Author: Michael Behe | Page 3

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Author
Michael Behe

Date
December 23, 2020

Tagged
amino acids, antibiotic resistance, blood clotting, blood clotting cascade, cells, chloroquine resistance, Darwin’s Black Box, Darwinism, DNA, Eugene Koonin, Evolution, evolutionary pathway, genetic mutations, Intelligent Design, irreducible complexity, Jerry Coyne, look-ahead mutation, malaria, molecular biology, Mt. Improbable, Natural Selection, Neo-Darwinism, protein-protein binding, Proteins, random mutation, Richard Dawkins, scientific paradigms, Sean B. Carroll, The Edge of Evolution}

Michael Behe’s Mousetrap on the Edge

_{Michael Behe

December 23, 2020

Uncategorized}

On this ID the Future Lehigh University biologist Michael Behe dives deeper into A Mousetrap for Darwin. Behe and host Eric Anderson pivot to the new book’s section defending Behe’s earlier work, The Edge of Evolution. In that earlier book, Behe reviewed hard data from evolution studies of malaria parasites, HIV, and E. coli, showed that blind evolutionary processes face severe limits as to what they can build, and argued that intelligent design was required for the origin of life’s great diversity. In this new conversation Behe touches on some of the attempts to refute that argument and suggests why those refutations fail. For a more in-depth look at his defense of The Edge of Evolution, get your copy of A Mousetrap for Darwin: Michael J. Behe Answers His Critics and check out Part 3 of the book.

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Behe

Date
December 21, 2020

Tagged
A Mousetrap for Darwin, blood clotting, blood clotting cascade, Darwinism, fibrinogen, gene duplication, genetic mutations, irreducibly complex systems, Keith Robison, Kenneth Miller, Natural Selection, neutral evolution, plasminogen, Russell Doolittle, TAGS: irreducible complexity, waiting time problem}

Behe: Blood Clotting Remains a Mousetrap for Darwin

_{Michael Behe

December 21, 2020

Uncategorized}

On this ID the Future, Michael Behe continues discussing his new book, A Mousetrap for Darwin, with host Eric Anderson. Here the focus is the blood clotting cascade. Behe has argued it’s irreducibly complex, like a mousetrap, and that blind evolution couldn’t build it one small functional step at a time. Behe says a better explanation is that it was intelligently designed. His critics have responded to his argument over the years. Here Behe returns the favor. His most prominent interlocutor on the matter is the recently deceased Russell Doolittle. Behe shows that Doolittle misread the paper he relied on to refute Behe. Professor Behe also responds to Kenneth Miller and Keith Robison. According to Behe, his critics have managed to provide little more than hand waving, smoke screens, and the sweeping of crucial problems under the rug. Tune in to catch some of the back and forth, and for a deeper dive into this challenge to modern evolutionary theory, pick up a copy of Behe’s new book.

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Behe

Date
December 9, 2020

Tagged
A Mousetrap for Darwin, bacterial flagellum, biochemistry, Charles Darwin, Darwin, Darwin’s Black Box, Darwin’s test, Darwinism, Evolution, evolutionary theory, irreducible complexity, molecular biology, molecular evolution, Molecular Machines, mousetrap, Neo-Darwinism, The Origin of Species}

Michael Behe on the Battle of the Mousetraps

_{Michael Behe

December 9, 2020

Uncategorized}

On this ID the Future, Michael Behe responds to the attacks on … his mousetrap. Behe used the common mousetrap to illustrate the idea of irreducible complexity, showing how various mechanical contrivances need all of their main parts to function, and to show how irreducible complexity poses a major challenge to Darwinism’s idea of gradual, step-by-step evolution of some biological machines. Most of the attacks on Behe’s argument have focused on the irreducibly complex biological systems he spotlighted, such as the outboard motor known as the bacterial flagellum. But some of his critics fixated on the mousetrap itself, and argued that the mousetrap wasn’t actually irreducibly complex. Behe rebuts these counterarguments and explains why he’s convinced they fail. The discussion is just a brief sampling of the deeper dive Behe takes in his newest book, A Mousetrap for Darwin.

