KSES [Kansas Science Education Standards], the line between science and other ways of knowing becomes
blurred. Kansas students will be both confused and ill-served by an explanation of science that allows for
supernatural explanations of the natural world." (Cicerone R.J., President, National Academy of Sciences,
Letter to Dr. Alexa
Posny, Assistant Commissioner of Education, Kansas State Department of Education, Topeka, Kansas,
October 26, 2005)
4/11/2005
"But field studies have proved notoriously inconclusive when it comes to natural selection. After three
decades spent observing Darwin's finches in the Galapagos, P.R. and B.R. Grant were in the end able to state
only that `further continuous long-term studies are needed.' It is the conclusion invariably established by
evolutionary field studies, and it is the only conclusion established with a high degree of reliability."
(Berlinski D., "On the Origins
of the Mind," Commentary, Vol. 118, No. 4, November 2004)
4/11/2005
"Evolution can be predicted in the short term from a knowledge of selection and inheritance. However, in the
long term evolution is unpredictable because environments, which determine the directions and magnitudes
of selection coefficients, fluctuate unpredictably. These two features of evolution, the predictable and
unpredictable, are demonstrated in a study of two populations of Darwin's finches on the Galapagos island
of Daphne Major. From 1972 to 2001, Geospiza fortis (medium ground finch) and Geospiza scandens (cactus
finch) changed several times in body size and two beak traits. Natural selection occurred frequently in both
species and varied from unidirectional to oscillating, episodic to gradual. Hybridization occurred repeatedly
though rarely, resulting in elevated phenotypic variances in G. scandens and a change in beak shape. The
phenotypic states of both species at the end of the 30-year study could not have been predicted at the
beginning. Continuous, long-term studies are needed to detect and interpret rare but important events and
nonuniform evolutionary change." (Grant P.R. & Grant B.R., "Unpredictable evolution in a 30-year study of Darwin's finches," Science, Vol.
296, April 26; 2002, pp.707-711)
4/11/2005
"Curiously enough, it has been evolutionary psychologists themselves who are most willing to give up in
practice what they do not have in theory. For were that missing theory to exist, it would cancel-it would
annihilate-any last lingering claim we might make on behalf of human freedom. The physical
sciences, after all, do not simply trifle with determinism: it is the heart and soul of their method. Were Boron
salts at liberty to discard their identity, the claims of inorganic chemistry would seem considerably less
pertinent than they do. Thus, when Steven Pinker writes that `nature does not dictate what we should
accept or how we should live our lives,' he is expressing a hope entirely at odds with his professional
commitments. If ordinary men and women are, like the professor himself, perfectly free to tell their genes `to
go jump in the lake,' why then pay the slightest attention to evolutionary psychology-why pay the slightest
attention to Pinker?" (Berlinski D., "On the Origins of the Mind," Commentary, Vol. 118, No. 4, November 2004. Emphasis
original)
4/11/2005
"Thus, in tests of preference, Victor Johnson, a bio-psychologist at New Mexico State University, has
reported that men throughout the world designate as attractive women with the most feminine faces. Their
lips are large and lustrous, their jaws narrow, their eyes wide. On display in every magazine and on every
billboard, such faces convey `accented hormonal markers.' These are a guide to fertility, and it is the promise
of fertility that prompts the enthusiastic male response. There is no reason to doubt Johnson's claim that on
the whole men prefer pretty young women to all the others-the result, I am sure, of research extending over a
score of years. It is the connection to fertility that remains puzzling. If male standards of beauty are rooted in
the late Paleolithic era, men worldwide should now be looking for stout muscular women with broad backs,
sturdy legs, a high threshold to pain, and a welcome eagerness to resume foraging directly after parturition.
It has not been widely documented that they do." (Berlinski D., "On the Origins of the
Mind," Commentary, Vol. 118, No. 4, November 2004. Emphasis original.
http://www.hiddenmysteries.org/mind/research/re11-15-04a.html)
4/11/2005
"This is the province of population genetics, a discipline given a remarkably sophisticated formulation in the
1930's and 40's by Ronald Fisher, J.B.S. Haldane, and Sewall Wright. Excellent mathematicians, these men
were interested in treating evolution as a process expressed by some underlying system of equations. In the
1970's and 80's, the Japanese population geneticist Motoo Kimura revived and then extended their theories.
Kimura's treatise, The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution (1983), opens with words that should prove
sobering to any evolutionary psychologist: `The neutral theory asserts that the great majority of
evolutionary changes at the molecular level, as revealed by comparative studies of protein and DNA
sequences, are caused not by Darwinian selection but by random drift of selectively neutral or nearly neutral
mutants.' If Darwin's theory is a matter of random variation and natural selection, it is natural selection that is
demoted on Kimura's view. Random variation is paramount; chance is the driving force. This is carefully
qualified: Kimura is writing about `the great majority of evolutionary changes,' not all. In addition, he is
willing to accept the Darwinian disjunction: either complex adaptations are the result of natural selection or
they are the result of nothing at all. But the effect of his work is clear: insofar as evolution is neutral, it is not
adaptive, and insofar as it is not adaptive, natural selection plays no role in life." (Berlinski D., "On the Origins of the
Mind," Commentary, Vol. 118, No. 4, November 2004. Emphasis original.
http://www.hiddenmysteries.org/mind/research/re11-15-04a.html)
4/11/2005
"The neutral theory asserts that the great majority of evolutionary changes at the molecular level, as
revealed by comparative studies of protein and DNA sequences, are caused not by Darwinian selection but
by random drift of selectively neutral or nearly neutral mutants. The theory does not deny the role of natural
selection in determining the course of adaptive evolution, but it assumes that only a minute fraction of DNA
changes in evolution are adaptive in nature, while the great majority of phenotypically silent molecular
substitutions exert no significant influence on survival and reproduction and drift randomly through the
species." (Kimura M., "The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution," [1983], Cambridge University Press:
Cambridge UK, 1990, reprint, p.xi)
4/11/2005
"Entirely neutral genes are improbable for physiological reasons. Every gene elaborates a `gene product,' a
chemical that enters the developmental stream. It seems unrealistic-to me to assume that the nature of the
particular chemical (enzyme or other product) should be without any effect whatsoever on the fitness of the
ultimate phenotype. A gene may be selectively neutral when placed on a particular genetic background in a
particular temporary physical and biotic environment. However, genetic background as well as environment
change continually in natural populations and I consider it therefore exceedingly unlikely that any gene will
remain selectively neutral for any length of time." (Mayr E., "Animal Species and Evolution," Belknap Press:
Cambridge MA, 1963, p.207)
4/11/2005
"Natural selection operates directly upon the characters of the phenotype that function in the environment,
but by logical extension it must have a similar effect upon the genetic material that contains the information
that produces those characters in the reproductive process. The authoritative Ernst Mayr therefore
announced in 1963, as the molecular revolution was beginning, that `I consider it exceedingly unlikely that
any gene will remain selectively neutral for any length of time.'" [Mayr E., in Kimura M., "The Neutral
Theory of Molecular Evolution", Scientific American, November, 1979]" (Johnson P.E.*, "Darwin on Trial,"
[1991], InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove IL, Second Edition, 1993, p.91)
4/11/2005
"Neutral sequences are by definition outside the surveillance of natural selection but this leads to a serious
dilemma. As we have seen above, there is no conceivable way in which a uniform rate of drift could have
occurred in organisms as diverse as mouse and man and yet the fibrinopeptides in rodents are isolated to
exactly the same degree as those in primates. Drift seems be excluded. But selectionist explanations seem to
lead to absurd conclusions. because the spacer sequences such as the fibrinopeptides exhibit the highest
interspecies divergence of all proteins, if this is to be accounted for on purely selectionist grounds it is
necessary to propose that they must have suffered adaptive changes very much more often than proteins
such as the haemoglobins or the cytochromes. In other words, they must have been under the intense
scrutiny of natural selection. Not only must such sequences have suffered more adaptive changes than
other proteins but in addition, these substitutions must have occurred regularly. The difficulties associated
with attempting to explain how a family of homologous proteins could have evolved at constant rates has
created chaos in evolutionary thought. The evolutionary community has divided into two camps - those still
adhering to the selectionist position, and those rejecting it in favour of the neutralist The devastating aspect
of this controversy is that neither side can adequately account for the constancy of the rate of molecular
evolution yet each side fatally weakens the other. The selectionists wound the neutralists position by
pointing to the disparity in the rates of mutation per unit time, while the neutralists destroy the selectionist
position by showing how ludicrous it is to believe that selection would have caused equal rates of
divergence in " junk" proteins or along phylogenetic lines so dissimilar as those of man and carp. Both sides
win valid points, but in the process the credibility of the molecular clock hypothesis is severely strained and
with it the whole paradigm of evolution itself is endangered. There is simply no way of explaining how a
uniform rate of evolution could have occurred in any family of homologous protein by either chance or
selection; and, even if we could advance an explanation for one particular protein family, we would still be
left with the mystifying problem of explaining why other protein families should have evolved at different
rates." (Denton M.J., "Evolution: A Theory in Crisis," Burnett Books: London, 1985, p.305)
4/11/2005
"As a non-Darwinian, I am not directly concerned in this debate but simply note that biologists do, while
remaining faithful to the principles laid down by the founder, recognize that these do not entirely account
for evolution, and, in particular, that natural selection acting on populations is incapable of guiding
evolution." (Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation,"
[1973], Academic Press: New York NY, 1977, p.210)
4/11/2005
"It is remarkable, to say the least, that none of the biologists or natural philosophers we have quoted as
pointing out the inadequacies of Darwinian doctrine should have mentioned the real `evolution in action' of
the fossil record. ... I am not personally convinced that the tendencies toward the idiomorphon that are a
fundamental characteristic of evolution most clearly demonstrated by paleontology are solely accounted for
by the binomial `action of the environment/reaction of the organism.'" (Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of Living
Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," [1973], Academic Press: New York NY, 1977,
pp.210-211)
4/11/2005
"At the risk of repeating myself, mutations do not explain either the nature or the temporal ordering of
evolutionary facts; they do not account for innovations; the precise arrangements of the component parts
of organs and the mutual adjustments of organs are beyond their capacity.." (Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of
Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," [1973], Academic Press: New York NY,
1977, p.211)
4/11/2005
"Evolution is not the result of petty ailments, slight upsets of the living cell; it depends upon the
physicochemical structure of the whole living creature and the properties determined by or emerging from it.
