Death Knell for Darwin -- Dr. Behe Explains Intelligent Design

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Michael Behe, who has a Ph.D. in biochemistry, admits that he went through all his school years believing that Darwinian evolution explained what we see in biology only because his instructors told him that it did and the academic atmosphere did not allow for any challenge. After he joined the faculty of Lehigh University, he came across a study that offered convincing arguments against Darwinian Theory. Somewhat disturbed for being fooled for so many years, he ran laboratory tests that indicated that Darwin’s hypothesis could not adequately explain the complexity of nature.

Prof. Behe had an enormous advantage over the earlier naturalists because of the vast explosion of knowledge on the cell, life’s most fundamental unit, during the last half of the twentieth century. Powerful technologies revealed elaborate microscopic worlds inside the cell including a variety of molecular machines, carrying things from one end of the cell to the other, much like traffic on a busy city street, except the biological machines are irreducibly complex. One machine, the bacterial flagellum, functions and looks like an outboard motor and has 40 moving parts. If any part is missing, the machine effectiveness is not just reduced; it does not work at all. To assume that these irreducibly complex machines could develop by “numerous, successive, slight modifications” as Darwin demanded is not realistic. Furthermore, according to Darwin’s natural selection, an organism rejects variations that are useless in helping it survive and preserves those that do. But could Darwin’s small, favorable variations produce a bacterial flagellum? Unless the flagellum is completely assembled and actually works, natural selection cannot preserve it, and it cannot be passed on to the next generation. Therefore, Behe concluded that natural selection could not explain the origin of the bacterial flagellum or any other irreducibly complex biological system. Instead, all his research pointed to Intelligent Design (I.D.).

#evolution #debate

[tfpstudentaction]

Your comments are welcome.
Post your thoughts with us.
God bless you!

[gsderosa]

Dr. Behe always comes across as such a brilliant yet humble man. He appears fully at peace...clearly God has revealed much to him. God bless.

[petersherrouse]

Bless Dr. Behe for being such a light. I know that to do what he has done takes appreciable work and bravery. The course he has chosen has certainly extracted it's price career wise. .

[Daniel]

0:39 “Evolution is one of those things that you are forbidden to question and told to just accept.” True.

[rizdekd]

How does one discern what is Intelligent Design influence vs natural affects? What does Intelligent design look like in action? How should scientists guard against Intelligent Design influencing the outcome of their experiments?

[cdlv]

Most mathematicians, physicists, and scientists throughout history were priests or theologians.

[kasperadamson]

The mousetrap analogy was so wrong in so many levels. For starters, there is no need to put together a mousetrap one tiny step at a time. Mousetrap is a mousetrap. Period. Furthermore, This analogy automatically suggest a "mouse trap creator" and implies that life needs a creator. This is just another angle of the painting needs a painter argument. Besides it being a completely irrelevant in this context, it has nothing to do with the molecular foundation for life.

[delq]

The argument regarding complexity is truly remarkable. it is easy to somehow convince oneself that with sufficient time a box containing different parts of the mousetrap would somehow magically assemble into a mousetrap once in a billion years of constant shaking. But we often forget an important fact about the parts of a mousetrap which is that "THEY ARE PARTS OF A MOUSETRAP". Their functionality as individual parts is only in regards to the whole of the mousetrap. In each part of the mousetrap if one where to look closely can they see the whole. So all independent parts supposedly evolve separately through imperfect non functional versions of themselves to finally become a complete working mousetrap. That is an order of complexity that if it were to exist is equivalent to saying that the mousetrap actually exists in nature as an abstract optimal device for trapping mice. Very insightful discussion !

[timid]

It’s great to see you sharing this. It’s shocking to know that many religious people are so opposed to some of the best evidence for a creator.

[kyritsitonakis]

Greetings and Shalom, [Part 1 of 2]

As I read the comments below, which I will always do to gauge the sentiment of those who have a view about this topic....I often find that those who believe in God and His only begotten Son Jesus....will use their own impassioned pleas of reasoning....

Yet the Word of God teaches that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God
[Rom 10:17 NKJV]
17 So then faith [comes] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

The Word of God also teaches us never to be ashamed of the Gospel and to not speak of human wisdom but of Christ....