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Behe

Date
December 2, 2020

Tagged
A Mousetrap for Darwin, bacterial flagellum, biochemistry, comparative anatomy, comparative genomics, Darwin, Darwin Devolves, Darwin’s Black Box, Darwin’s test, David Snoke, DNA sequencing, Edge of Evolution, Evolution: a Theory in Crisis, eye, genome, irreducible complexity, macromolecular complexes, Michael Denton, molecular biology, molecular evolution, Molecular Machines, Nature (Journal), The Origin of Species, waiting time problem}

Michael Behe on the Growth of ID via the Growth of Science

_{Michael Behe

December 2, 2020

Uncategorized}

On this ID the Future, Michael Behe continues discussing A Mousetrap for Darwin, his newest book. Understanding of the cell has grown “by leaps and bounds” since the 1990s, when Behe’s first book appeared. Fresh discoveries have revealed ever more complex structures inside the cell. As Behe explains, it isn’t just the bacterial flagellum that’s irreducibly complex; the “hook” region inside the flagellum is, too. Evolution’s proper place of study has moved from gross anatomy and population genetics to biochemistry. In his conversation with host Eric Anderson, Behe says that intelligent design theory’s predictions are coming true over time, while for every step of increasing knowledge, it gets “worse and worse” for the theory of evolution by undirected unintelligent processes. Purchase his latest book here.

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post

Author
Michael Behe

Date
November 25, 2020

Tagged
argument from ignorance, Darwin Devolves, Darwin’s Black Box, irreducible complexity, James Shapiro, Kenneth Miller, molecular machinery, neutral evolution, Phillip Johnson, religious motivation, Science (Journal), sociology, Stephen C. Meyer, vitalism}

A Mousetrap for Darwin: The Interview, Pt. 1

_{Michael Behe

November 25, 2020

Uncategorized}

On this ID the Future, Eric Anderson interviews Michael Behe about Behe’s new book, A Mousetrap for Darwin. In this episode, Behe explains that he was spurred to build this collection of essays by a review in the journal Science claiming he had never answered his critics on key points. That annoyed Behe, because he had, multiple times. A Mousetrap for Darwin compiles more than a hundred of his responses, some of them from difficult-to-access places. The book also contains fresh material from Dr. Behe, including some lively behind-the-scenes details about his interactions with colleagues and critics. In this episode, the Lehigh University biochemist answers misconceptions about irreducible complexity, responds to the claim that “molecular machines” is a misnomer, relates the surprising confessions some of his fellow biologists have made outside the spotlight about evolutionary theory, and offers his appraisal of why scientists in general don’t know what’s going on with studies in evolution or intelligent design. Behe remains optimistic, though. “You can’t deny the data forever,” he says.

Michael Behe Still from Secrets in the Cell

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post

Author
Michael Behe

Date
November 18, 2020

Tagged
appearance of design, bacterial flagellum, biochemistry, Biological Information, Bruce Alberts, Charles Darwin, Darwin Devolves, Darwin’s Black Box, Darwinism, DNA, Eric Davidson, Evolution, Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, genetic information, information, Intelligent Design, irreducible complexity, Lehigh University, Michael Levine, molecular biology, molecular machinery, Neo-Darwinism, origins science, protein nanomachines, scientific consensus, scientific paradigm, The Edge of Evolution, unguided evolution}

Michael Behe Reads from His New Book

_{Michael Behe

November 18, 2020

Uncategorized}

On this ID the Future, Lehigh University biochemist Michael Behe reads from A Mousetrap for Darwin, his latest book making the case against blind evolution and for intelligent design. The volume contains some brand new material alongside a substantial collection of essays he’s written over the years in response to critics of his three previous intelligent design books. His pro-Darwin critics have jumped all over Behe. Some have even claimed he’s ignored their objections. A Mousetrap for Darwin gives the lie to that charge. Behe has answered his critics, and done so decisively, in everything from the New York Times and prominent blogs to major science journals. Listen in as he lays the groundwork for his fourth fascinating book, in his inimitably clear and winsome style.