The cellular composition of the Theriodontia was such as to imply the achievement of mammalian form.
Such genesis has nothing to do with chance, any more than it has with a vital principle. The
paleontological facts referred to are not the only ones compelling us to look for causes other than random
mutations and antichance selection; there are many, many others." (Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of Living
Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," [1973], Academic Press: New York NY, 1977,
p.211. Emphasis original)
4/11/2005
"Evolution does not confine itself to transforming what exists, whether it be enclosed in the body of a cell or
recorded as a bit of information in the DNA strand. It creates, as we are bound to accept unless we wish to
revert, in a roundabout and updated mode, to a preformist thesis ... A mammalian hair requires information,
and a corresponding executant, which the reptile lacks. In such case acquisition is certain. It seems to be the
same for the breast. Reptiles are not totally devoid of integumentary glands, but these are sparse and, on the
whole, undeveloped. ... No reptilian gland foreshadows the sudoriferous gland, merocrine or apocrine
(holocrine). But the mammary glands of all mammals are similar to the sweat glands. ... But although
resemblances favor filiation from the sweat glands, specifically mammalian, let it not be forgotten that
mammary glands show a real independence even during ontogeny. Their earliest anlagen, the mammary
ridges, ectodermal folds protruding into the subjacent dermis, begin at the axillae, symmetrically on each
side, on the ventral surface of the embryo and end in the folds of the groin, whereas the sweat glands have
no linear traces but burgeon in situ though growing only at a single point. ... I am not alone in supporting
the idea I launched, several years ago now, that creative evolution is not solely explained by the
modification of preexisting genes but demands the genesis of new ones." (Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of Living
Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," [1973], Academic Press: New York NY, 1977,
pp.215-217)
4/11/2005
"This is what an American geneticist has to say on the subject: `Yet, being an effective policeman, natural
selection is extremely conservative by nature. Had evolution been entirely dependent upon natural
selection, from a bacterium only numerous forms of bacteria would have emerged. The creation of
metazoans, vertebrates and finally mammals from unicellular organisms would have been quite impossible
for such big leaps in evolution required the creation of new gene loci with previously nonexistent functions'
(Ohno, 1970). All this is rather obvious, but if people wilfully close their eyes to it, they will not see." (Grasse
P.-P., "Evolution of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," [1973], Academic
Press: New York NY, 1977, pp.217-218)
5/11/2005
"What then is Intelligent Design? Intelligent Design begins with the observation that intelligent causes can
do things which undirected natural causes cannot. Undirected natural causes can place scrabble pieces on a
board, but cannot arrange the pieces as meaningful words or sentences. To obtain a meaningful
arrangement requires an intelligent cause. This intuition, that there is a fundamental distinction between
undirected natural causes on the one hand and intelligent causes on the other, has underlain the design
arguments of past centuries. ... In the last five years design has witnessed an explosive resurgence.
Scientists are beginning to realize that design can be rigorously formulated as a scientific theory. What has
kept design outside the scientific mainstream these last hundred and thirty years is the absence of precise
methods for distinguishing intelligently caused objects from unintelligently caused ones. For design to be a
fruitful scientific concept, scientists have to be sure they can reliably determine whether something is
designed. ... What has emerged is a new program for scientific research known as Intelligent Design. Within
biology, Intelligent Design is a theory of biological origins and development. Its fundamental claim is that
intelligent causes are necessary to explain the complex, information-rich structures of biology, and that
these causes are empirically detectable. To say intelligent causes are empirically detectable is to say
there exist well-defined methods that, on the basis of observational features of the world, are capable of
reliably distinguishing intelligent causes from undirected natural causes. Many special sciences have
already developed such methods for drawing this distinction-notably forensic science, cryptography,
archeology, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (as in the movie Contact). ... Intelligent
Design presupposes neither a creator nor miracles. Intelligent Design is theologically minimalist. It detects
intelligence without speculating about the nature of the intelligence. ... It is the empirical detectability of
intelligent causes that renders Intelligent Design a fully scientific theory, and distinguishes it from the
design arguments of philosophers, or what has traditionally been called `natural theology.' The world
contains events, objects, and structures which exhaust the explanatory resources of undirected natural
causes, and which can be adequately explained only by recourse to intelligent causes. Scientists are now in
a position to demonstrate this rigorously. Thus what has been a long-standing philosophical intuition is
now being cashed out as a scientific research program. ... Logically speaking, Intelligent Design is
compatible with everything from the starkest creationism (i.e., God intervening at every point to create new
species) to the most subtle and far-ranging evolution (i.e., God seamlessly melding all organisms together in
a great tree of life). For Intelligent Design the first question is not how organisms came to be (though this is
a research question that needs to be addressed), but whether they demonstrate clear, empirically detectable
marks of being intelligently caused. In principle, an evolutionary process can exhibit such `marks of
intelligence' as much as any act of special creation. ... It is important to realize that Intelligent Design is not
an apologetic ploy to cajole people into God's Kingdom. Intelligent Design is a scientific research program."
(Dembski W.A.*, "The Intelligent Design Movement," Cosmic Pursuit, Spring 1998. Access Research
Network, November 15, 1998. Emphasis original. http://www.arn.org/docs/dembski/wd_idmovement.htm)
6/11/2005
"Even bacteria provide examples of complex systems which pose a challenge to gradualistic explanations.
Take, for example, the bacterial flagellum. This tiny microscopic hair, which has been observed by light
microscopy for more than one century, has also only recently been elucidated. As a result, we now know
that it has a completely different molecular structure to the cilia .... and recent research into the structure and
function of this fascinating organelle has revealed that it possesses a remarkable property. It is the only
structure in the entire living kingdom which exhibits a true rotary motion. Howard Berg described some of
the latest research on the bacterial flagellum in an excellent Scientific American article in 1975. ... Unlike cilia
which beat by the propagation of a wave from their base to their tip, the helical filaments which comprise the
bacterial flagellum rotate rapidly like propellers and are driven by a reversible motor at their base. In Berg's
words: `The evidence at hand suggests a model for the rotary motor in which the torque is generated
between two elements in the basal body, the M ring and the S ring ... The rod (which is connected to the
filament by the hook) is fixed rigidly to the M ring, which rotates freely in the cytoplasmic membrane. The S
ring is mounted on the cell wall. (Note that the motor must be mounted rigidly somewhere on the cell wall if
the torque is to be applied.) The torque could be generated by the active translocation of ions through the
M ring to interact with charged groups on the surface of the S ring.' [Berg H., "How Bacteria Swim,"
Scientific American, 233:2, 1975, p.44] The bacterial flagellum and the rotary motor which drives it are not led
up to gradually through a series of intermediate structures and, as is so often the case, it is very hard to
envisage a hypothetical evolutionary sequence of similar rotors through which it might have evolved
gradually." (Denton M.J., "Evolution: A Theory in Crisis," Burnett Books: London, 1985, p.223)
6/11/2005
"The faith of nineteenth-century science was that every phenomenon can be exactly classified and
completely explained as an instance of some universal law of cause and effect; there are no unique events.