[Rom 1:16-17 NKJV] 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."

[1Co 2:1-2 NKJV]
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Below are a selection of passages from the Word of God....
My prayer for those who do not believe is that you would invite God to speak to you through His Word....
That you would choose truth over tradition and trust that if He is true, He is faithful to reveal himself to you...

Many blessings and I pray that His Word would lead you to repent and turn to Him for the gift of eternal life....

Shalom

[Gen 1:1-2, 7, 14-18, 26-28 NKJV] 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. ...

7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which [were] under the firmament from the waters which [were] above the firmament; and it was so. ...

14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;
15 "and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.
16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. [He made] the stars also.
17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth,
18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that [it was] good. ...

26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
27 So God created man in His [own] image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."


[Rom 1:18-25 NKJV]
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown [it] to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible [attributes] are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify [Him] as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man--and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.


[2Pe 3:1-9 NKJV]
1 Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in [both of] which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder),
2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,
3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,
4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as [they were] from the beginning of creation."
5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,
6 by which the world [that] then existed perished, being flooded with water.
7 But the heavens and the earth [which] are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day [is] as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning [His] promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

[Jhn 3:1-21 NKJV]
1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."
3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
4 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
8 "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?"
10 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?
11 "Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.
12 "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13 "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, [that is], the Son of Man who is in heaven.
14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21 "But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."

[Jhn 14:1-6 NKJV]
1 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 "In My Father's house are many mansions; if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, [there] you may be also.
4 "And where I go you know, and the way you know."
5 Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?"
6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Father I come to you in earnest prayer and petition and ask that you bless and anoint these words and grant to those whom you will, ears to hear and a heart to receive....
In the authority and name of your only begotten son Jesus Christ / Yeshua HaMashiach I pray and ask.
Amen and Amen.

[tryhardf]

Darwin himself was an agnostic and refused to cooperate with an atheist/christian rhetoric.
But reddit atheists still use him.

[elijahwills]

Ah, good to see this! For most of my life I've believed in Evolution controlled by God, but I see a lot of intelligent people saying the theory is flawed. I've been wondering why so this is a welcome explanation. Thanks!

[renedosr]

Dr. Behe's reasoning does not disprove evolution. It merely proves that evolution by itself cannot explain all life.

There are many instances where evolution does "prove" very well the existence of a particular aspect of life.

Paraphrasing his own words - "evolution as an explanation of life is an not irreducible complex system".

I think Darwin himself would be surprised if someone claimed that evolution was the explanation for the existence of life.

[wgalloPT]

I really appreciate this train of though because in my mind, we were designed. I studied in depth human anatomy, and when one stops to think of the incredible features our body has, versus other species, like for example the eye, hormonal control, and the agonist-antagonist mechanism regulated by our brains (and much more)...its like we were engineered!

[evanrasyid]

Random mutation break genes, not making new genes. I love this video ❤

[bpdrumstudio]

And yet creationism/ID remains a belief based on religious proposition and evolution remains a sound scientific theory and a fact.

[sunnyblue]

I tried to explain many atheist's but they still refuse to accept.

[gambosix]

I think it's amazing that parochial schools were OK with Darwinism.. We were formed in the likeness of God.. and Adam and Eve were human with human intelligence.. I never, as a Christian, accepted Darwinism.

[numericalcode]

Did not realize Dr Behe agrees with change over time and common descent

[ClarenceThompkins]

Abiogenesis is trying to answer the question of how life arose. Evolution tackles changes over time. Intelligent Design doesn't explain anything about anything. I would love to see an actual "educational" video of the concept of ID without the mentioning of evolution to see if they can actually stand on their two feet. Because right now, ID only tries to disprove only one part of evolution which is Darwin's theory of evolution. This kind of tactic works for people who don't take the time to actually understand the process of evolution, but instead listen to 1 side of the argument that agrees with their point of view already. If you are in college, or even high school, listen to what is being taught without interruption. If you have questions ask them those questions, and if you feel like you're unable to question the information, take that answer to your ID "expert" and see if they can refute that answer. Then take that ID answer to your teacher. It may be tedious, but if you are truly looking for the facts, this should help in some ways. Because you accept evolution doesn't mean you to stop believing in your god.