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Behe

Date
August 5, 2020

Tagged
__edited, bacterial flagellum, Bacteriophage T4, cellular control systems, co-option, cryo-electron microscopy, Darwin Devolves, embryo, Evolution, flagella, gears, genetic regulatory networks, Intelligent Design, irreducible complexity, Kenneth Miller, magnetotactic bacterium, MO1, random mutation, theistic evolution, wiring diagrams}

Michael Behe Answers Your Questions

_{Michael Behe

August 5, 2020

Uncategorized}

This episode of ID the Future features Darwin Devolves author Michael Behe. The Lehigh University biologist and Discovery Institute Senior Fellow sat down to answer some of the most common questions put to him about evolution and intelligent design, and here we collect his answers to three of those questions: (1) What are some new examples of irreducibly complex systems? (2) What are some objections to ID from well-known critics? And (3) Why aren’t you convinced by theistic evolution arguments?

Colony Characteristics of Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus Escherichia that is commonly found in the lower intestine.

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post

Author
Michael Behe

Date
July 1, 2020

Tagged
citrate, Darwin Devolves, devolution, E. coli, Long Term Evolution Experiment, Richard Lenski}

Michael Behe on E. Coli and a Citrate Death Spiral

_{Michael Behe

July 1, 2020

Uncategorized}

On this episode of ID the Future, biochemist Michael Behe reviews the Long Term Evolution Experiment at Michigan State, where Richard Lenski’s team was initially excited to see what they thought was a new species forming in their flasks of E. coli. As Behe has written at Evolution News, one flask of E. coli in Lenski’s experiment evolved the ability to metabolize (“eat”) citrate in the presence of oxygen. But along with it came multiple mutations breaking genes, degrading genetic information, and ultimately increasing the bacteria’s death rates. It all goes to support Behe’s thesis in Darwin Devolves: evolution is good at creating niche advantages by breaking things; it isn’t good at building fundamentally novel form, the very thing the grand narrative of modern evolutionary theory purports to do.

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post

Author
Michael Behe

Date
March 30, 2020

Tagged
__edited, arthritis, Chloroquine, cinchona tree, coordinated mutations, coronavirus, COVID-19, Edge of Evolution, evolutionary theory, hydroxychloroquine, lysosome, malaria, Natural Selection, pandemic, quinine, zika virus}

Michael Behe on COVID-19, Chloroquine, Malaria and the Edge of Evolution

_{Michael Behe

March 30, 2020

Uncategorized}

On this episode of ID the Future, biochemist Michael Behe and host Andrew McDiarmid discuss the anti-malarial drug chloroquine, now being investigated as a treatment for COVID-19, and how it may work on the cellular level against the coronavirus. The same drug was featured in Behe’s 2007 book The Edge of Evolution, as part of his demonstration that evolution has strict limits: It can do adaptive work for organisms with single mutations, but if just two coordinated mutations are required at once, evolution’s random processes have great difficulty even with natural selection helping them along. In cases where population sizes are enormous, as with malaria, it can eventually overcome the need for two simultaneous and coordinated mutations, but only just barely. Because the odds go up exponentially, three simultaneous coordinated mutations may be beyond the edge of evolution. What does all this bode for chloroquine and the coronavirus? Listen in as McDiarmid and Behe discuss.

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post

Author
Michael Behe

Date
March 16, 2020

Tagged
__edited}

Michael Behe on COVID-19 and ‘Why Are There Viruses, Anyway?’

_{Michael Behe

March 16, 2020

Uncategorized}

On this episode of ID the Future, host Andrew McDiarmid and biochemist Michael Behe discuss the pandemic coronavirus known as COVID-19. The two move through a series of questions, some straightforward, others more speculative. What is a virus and where did this one come from? Why is it so much worse than other coronavirus strains? What sort of evolution is involved here? Does the human species have any ancient, shared genetic relationship with viruses? And why are there viruses in the first place?