The conviction of nineteenth-century philosophy, whether empiricist or idealist, materialist, deist or
pantheist, was that the idea of supernatural interruptions of the course of the natural order was
unphilosophical and absurd. Both science and philosophy relied on evolutionary concepts for the
explanation of all things. Liberalism was an attempt to square Christianity with these anti-supernatural
axioms. ... It was in protest against this radical refashioning of the historic faith that 'Fundamentalism' arose.
The name developed out of the habit of referring to the central redemptive doctrines which Liberalism
rejected as 'the fundamentals'. This usage goes back to at least 1909. In that year there appeared the first of
twelve small miscellany volumes devoted to the exposition and defence of evangelical Christianity, entitled
The Fundamentals. ... Among the authors who contributed to these volumes were men of the calibre ....
Many of the articles were thoroughly scholarly pieces of work ... This use of 'the fundamentals' as a
conservative slogan was echoed in the Deliverance which the General Assembly of the Northern
Presbyterian Church issued in 1910, while the Fundamentals were in process of publication. This specified
five items as 'the fundamentals of faith and of evangelical Christianity': the inspiration and infallibility of
Scripture, the deity of Christ, His virgin birth and miracles, His penal death for our sins, and His physical
resurrection and personal return. From that time on, it seems to have become habitual for American
Evangelicals to refer to these articles as 'the fundamentals' simply. The General Assembly's list was adopted,
with minor variations and additions, as the doctrinal platform of later 'fundamentalist' organizations .... In
1920, a group of evangelical delegates to the Northern Baptist Convention held a preliminary meeting among
themselves 'to re-state, reaffirm and re-emphasize the fundamentals of our New Testament faith'; whereupon
an editorial in the Baptist Watchman-Examiner coined the title 'Fundamentalists' to denote 'those who mean
to do battle royal for the fundamentals'. The word was at once taken up by both sides as a title for the
defenders of the historic Christian position. The Concise Oxford Dictionary is thus right when it defines
'Fundamentalism' as: 'maintenance, in opposition to modernism, of traditional orthodox beliefs such as the
inerrancy of Scripture and literal acceptance of the creeds as fundamentals of protestant Christianity.' This is
what the term originally meant ..." (Packer J.I.*, "`Fundamentalism' and the Word of God," Inter-Varsity
Fellowship: London, 1958, pp.27-29)
6/11/2005
"The second point of view can be represented by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, an advisor to Pope John Paul
II. About ten years ago Cardinal Ratzinger wrote a little book entitled In the Beginning: A Catholic
Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall. In the book Cardinal Ratzinger wrote: `Let us go directly
to the question of evolution and its mechanisms. Microbiology and biochemistry have brought
revolutionary insights here.... It is the affair of the natural sciences to explain how the tree of life in particular
continues to grow and how new branches shoot out from it. This is not a matter for faith. But we must have
the audacity to say that the great projects of the living creation are not the products of chance and error....
[They] point to a creating Reason and show us a creating Intelligence, and they do so more luminously and
radiantly today than ever before. Thus we can say today with a new certitude and joyousness that the
human being is indeed a divine project, which only the creating Intelligence was strong and great and
audacious enough to conceive of. Human beings are not a mistake but something willed.' [Ratzinger J., `In
the Beginning: A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall,' Eerdmans: Grand Rapids MI,
1986, pp.54-56] I would like to make three points about the Cardinal's argument. First, unlike Professor
Dawkins, Ratzinger says that nature does appear to exhibit purpose and design. Secondly, to support the
argument he points to physical evidence-the `great products of the living creation', which `point to a
creating Reason'. Not to philosophical, or theological, or scriptural arguments, but to tangible structures.
Thirdly, Ratzinger cites the science of biochemistry-the study of the molecular foundation of life-as having
particular relevance to his conclusion." (Behe, M.J.*, "Evidence for Design at the Foundation of Life," in
Behe, M.J.*, Dembski W.A. & Meyer S.C., "Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe: Papers
Presented at a Conference Sponsored by the Wethersfield Institute New York City, September 25, 1999,"
Ignatius Press: San Francisco CA, 2000, pp.114-115)
6/11/2005
"Some animals occasionally behave altruistically toward others who are not relatives. A baboon may help an
unrelated companion in a fight, or a wolf may offer food to another wolf even though they share no kinship.
Such behavior can be adaptive if the aided individual returns the favor in the future. This sort of exchange
of aid is called reciprocal altruism and is commonly invoked to explain altruism in humans. Reciprocal
altruism is rare in other animals; it is limited largely to species with social groups stable enough that
individuals have many chances to exchange aid. It is likely that all behavior that seems altruistic actually
increases fitness in some way. Thus, some behavioral ecologists argue that true altruism never really occurs,
except, perhaps, in humans." (Campbell N.A., Reece J.B. & Mitchell L.G., "Biology," [1987],
Benjamin/Cummings: Menlo Park CA, Fifth edition, 1999, p.1078)
7/11/2005
"A warning: All through this book, I have tried to conform to the overriding rule that life be treated as a
natural process, its origin, evolution, and manifestations, up to and including the human species, as
governed by the same laws as nonliving processes. I exclude three `isms': vitalism, which views living
beings as made of matter animated by some vital spirit; finalism, or teleology, which assumes goal-directed
causes in biological processes; and creationism, which invokes a literal acceptance of the biblical account.
My approach demands that every step in the origin and development of life on Earth be explained in terms
of its antecedent and immediate physical-chemical causes, not of any outcome known to us today but
hidden in the future at the time the events took place." (de Duve C.R., "Vital Dust: Life as a Cosmic
Imperative," [1995], Basic Books: New York NY, 1998, reprint, pp.xiv-xv)
7/11/2005
"Another lesson of the Age of Chemistry is that life is the product of deterministic forces. Life was bound to
arise under the prevailing conditions, and it will arise similarly wherever and whenever the same conditions
obtain. There is hardly any room for "lucky accidents" in the gradual, multistep process whereby life
originated. This conclusion is compellingly enforced when one considers the development of life as a
chemical process." (de Duve C.R., "Vital Dust: Life as a Cosmic Imperative," [1995], Basic Books: New York
NY, 1998, reprint, p.xv)
8/11/2005
"The helical filaments of the thin flagella that propel bacteria do not wave or beat but instead rotate rigidly
like propellers! And they are driven by a reversible rotary motor at their base." (Berg H.C., "How Bacteria
Swim," Scientific American, Vol. 233, No. 2, August 1975, pp.36-44, p.36)
8/11/2005
"My reasoning may be wrong, but doubts about the feasibility of the wave-propagation mechanism led to
work that has helped to establish the validity of the alternative hypothesis: that the filaments rotate rigidly.
Most people have considered the later possibility to be inherently implausible. It requires the structural
equivalents a rotor, a stator and rotary bearings. Such components seem rather unbiological and are
unknown in higher organisms." (Berg H.C., "How Bacteria Swim," Scientific American, Vol. 233, No. 2,
August 1975, pp.36-44, pp.40-41)
8/11/2005
"ROTARY MOTOR, a model proposed by the author, is shown as it might appear in a gram-positive
bacterium. The flexible hook serves as a universal joint coupling the rod to the filament. The torque is
generated between the M ring, which is mounted rigidly on the rod and rotates freely in the cytoplasmic
membrane, and the S ring, which is mounted rigidly on the wall. Torque could be generated by the
translocating, through the cytoplasmic membrane and the M ring, of ions that interact with charges on the
surface of the S ring. The additional pair of rings in a gram-negative bacterium may serve as a bushing for
the rod's passage through the cell's more complex wall. The rings are about .02 micrometer in diameter."
(Berg H.C., "How Bacteria Swim," Scientific American, Vol. 233, No. 2, August 1975, pp.36-44, p.44)
8/11/2005
"The evidence at hand suggests a model for the rotary motor in which the torque is generated between two
elements in the basal body, the M ring and the S ring. The rod (which is connected to the filament by the
hook) is fixed rigidly to the M ring, which rotates freely in the cytoplasmic membrane. The S ring is mounted
on the cell wall. (Note that the motor must be mounted rigidly somewhere on the cell wall if the torque is to
be applied.) The torque could be generated by the active translocation of ions through the M ring to interact
with charged groups on the surface of the S ring. A number of membrane transport processes are known
that do not involve ATP. The direction of the rotation would be determined by the timing of the ion flow.
