Rescuing Science from Materialist Philosophy

books:


	• The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism Michael J. Behe Free Press, 2007 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 92 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Rescuing Science from Materialist Philosophy

This book is an excellent follow up to Darwin's Black Box. Both books seek to rescue science from materialist philosophy and do an excellent job. It was interesting to read this book next to Anthony Flew's "There Is A God" (also published in 2007). Flew, a brilliant philosopher and longtime opponent of theism, has embraced the existence of God based on evidence similar to that which Behe presents for intelligent design. Behe's books have drawn the ire of the Darwinist establishment, but his arguments are well reasoned and his evidence is sound. Read his books and decide for yourself. He deserves to be read carefully and with an open mind. Written for the lay reader, anyone who remembers some of their high school biology will have little trouble benefiting from the book.

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Metaphorical Clarity

I've read about 20 ID books now, and the two best that I have read are both by Behe. Not to say that several others weren't very good, but Black Box and now Edge stand as ID pillars.

A big part of writing scientific works for mass consumption, whether you're Hawking writing about black holes or John Muir writing about botany, is making them understandable to a non-expert without allowing them to lose their academic edge. One of Behe's strengths is his ability to make use of examples and allegories (the irreducibly complex mousetrap of Black Box comes to mind) to allow the reader to convert scientific jargon into concrete epiphanies. An odd phrase I'll admit, but you get my drift. The analogies are superb. And while analogies don't in and of themselves prove (or disprove) anything, they do clarify and hopefully illuminate, and Behe's do this in spades.

Another quality Behe has is the ability to synthesize cutting edge science and sense the ramifications that a lot of others either miss or at least do not write about. His central theme, that of discovering the limits of Darwinian Evolution would have been a Herculean if not impossible task a few years ago, but Behe has borrowed from the recent research of HIV, for example, and combined it with years of study of malaria to assimilate a very cogent and persuasive argument defining an upper boundary for Darwinian evolution.

Finally Behe is able to do something that is hard to describe, and hard for writers on either side of the debate to do. It reminds me a bit of C.S. Lewis, in that he has an ability to crystalize an idea that heretofore had been murky, and in such a manner that the reader almost feels that same joy of discovery the author must've felt. If that sounds a bit overblown, let me rein it in by just saying he's very good at explaining things.

He also takes opportunity to dispute some of his critics in this book, but he is not condescending or particularly argumentative, allowing his interpretations to speak for themselves.

I know for most people their evaluation of this book will be heavily influenced by their world-view, such is human nature- but judged strictly on how well it makes its case and how well it is written, regardless of whether or not you feel those conclusions strictly justified, it is hard to imagine giving this book any less than five stars and regarding it in any other fashion as a pivotal work in the study of design. And if that previous sentence wasn't long enough for you then you're awfully hard to please.

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Persuasive Evidence for Intelligent Design

This book was at times a challenge because Behe goes into minute and gory detail into the workings of cells, genes, proteins, amino acids, etc., something that I'd thought I'd never deal with again after dropping pre-med classes in college. Nevertheless, it is important for the reader to patiently wade though all the details because it is the complexity of the details that makes the case for intelligent design.

Behe provides persuasive evidence that random mutation and natural selection, the keystones of Darwin's theory of evolution, cannot logically, statistically or biologically be responsible for the vastly complex systems that scientists are more and more discovering make up the majority of life. Behe demostrates how, at most,random mutation and natural selection can provide relief for entities in dire situations, like the sickel cell that helped ward off malaria, or perhaps be responsbile for more cosmetic changes, like the color of butterfly wings, but that otherwise can not build new complex systems.

Darwinists and Creationists will both have a bone to pick with Behe, for obvious reasons for the former, and for the latter, because he gives evidence of common descent -i.e. that we all came from some common ancestor. Religious people should not be afraid to read the book, however. The case is convincing for intelligent design. Behe does not then take the next step and make a case for who the designer is, although he does mention that he believes in the traditional Roman Catholic explanation.

Read this book and you will be left with a sense of awe at how complex and intricate life really is.

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