This would require some kind of molecular control, a control that could be modulated in turn by signals
generated by the chemoreceptors. The implausible, then, appears to be true. Bacteria swim by rotating their
flagella. They alter course by changing the direction of the rotation: cells with polar flagella back up; cells
with lateral flagella try a new direction at random. The probability of the occurrence of these events is biased
by sensory reception: the cells tend to move toward regions they find more favorable. The flagellar motor
and the sensory machinery may soon be understood in molecular detail." (Berg H.C., "How Bacteria Swim,"
Scientific American, Vol. 233, No. 2, August 1975, pp.36-44, p.44)
8/11/2005
"A novel synthesis of polypeptides has been reported (Katchalsky, Die Naturwiss, p215) which employs
mineral catalysis. An aqueous solution of energy-rich aminoacyl adenylates (rather than amino acids) is
used in the presence of certain layered clays such as those known as montmorillonites. Large amounts of
the energy-rich reactants are adsorbed both on the surface and between the layers of clay. The catalytic
effect of the clay may result primarily from the removal of reactants from the solution by adsorption between
the layers of clay. This technique has resulted in polypeptides of up to 60 units or more. Although
polymerization definitely occurs in these reactions, the energy-rich aminoacyl adenylate ... is of very
doubtful prebiotic significance .... Furthermore, the use of clay with free amino acids will not give a
successful synthesis of polypeptides. The energy-rich aminoacyl adenylates lower their chemical or
bonding energy as they polymerize, driving the reaction forward, and effectively doing the thermal entropy
work as well. The role of the clay is to concentrate the reactants and possibly to catalyze the reactions. Once
again, we are left with no apparent means to couple the energy flow, in this case in the form of prebiotically
questionable energy-rich precursors, to the configurational entropy work of selecting and sequencing
required in the formation of specified aperiodic polypeptides, or proteins." (Thaxton C.B.*, Bradley W.L.* &
Olsen R.L.*, "The Mystery of Life's Origin: Reassessing Current Theories", Lewis & Stanley: Dallas TX,
1992, p.161)
9/11/2005
"Biochemists take as a pretext the heterogeneous structure of DNA and the transcription of its information
by RNA to proclaim the dogma of DNA being not only the depository and sole distributor of the specific
information available to the living creature, but of its presiding over the very genesis of that information. ...
DNA does not manifest its properties, let us say its powers, unless the cytoplasm (conceived in its
totality) allows it to do so. ... Through the life cycle from the ovum to the adult animal, via the genesis of
the gametes and fertilization, DNA retains its structure: this is undeniable, but its activation depends on the
circumambient cytoplasm. ... The organism is a whole. DNA alone can do nothing." (Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution
of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," Academic Press: New York NY, 1977,
pp.218,220. Emphasis original)
9/11/2005
"Information forms and animates the living organism. Evolution is, in the end, the process by which the
creature modifies its information and acquires other information." (Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of Living
Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," Academic Press: New York NY, 1977, p.223)
9/11/2005
"Mutation is an accident or disease having only a remote bearing on the evolutionary process; this is
proved by the independence of mutagenesis with respect to evolution.." (Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of Living
Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," Academic Press: New York NY, 1977, p.223)
9/11/2005
"Now, we know, and must bear in mind, that as the world of living beings has grown older, evolution has
never ceased to dwindle. Why are evolutionary reactions becoming rarer? In our present state of
knowledge, it is futile to ask. When molecular biology has increased in accuracy and refinement we may be
able to find the answer.." (Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of
Transformation," Academic Press: New York NY, 1977, p.223)
11/11/2005
"The fallacy of mob appeal is an argument in which an appeal is made to emotions, especially to powerful
feelings that can sway people in large crowds. Also called appeal to the masses, [Its Latin name is
argumentum ad populum, literally, "appeal to the people." Like our word popular, the term
populum carries a certain connotation of mass acceptance without thoughtful consideration.] this
fallacy invites people's unthinking acceptance of ideas which are presented in a strong, theatrical manner.
Mob appeals are often said to appeal to our lowest instincts, including violence. The language of such
fallacious appeals tends to be strongly biased, making use of many of the linguistic fallacies we have
examined previously in this book. Indeed, most instances of mob appeal incorporate other fallacies, melding
them together into an argument that rests primarily on appeal to an emotional, rather than a reasoned,
response. In so doing, such arguments commit a fallacy of irrelevance because they fail to address the point
at issue, choosing instead to steer us toward a conclusion by means of passion rather than reason." (Engel
S.M., "With Good Reason: An Introduction to Informal Fallacies," St. Martin's Press: New York NY, Fourth
edition, 1990, p.197)
11/11/2005
"However, the most interesting discoveries were made when I began to delve into the history of
evolutionary thought. First, I came to see what I should have realised at the outset, namely, that it is
Lamarck, and not Darwin, who is the founder of the theory of evolution. Second, I found that the
macromutation theory is older than Darwinism, if not than the micromutation theory, and that it has had
supporters, in varying numbers, for about one-and-a-half centuries. Third, I came to understand that in the
last century, hardly anybody, not even Darwin himself, believed that natural selection can accomplish all the
events necessary for the occurrence of organic evolution. Fourth, I discovered that the history of
evolutionary thought, as it is told today, contains a large number of mistakes and misrepresentations - to
express it fairly mildly - all of them aimed at adulating Darwin and debunking his opponents." (Lovtrup S.,
"Darwinism: The Refutation of a Myth," Croom Helm: London, 1987, pp.2-3)
11/11/2005
"Today it is still commonly claimed that Darwin's natural selection is the evolutionary mechanism par
excellence. However, this assertion is not based on any factual evidence, for nobody has ever
demonstrated that natural selection can bring about anything but events that are trivial from an evolutionary
perspective. And this brings me to the fifth point. Since the publication of On the Origin of Species,
and particularly since the Second World War, a lot of empirical observations have been made which may be
used to test the evolutionary theories. And the remarkable result is that, just as Darwin found one hundred
years ago, the facts obstinately corroborate the macromutation theory and falsify the micromutation
theory." (Lovtrup S., "Darwinism: The Refutation of a Myth," Croom Helm: London, 1987, p.3)
11/11/2005
"There are two ways, fundamentally antithetic, to account for the occurrence of life on our planet. It may be
the creation of God or some other supernatural power, or it may have arisen spontaneously in some
relatively simple form of matter, being subsequently perfected in a process of organic evolution." (Lovtrup
S., "Darwinism: The Refutation of a Myth," Croom Helm: London, 1987, p.5)
11/11/2005
"Darwin's book [On the Origin of Species in 1859] presented a theory on the mechanism of
evolution, in Darwin's opinion the only relevant kind of evolutionary theory. Darwin reluctantly admitted the
existence of other mechanisms of evolution, but he was convinced that natural selection is the most
important evolutionary agent. On this point he had little company; friends and foes alike rejected his
theory." (Lovtrup S., "Darwinism: The Refutation of a Myth," Croom Helm: London, 1987, p.5. Emphasis
original)
11/11/2005
"Whether we trace back its history two millennia or two centuries, it will turn out that the notion of
`evolution' was not Lamarck's creation. However, from the preceding discussion it appears that the
authorities quoted at the head of the last section of this chapter are right: the theory on the reality of
evolution, which today goes under the name of Darwinism, was first stated by Lamarck and
ought to be called `Lamarckism', or still better Lamarck's first theory on evolution. ...
We have seen that it follows from the theory on the reality of evolution that a classification of living
organisms with respect to their phylogenetical affinities will depict the course of evolution. This was clearly
realised by Lamarck who wrote: `The aim of a general arrangement of animals is not only to possess a
convenient list for consulting, but it is more particularly to have an order in that list which represents as
nearly as possible the actual order followed by nature in the production of animals; an order
conspicuously indicated by the affinities which she has set between them' [Lamarck J.B., "Philosophie
Zoologique," J. Cramer: Weinheim, Germany, 1960, Two volumes in one, p.56]" (Lovtrup S., "Darwinism: The
Refutation of a Myth," Croom Helm: London, 1987, pp.42-43. Emphasis original)
11/11/2005
"Lamarck was the first man whose conclusions on the subject excited much attention. This justly celebrated
naturalist first published his views in 1801; he much enlarged them in 1809 in his Philosophie
Zoologique, and subsequently, in 1815, in the Introduction to his Hist. Nat. des Animaux sans
Vertebres. In these works he upholds the doctrine that all species, including man, are descended from
other species. He first did the eminent service of arousing attention to the probability of all change in the
organic, as well as in the inorganic world, being the result of law, and not of miraculous interposition."
(Darwin C.R., "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection," [1872], 6th Edition, J.M. Dent & Sons:
London, 1928, reprint, pp.7-8)
11/11/2005
"It is for his Philosophie zoologique published in 1809 that Lamarck is remembered in the history of
science. Confronted with the task of classifying the collections in the Paris Museum of Natural History, he
experienced such difficulty in distinguishing between species and varieties of species that he concluded
that there was no basic difference between them. He argued that if enough closely related species were
studied together, differences between them could no longer be made out and they merged into one another.
In fact this is not the case, because the barrier between species is always discernible even if very difficult to
detect, but the appearance that species graded into one another led Lamarck to put forward a full theory of
`transformism' or evolution, which he was the first to do, invoking descent of species during long periods of
time from other species, so that the Animal Kingdom could be represented by a genealogy of branching
lines, the last branch being that of man. Fossil organisms he thought had not become extinct but had been
transmuted into their living descendants. (de Beer G., "Charles Darwin: Evolution by Natural Selection",
Nelson: London, 1963, pp.5-6)
13/11/2005
"In the evolutionary pattern of thought there is no longer either need or room for the supernatural. The earth
was not created: it evolved. So did all the animals and plants that inhabit it, including our human selves,
mind and soul as well as brain and body. So did religion." (Huxley J., "The Humanist Frame", in "Essays of a
Humanist," [1964], Penguin Books: Harmondsworth, Middlesex UK, 1969, reprint, pp.82-83)
13/11/2005
"Evolutionary man can no longer take refuge from his loneliness by creeping for shelter into the arms of a
divinized father-figure whom he has himself created, nor escape from the responsibility of making decisions
by sheltering under the umbrella of Divine Authority, nor absolve himself from the hard task of meeting his
present problems and planning his future by relying on the will of an omniscient but unfortunately
inscrutable Providence." (Huxley J., "The Humanist Frame", in "Essays of a Humanist," [1964], Penguin
Books: Harmondsworth, Middlesex UK, 1969, reprint, p.83)
13/11/2005
"In the evolutionary pattern of thought there is no longer either need or room for the supernatural. The earth
was not created, it evolved. So did all the animals and plants that inhabit it, including our human selves,
mind and soul as well as brain and body. So did religion." (Huxley J.S., "The Evolutionary Vision," in Tax S.
& Callender C., eds., "Evolution After Darwin: Issues in Evolution," University of Chicago Press: Chicago
IL, Vol. III, 1960, pp.252-253)
13/11/2005
"Evolutionary man can no longer take refuge from his loneliness in the arms of a divinized father-figure
whom he has himself created, nor escape from the responsibility of making decisions by sheltering under the
umbrella of Divine Authority, nor absolve himself from the hard task of meeting his present problems and
planning his future by relying on the will of an omniscient, but unfortunately inscrutable, Providence."
(Huxley J.S., "The Evolutionary Vision," in Tax S. & Callender C., eds., "Evolution After Darwin: Issues in
Evolution," University of Chicago Press: Chicago IL, Vol. III, 1960, p.253)
13/11/2005
"The Christian God isn't a deist one; neither is Allah, or the God of Abraham. Any God worthy of the name
has to be capable of miracles, and each of the great Western religions attributes a number of very specific
miracles to their conception of God. What can science say about a miracle? Nothing. By definition, the
miraculous is beyond explanation, beyond our understanding, beyond science. This does not mean that
miracles do not occur. A key doctrine in my own faith is that Jesus was born of a virgin, even though it
makes no scientific sense-there is the matter of Jesus's Y-chromosome to account for. But that is the point.
miracles, by definition, do not have to make scientific sense. They are specific acts of God, designed in most
cases to get a message across. Their very rarity is what makes them remarkable." (Miller K.R., "Finding
Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution," [1999], HarperCollins:
New York NY, 2000, reprint, pp.239-240)
13/11/2005
"Many scientists assume that the Scottish philosopher David Hume dealt the notion of miracles a
deathblow in the 18th century when he pointed out that the witnesses to claimed miracles could be self-
deluded, stories were often exaggerated and rival religions were claiming contradictory miracles. There is
truth in all these points. But Hume's core argument that `a miracle is a violation of the laws of nature' has not
fared so well with the passage of time. Hume thought that, however much evidence there might be, a miracle
must be mistaken, because these laws could not be violated. There are three problems with his thesis. First,
if you start with the dogma that `miracles are impossible' then clearly they are impossible. This is a
statement, not an argument. Second, our understanding of the `laws of nature' has changed considerably
since the 18th century, when nature was seen as `obeying' scientific laws in the way that we obey traffic
regulations. In contrast, today's notion of a scientific law is more like a handy summary of highly
reproducible results, constructed by the scientific community. Third, Hume's approach looks closed-minded.
Scientists are supposed to be open to the evidence, wherever it leads, rather than pretending they already
know the answer. Hume's stance suggests that, even if the evidence for something is overwhelming, you
still shouldn't believe it. That jars." (Alexander D., "Are miracles really against the laws of nature?," Daily
Telegraph, 21 November 2001.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2001/11/21/ecfmira21.xml)
13/11/2005
"Miracles aside, the Virgin Birth raises another issue dear to the hearts of scientists: why did sexual
procreation evolve at all? Our most primitive ancestors emerged some 3,850 million years ago, but sex itself
began only about 1,000 million years ago. Before then, all creatures presumably existed as clones. In his
book The Evolution of Sex, John Maynard Smith of Sussex University maintains that there is a gap in
our basic understanding of why sex evolved. `I have been wondering about this for fifty years but I don't
claim to have solved the problem,' he told me. `The problem has been that, in the short run, abandoning sex
would be an enormous advantage, at least for females.' Calculation illuminates the joys of reproducing
without sex: sexually reproducing females on average produce one female offspring, while asexually
reproducing ones, who rely on virgin births, will produce two. Thus, among a colony of asexually and
sexually reproducing individuals, the former would quickly dominate. So why is it that females go through all
the fuss and bother of finding a mate and then dilute their genes with those of a male in any resulting
offspring?" (Highfield R., "Can Reindeer Fly?: The Science of Christmas," [1998], Weidenfeld & Nicolson:
London, 2001, pp.34-35)
13/11/2005
"Leaving aside the question of illegitimacy, raised in Matthew 1:19 (`Then Joseph her husband, being just a
man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily ...'), virgin humans
simply do not have babies. Scientists, however, are not content to accept the lack of evidence of virgin
births in humans, and seek underlying factors to explain why women are incapable of such births. The laws
of nature do not forbid virgin births: eggs can develop of their own accord, for example, in bees or aphids,
by a process called parthenogenesis. This is the case for around one in every 1,000 species. However, from
a scientific viewpoint, if a virgin birth could have occurred, Jesus should have been a girl, not a boy. The
key limitation governing virgin births is that the genetic recipe for the offspring must, of course, come from
the mother alone: in the case of Jesus, all his genes must have come from Mary. Under normal circumstances
she would only have the genetic wherewithal - in humans, a bundle of genes called the X-chromosome - to
make a female. For Mary to have given birth to a boy by parthenogenesis, she would also have had to have
a Y-chromosome, a package of genes that separates the girls from the boys. Everyday sex turns the gender
of a child into a lottery by mixing the chromosomes of each parent. This lottery takes place when egg greets
sperm. An egg contains the mother's genetic instructions and an X-chromosome. Girls occur when the
sperm adds an X-chromosome to the X already present in the egg, and boys when the sperm adds a Y-
chromosome to the X-chromosome in the egg. We can better under-stand why boys are conceived by
studying the genetic cargo of the Y-chromosome. All chromosomes, X or Y, contain a double helix of the
chemical DNA, tightly twisted into coils within coils. This chemical medium is the genetic 'message', spelling
out genes by different sequences of four chemical units or `letters'. For the purposes of the Virgin Birth, the
most relevant gene is one on the Y-chromosome called SRY. This triggers the construction of male sex
organs and so on. If Mary had passed on a Y-chromosome, it suggests that she herself carried a working Y-
chromosome. This creates difficulties for the scientist, since it would have led to her possessing male
characteristics as well as being sterile. Nonetheless, the above discussion does admit the possibility that a
baby girl could result from a virgin birth." (Highfield R., "Can Reindeer Fly?: The Science of Christmas,"
[1998], Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London, 2001, pp.36-38)
13/11/2005
"Sometimes an unfertilized human egg will begin dividing. This self-activated `embryo' will create
rudimentary bone and nerve, but seems unable to make some tissues, such as skeletal muscle, preventing
further development. The end product is a strange form of tumour, a blend of hair and teeth known as a
derrnoid cyst, or teratoma. Because human parthenogenetic development never gets further than this, it
suggests that barriers to development without a father were set early in mammalian evolution. The most
profound of all has only recently been recognized: it is a phenomenon called imprinting. In addition to the X-
and Y-chromosomes that distinguish the sexes, there are twenty-two pairs of other chromosomes in humans,
each carrying around 30,000 genes, each of which contributes a protein to the recipe of a human being. The
process of imprinting ensures that the developing embryo relies on genes from both the mother and the
father. In the early eighties scientists realized that genes from the mother's chromosomes do some jobs,
while genes from the father's perform others. ... Imprinted genes carry a biochemical label that reveals their
parental origin and determines whether or not they are active inside the cells of the offspring. One is
suppressed and inactive while the other is fully functional, depending on the parent who donated them.
Jesus would have found it tricky to make do with one parent's genes. Imprinted paternal genes have been
found to be responsible for the development of the placenta, while imprinted maternal genes are involved in
the growth of the embryo. ... imprinting would have made it tricky for Mary alone to have equipped baby
Jesus with all the necessary genetic machinery. Complete failure of imprinting, and thus of any co-operation
between maternal and paternal genetic instructions, seems likely to be lethal: as far as we know, no mammal
conceived by parthenogenesis has ever been born in the wild (though some of these imprinting rules may
have been broken by the cloning methods used to make Dolly the sheep)." (Highfield R., "Can Reindeer
Fly?: The Science of Christmas," [1998], Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London, 2001, pp.39-40. Emphasis original)
14/11/2005
"THE Virgin Birth of Jesus has become more miraculous than ever, thanks to the advances in our
understanding of what turns a fertilised egg into a baby. ... Recent research reveals that every birth is the
culmination of a genetic battle. Hostilities are between genes from the mother and those from the father. You
might think that if one army deserted the battlefield in the womb, as in a virgin birth, the other army would
rejoice in victory. But it turns out that babies need the competition and co-operation of both armies. For
millions of years, maternal and paternal genes have co-operated in development to produce offspring, while
also vying to get the upper hand. Remove one set, however, and the pregnancy halts or leads to an
abnormal birth: women need men to reproduce, and vice versa. We inherit two copies of each gene, one from
each parent, but for some genes we use the copy from only one parent. Scientists now realise that one
reason for this is imprinting, a mechanism that can switch genes on and off, depending on whether they
come from the mother or father. Imprinting is not universal, because many creatures reproduce without sex.
If females alone produce offspring, the process is called parthenogenesis and the offspring is female. If
males do it, it is called androgenesis. (Here, the sharp-eyed reader will spot one scientific issue regarding the
Virgin Birth: Jesus should have been female, discussed below.) Sexless reproduction abounds. Examples
range from the timber rattlesnake to species of the Basilisk lizard, sometimes called the "Jesus Christ lizard"
for its ability to walk on water. Even the turkey can do it. But humans have nothing to do with
parthenogenesis and androgenesis. The reason is imprinting, which turns on certain genes in sperm but not
in eggs, and vice versa. "Imprinting is a very severe block," commented one pioneer in the field, Prof Azim
Surani of the Wellcome and Cancer Research Campaign Institute of Developmental Biology and Cancer
Research in Cambridge. Prof Surani reasoned that organisms with a gift for parthenogenesis should lack
imprinted genes. Sure enough, creatures such as snakes and reptiles do not use imprinting. Among
vertebrates, imprinting is exclusive to mammals such as humans and occurs when a gene is chemically
modified by a process called methylation. Once methylated, the gene is silent. At least 40 genes with diverse
functions during development are thought to be regulated this way. When imprinting goes awry the effects
are serious. Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes, marked by mental retardation and a host of problems,
occur when a baby inherits two maternal copies of chromosome 15, or two paternal copies, respectively. In
each case, the baby will have copies of a key gene on chromosome 15, but they have come from the mother
when they should be from the father, or vice versa. Imprinting prevents them from working. This same
genetic division of labour almost certainly thwarts virgin births. " (Highfield R., "An
immaculate misconception," Daily Telegraph, 21 November 2001)
14/11/2005
"The question, then, does not concern the historicity of this miracle or that; it concerns the historicity of all
miracles. That fact is often obscured, and the obscuration of it often introduces an element of something like
disingenuousness into the advocacy of the liberal cause. The liberal preacher singles out some one miracle
and discusses that as though it were the only point at issue. The miracle which is usually singled out is the
Virgin Birth. The liberal preacher insists on the possibility of believing in Christ no matter which view be
adopted as to the manner of His entrance into the world. Is not the Person the same no mutter how He was
born? The impression is thus produced upon the plain man that the preacher is accepting the main outlines
of the New Testament account of Jesus, but merely has difficulties with this particular element in the
account. But such an impression is radically false. It is true that some men have denied the Virgin Birth and
yet have accepted the New Testament account of Jesus as a supernatural Person. But such men are
exceedingly few and far between. It might be difficult to find a single one of any prominence living to-day,
so profoundly and so obviously congruous is the Virgin Birth with the whole New Testament presentation
of Christ. The overwhelming majority of those who reject the Virgin Birth reject also the whole supernatural
content of the New Testament ... The issue does not concern individual miracles, even so important a
miracle as the Virgin Birth. It really concerns all miracles. " (Machen J.G.*, "Christianity and Liberalism,"
[1923], Victory Press: London, 1968, reprint, pp.108-109)
14/11/2005
"[Matthew 1:22-23] "... Luke 1:31 probably alludes to the same verse, Isaiah 7:14, indicating that it was not
only Matthew who saw its relevance to the birth of Jesus; by the middle of the second century (Justin) it
was an important Christian weapon in defence of the virgin birth tradition. But its relevance is often
disputed on two grounds. First, it is argued that Matthew depends on the Greek word parthenos
(virgin), whereas the Hebrew 'alma means only 'young woman'. 'Alma is in fact used only
seven times in the Old Testament, of girls or young women, at least two of whom were unmarried (Gn. 24:43;
Ex. 2:8). It is not used elsewhere in connection with childbirth (or even marriage), so that its use in Isaiah
7:14 is remarkable, when 'issa ('woman', 'wife') would have been the normal term. It was perhaps this
indication that Isaiah was thinking of a birth outside the normal pattern of childbirth within marriage which
led the LXX to use parthenos. It is a reasonable, if not a necessary, translation. The second
objection is that Isaiah 7:14 promises a sign specifically referring to the immediate historical situation in the
reign of Ahaz, not to the distant (Messianic) future. The immediate historical reference is clear in vv. 14-17,
but it is also clear from the wider context that the prophet's thought is, as often in Old Testament prophecy,
not confined to that primary reference. The reintroduction of 'Immanuel' in Isaiah 8:8, 10, and the recurrent
theme of a child to be born as deliverer (9:6-7; 11:1ff.), indicate that 7:14 is to be seen as preparing the way
for a developing Messianic theme in this section of Isaiah. Clearly the LXX translators, with their striking
use of parthenos, understood it to refer to more than an ordinary birth, and the choice of
'alma in the Hebrew as well as the symbolic name 'Immanuel' suggest that they were right.'" (France
R.T.*, "Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary," Inter-Varsity Press: Leicester UK, 1985, p.79. Emphasis
original)
14/11/2005
"But according to Darwinian doctrine and Crick's central dogma, DNA is not only the depository and
distributor of the information but its sole creator. I do not believe this to be true. Left to itself, DNA
undergoes, during its replications in the germinal cells, the mutations so often referred to in the body of this
book. But error modifies what already exists, it does not create it. A library does not fabricate information, it
receives it from without, classifies and stores it. The medieval copyists made mistakes that altered, vitiated
the texts they were supposed to reproduce. Who dares assert that their errors are the work itself?" (Grasse
P.-P., "Evolution of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," [1973], Academic
Press: New York NY, 1977, p.224. Emphasis original)
14/11/2005
"The whole range of mutations, or mutational spectrum, of a species has nothing to do with
evolution. The "jordanons" (mutants) of whitlow grass (Erophila verna), the wild pansy (Viola
tricolor), plantains (Plantago), candytuft (Iberis), which constitute well-catalogued and
rich collections, are irrefutable proof of this: they are not derived from one another, and are indefinitely
stable. They display the species with all its collection of invariant variants, translating, so to speak,
oscillations in the polymorphy of a specific unit about the equilibrium state of a genome in its environment.
Thus, despite their innumerable mutations, Erophila verna, Viola tricolor, and the rest do not
evolve. This is a fact." (Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of
Transformation," [1973], Academic Press: New York NY, 1977, p.225. Emphasis original)
14/11/2005
"The catalogue of breeds of dogs, as of any other domestic animal, is simply the mutational spectrum of the
species, sifted by artificial selection. The same can be said of the list of varieties of any cultivated plant.
Nothing of all this constitutes evolution." (Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New
Theory of Transformation," [1973], Academic Press: New York NY, 1977, p.225)
14/11/2005
"Any acquisition of new information requires a structural change, something added. It is not at all a matter
of altering or suppressing one or more preexisting units, but of adding more. The computer is limited
in its operations by the program controlling it and the units of information fed into it. To enlarge its
possibilities, its contents have to be enriched. What is new comes from outside." (Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution
of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," [1973], Academic Press: New York NY,
1977, p.225. Emphasis original)
14/11/2005
"In biology argument by analogy endangers interpretation, for it applies our Aristotelian logic to living
phenomena; as I have not failed to point out in earlier chapters, cybernetics teaches us what is by no means
a negligible fact-that certain control models have to be used both for the natural self-regulating systems
formed by living things and for inanimate physical or physicochemical systems. The cybernetic model, of
which philosophy has not yet fully taken advantage, is applicable to all kinds of biological systems, whether
relating to structure or to function-both being closely interdependent. An engineer who knows no biology
often builds a machine based on principles already applied in living things. Such convergence indicates that
there are not so many different routes to reach a given end. Sometimes there is only one." (Grassé, P.-P.,
"Evolution of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," [1973], Academic Press:
New York NY, 1977, p.225)
15/11/2005
"Genetics textbooks are extremely discrete [discreet?] about the formation of new genes. They ignore this
problem, of primordial importance in any explanation of evolution. ... No formation of new genes has been
observed by any biologist, yet without it evolution becomes inexplicable ... a gene ... formed can function
only with the aid of a specific enzyme that opens out the DNA molecule at its level and enables synthesis of
the message-bearing RNA. Such a requirement diminishes the chances of a random successful synthesis
since formation of the enzyme is just as unlikely as that of the gene. In order to create, evolution has to win
not just on one count, but on two or even three. In theory this is possible, but a low probability is not far
from zero. Besides, is it not presumptuous to try to explain a phenomenon that has held to a precisely
plotted course for thousands of years, by a mechanism based on the most slender expectation of success?"
(Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," [1973],
Academic Press: New York NY, 1977, pp.227-229)
15/11/2005
"Mindful of the fact that the genesis of mammals and their orders has been a slow and steady climb toward
strongly marked idiomorphons, I reject the overly easy explanation of the random acquisition of new genes.
The biochemical and molecular mechanism set in motion by the joint formation of a gene and the enzyme
that will unlock the corresponding DNA segment cannot be aleatory in its essence. It is likely that one of the
most potent internal factors in evolution concerns the formation of new genes and its control system."
(Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," [1973],
Academic Press: New York NY, 1977, p.230)
15/11/2005
"The dependence of DNA on genic activators, nucleotide producers, and probably also RNA producers,
originally implies a dual creation of a gene plus its activator. The gene and its activator(s) contained in the
nuclear sap or the cytoplasm must have been first simultaneously or consecutively obtained. Here again we
see the difference between mutation and innovation. In the former the gene changes, and the
corresponding activator is always present in the cytoplasm; the gene's expressivity is constant. In
the latter it is likely possible, or at any rate, that the birth of the new gene is not synchronous with the
genesis of its activators. Lacking an activator for the gene, innovation cannot occur." (Grassé, P.-P.,
"Evolution of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," [1973], Academic Press:
New York NY, 1977, p.237. Emphasis original)
15/11/2005
"The starting point of innovation is the acquisition of new genes either by addition of nucleotide sequences
(codons) or by overprinting, as we imagine it to take place. In the second eventuality, creation lies in the
power to recognize the enzyme activating a new sequence of codons included in the DNA molecule."
(Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," [1973],
Academic Press: New York NY, 1977, pp.243-244)
15/11/2005
"In summary, the creative evolutionary process, conceived according to the data of molecular biology,
involves three events: 1. Formation of a new meaningful sequence of codons 2. Formation of a specific
enzyme to activate the new gene 3. Adequate identification of the enzyme depending upon cellular
differentiation. ... But nothing of all this accounts for the orientation of evolution or the finality of the
information." (Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation,"
[1973], Academic Press: New York NY, 1977, p.244)
15/11/2005
"Let us end our survey by drawing up a balance sheet. While still unsatisfactory, it has some favorable
aspects, and dispels of one or two interpretations often presented as certainties. 1. Evolution, a guided
phenomenon, is not sustained merely by random hereditary variations, sorted out by a selection operating
for the good of a population. 2. Evolution demands the acquisition over time, as organisms grow more
complex, of novelties whose information is inserted into the DNA strands in the form of new genes. 3. The
supply of information and the subsequent creation of genes are profoundly separate mechanisms from the
mutagenesis that produces alleles. 4. Paleontology reveals that lines of descent from a common stock
(parent form) all show, although to unequal extents, the same propensity to achieve a given form, type, or
idiomorphon. 5. Evolution in its essentials depends upon work effected at the level of infrastructures and
triggered by internal and external factors, and having the effect of producing certain enzymes, probably
resembling polymerases, which synthesize a new DNA and new genes by means of free nucleotides in the
nuclear sap or the cytoplasm. We emphasize that the inclusion of information in the genetic code is a
separate operation from its acquisition; it follows the acquisition and does not take place simultaneously
with it, as does mutation. The elaboration of the information may be slow and take a great many generations;
paleontology teaches us that in reality this is indeed so. Thus, DNA records and stabilizes evolution, but
does not create it. 6. Mutagenesis corresponding to copying errors in the DNA is used by the organism
secondarily to attain the genotype best adapted to environmental conditions. It is the main cause of
differences between individuals, races, and species. If evolution takes place without the acquisition of new
genes, we must assume that the first living creature contained in itself enough genes to engender, by
mutation of them, all past, present, and future faunas and floras. This is absurd. " (Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution
of Living Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," [1973], Academic Press: New York NY,
1977, pp.245-246)
15/11/2005
"Any system that purports to account for evolution must invoke a mechanism not mutational and
aleatory. This is indeed what the reformist Darwinians and Lamarckian biologists realize, hence their
recourse to internal factors. The united efforts of paleontology and molecular biology, the latter stripped of
its dogmas, should lead to the discovery of the exact mechanism of evolution, possibly without revealing to
us the causes of the orientations of lineages, of the finalities of structures, of living functions, and of cycles.
Perhaps in this area biology can go no farther: the rest is metaphysics." (Grassé, P.-P., "Evolution of Living
Organisms: Evidence for a New Theory of Transformation," [1973], Academic Press: New York NY, 1977,
p.246. Emphasis original)
17/11/2005
"To reckon up a few of the plainest of these parts, and of their offices, all tending to one result:-we see a
cylindrical box containing a coiled elastic spring, which, by its endeavour to relax itself, turns round the box.
We next observe a flexible chain (artificially wrought for the sake of flexure) communicating the action of the
spring from the box to the fusee. We then find a series of wheels, the teeth of which, catch in, and apply to,
each other, conducting the motion from the fusee to the balance, and from the balance to the pointer; and at
the same time, by the size and shape of those wheels, so regulating that motion, as to terminate in causing
an index, by an equable and measured progression, to pass over a given space in a given time. We take
notice that the wheels are made of brass, in order to keep them from rust; the springs of steel, no other metal
being. so elastic; that over the face of the watch there is placed a glass, a material) employed in no other part
of the work, but, in the room of which, if there had been any other than a transparent substance, the hour
could not be seen without opening the case. This mechanism being observed (it requires indeed an
examination of the instrument, and perhaps some previous knowledge of the subject, to perceive and
understand it but being once, as we have said, observed and understood), the inference, we think, is
inevitable; that the watch must have had a maker; that there must have existed, at some time and at some
place or other, an artificer or artificers, who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer;
who comprehended its construction and designed its use." (Paley W.*, "Natural Theology: or, Evidences of
the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature," [1802], St. Thomas
Press: Houston TX, 1972, reprint, pp.2-3)
17/11/2005
"If the universe is `divine', then God can only be seen in the laws and mechanics which he has presumably
created. These deductions from scientific observation (quantifiable and repeatable demonstration) were held
in the eighteenth century to have brought clarity to a confused world. They are the origins of `Deism'.
`Deism' holds that there is a God, He is a `great architect', a designer, a mechanician. Everything can be
shown as a mechanism. `God' has long ago `flicked a switch' and set the whole celestial machine in motion,
sitting back to watch the process or perhaps He has departed to work on other projects. This view of God as
`creator' or in Isaac Newton's terms `Pantocrator' is remarkably akin to the early Gnostic's view of the
demiurge `whose word is Law'." (Churton T., "The Gnostics," [1987], Weidenfeld & Nicholson: London,
1987, reprint, pp.131-132)
17/11/2005
"But strictly speaking, gnosticism is a post-Christian phenomenon, and can only be understood in a
Christian context, for Christ is fundamental to the gnostic doctrine of salvation. It is the name given to the
beliefs and practices of a number of unorthodox sects that flourished in the Roman empire and western Asia
in the first few centuries of the Christian era. Its chief diffusion centre was Alexandria. The gnostics
salvaged much of the scrap from the wreckage of the pagan world around them, and added to it their own
versions of the Christianity that was being propagated in their midst. Many elements of this eclectic system
were borrowed indiscriminately, and taken together they represent an unassimilated miscellany of
conflicting opinions. Their ideas are set forth in a wide variety of texts propounding teachings that are not
consistently advanced. There can, therefore, be no synoptic presentation of gnosticism, and any attempt to
reconstruct it must be a patchwork made up of heterogeneous material culled from widely disparate sources.
The few issues on which most gnostic schools are in general agreement may be set forth in broad outline as
follows. Fundamental to all is belief in a transcendent God, merciful and good. He is God the Father, who
belongs to the upper world of light, but is utterly remote from our cosmos, and is indeed a stranger to it.
Associated with him is his Son, the Logos. The cosmos itself is intrinsically evil, and is not the work of the
true God, but of an opposing entity known as the demiurge, or `creator'." (Walker B., "Gnosticism: Its
History and Influence," The Aquarian Press: Wellingborough, Northamptonshire UK, 1983, pp.11-12)
18/11/2005
"Revolutions are messy affairs. They are also far from inevitable. For there to be a revolution, there must be
revolutionaries willing to put their necks on the line. They must be willing to take the abuse, ridicule and
intimidation that the ruling elite can and will inflict. The ruling elite in this case are the dogmatic Darwinists
and scientific naturalists. Rigidly committed to keeping intelligent causation outside the natural sciences,
they misrepresent intelligent design at every step, charging that its critique of Darwinism (and of naturalistic
theories of evolution more generally) is utterly misguided and groundless. Accordingly, the public is
informed that intelligent design is religion masquerading as science or `Creationism in a Cheap Tuxedo' (the
title of a newspaper headline). Moreover, the public is warned that intelligent design spells the death of
science and that to teach intelligent design is intellectually (if not morally) in the same boat as teaching that
the Holocaust didn't happen." (Dembski W.A.*, "The Design Revolution: Answering the
Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design," Intervarsity Press: Downers Grove IL, 2004, pp.19-20)
18/11/2005
"The acceptance of radical ideas that challenge the status quo (and Darwinism is as status quo as it gets)
typically runs through several stages. According to Arthur Schopenhauer, `All truth passes through three
stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.'
Similarly, evolutionist J.B.S. Haldane remarked, `Theories pass through four stages of acceptance: (i) this is
worthless nonsense; (ii) this is an interesting, but perverse, point of view; (iii) this is true, but quite
unimportant; (iv) I always said so.' I like to flesh out Haldane's four stages as follows. First, the idea is
regarded as preposterous: the ruling elite feel little threat and, as much as possible, ignore the challenge, but
when pressed they confidently assert that the idea is so absurd as not to merit consideration. Second, it is
regarded as pernicious: the ruling elite can no longer ignore the challenge and must take active measures to
suppress it, now loudly proclaiming that the idea is confused, irrational, reprehensible and even dangerous
(thus adding a moral dimension to the debate). Third, it is regarded as possible: the ruling elite reluctantly
admits that the idea is not entirely absurd but claims that at best it is of marginal interest; meanwhile, the
mainstream realizes that the idea has far-reaching consequences and is far more important than previously
recognized. And fourth, it is regarded as plausible: a new status quo has emerged, with the ruling elite taking
credit for the idea and the mainstream unable to imagine how people in times past could have thought
otherwise. With intelligent design, we are now at the transition from stage two to stage three-from
pernicious to possible. This is the hardest transition." (Dembski W.A.*, "The Design Revolution:
Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design," Intervarsity Press: Downers Grove IL, 2004,
p.20. http://www.designinference.com/documents/2002.07.des_rev.htm)
18/11/2005
"Many words have been written about the origins of things, but none have been strung together quite so
well as these of the first chapter of Genesis. A `biblical creationist' sees these words as having a literal truth
spoken by God, and says, `These words are enough to explain all things.' A `scientific creationist' respects
these words as the literal truth, but seeks to prove the account in Genesis by scientific evidence, and by
disproving evolution and attacking geology. Still, a `scientific creationist' would only ask for one change in
the text: that instead of `God' we read `Creator' throughout Genesis. These two sorts of creationists label a
`theistic evolutionist' any person who reads Genesis metaphorically, who believes God created heaven and
earth and all of life, but did so using His own natural laws. To such a person, the six days of creation square
well with the eons of geologic time in a definite, albeit loose, sense. A theistic evolutionist would leave the
text alone, but does not insist that it be taken literally. Lastly, we have the scientist who may have any
conceivable personal opinion about Genesis, but who by the rules of his profession must consider the
origin of all things natural solely in naturalistic terms. He must leave to religion all things supernatural.The
aim of this book is to look at the contemporary collisions between these various attitudes about Genesis-
collisions that have lately caused quite a stir. It takes the position that religion and science are two utterly
different domains of human experience, have little in common, and must respect each other if either is to
flourish. As a scientist, I am repelled by the pseudoscience of the scientific creationists. And I have
personally observed the passion and the anger some religious leaders have expressed when they confront
`scientific creationism.' It seems to me that the beauty and relevance of Genesis 1 are neither threatened nor
enhanced by modern science. Why can't we just let it be and get on with the job of understanding ourselves
and our world in our respective, time-honored ways?" (Eldredge N., "The Monkey Business: A Scientist
Looks at Creationism," Washington Square: New York NY, 1982, pp.9-10)
19/11/2005
"Johnson and the design theorists, however, introduce a unique twist to the notion of design. For them,
design carries an aspect of irreducible complexity. That is, they assert that certain biological structures are
fashioned in such a way that it was not possible for them to develop through a natural process like
evolution (whether teleological or dysteleological). To account for the existence of these irreducibly complex
structures, intervention from outside the normal operation of the universe is claimed to have occurred
during the history of life. As a result, the design theorists are progressive creationists. Such a position,
however, leaves itself open to criticism for being another version of the God-of-the-gaps. That is, once
natural processes are discovered to account for the creation of a once acclaimed irreducibly complex
structure, God's purported intervention is lost to the advancing light of scientific research. A serious
consequence of filling these gaps (once believed to be the sites of God's active hand) is that God appears to
be forced further and further into the dark recesses of our ignorance; and yes, the dangerous notion arises
that maybe human ignorance is in effect the 'creator,' a resident only of our minds."
(Lamoureux D.O., "Evangelicals Inheriting the Wind: The Phillip E. Johnson Phenomenon," in Johnson P.E.
& Lamoureux D.O., "Darwinism Defeated?: The Johnson-Lamoureux Debate on Biological Origins," Regent
College Publishing: Vancouver, Canada, 1999, p.19)
19/11/2005
"What exactly did God do (beyond establishing the laws at the beginning of time) and how do we know that
he actually did it? Lamoureux meets any attempt to explore that question scientifically with the standard
God-of-the-gaps objection, the trademark thought-stopper of the theistic naturalist. Assigning God a
detectable role in evolution is a fallacy, according to theistic naturalists, because science will eventually
produce a naturalistic explanation for whatever God is supposed to have done. To put the same point
another way, all statements about God's work in creation must be unfalsifiable, because otherwise they will
surely be falsified. For example, consider how Lamoureux dismisses the problem of irreducible complexity. A
biological system is irreducibly complex when its operation requires the cooperation of numerous parts,
none of which performs a useful function unless all are present. Such a system cannot be built up one part
at a time-unless some purposeful entity is guiding the process. An unintelligent mechanism like natural
selection could not create and preserve a presently useless part because of some long-term go