Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution by Michael J. Behe

Author:Michael J. Behe
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Life Sciences, Biochemistry, Science, Biology, General, Religion, Evolution, History
ISBN: 9780743290319
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 1996-01-02T06:00:00+00:00

182 WHAT DOES THE BOX TELL US?

by which any complex biochemical system might have arisen in a Darwinian manner.

A survey of thirty biochemistry textbooks (summarized in Table 8—1) used in major universities over the past generation shows that many textbooks ignore evolution completely. For example, Thomas Devlin of Jefferson University in Philadelphia wrote a biochemistry textbook TABLE 8-1

Reference to Evolution in the Indexes of Biochemistry Textbooks

PUBLISH OR PERISH 183

that was first published by John Wiley & Sons in 1982; new editions followed in 1986 and 1992. The first edition has about 2,500 entries in its index; the second also has 2,500; and the third has 5,000. Of these, the number referring to evolution are zero, zero, and zero, respectively. A textbook by Frank Armstrong of North Carolina State University, published by Oxford University Press, is the only recent book to include an historical chapter reviewing important developments in biochemistry, beginning with the synthesis of urea by Friedrich Wohler in 1828. The chapter does not mention Darwin or evolution. In three editions Armstrong's book has found it unnecessary to mention evolution in its index. Another textbook published by John Wiley & Sons has one citation to evolution in its index out of a total of about 2,500. It refers to a sentence on page 4: «Organisms have evolved and adapted to changing conditions on a geological time scale and continue to do so.»27 Nothing else is said.

Some textbooks make a concerted effort to inculcate in students an evolutionary view of the world. For example, a textbook by Voet and Voet contains a marvelous, full-color drawing nicely capturing the orthodox position.28 The top third of the drawing shows a volcano, lightning, an ocean, and little rays of sunlight, to suggest how life started. The middle of the picture has a stylized drawing of a DNA molecule leading out from the origin of life ocean and into a bacterial cell, to show how life developed.

The bottom third of the picture—no kidding—is like the Garden of Eden, depicting a number of animals that have been produced by evolution milling about. Included in the throng are a man and a woman (the woman is offering the man an apple), both especially attractive and in the buff.

This undoubtedly adds to the interest for students, but the drawing is a tease. The implicit promise that the secrets of evolution will be uncovered is never consummated.29

Many students learn from their textbooks how to view the world through an evolutionary lens. However, they do not learn how Darwinian evolution might have produced any of the remarkably intricate biochemical systems that those texts describe.

HOW DO YOU KNOW?

How do we know what we say we know-not in some deep philosophical sense, but on a practical, everyday level? On any particular day you 184 WHAT DOES THE BOX TELL US?

might tell someone that you know your living room is painted green, that you know the Philadelphia Eagles are going to win the Super Bowl, that you know the earth goes around the sun, that you know democracy is the best form of government, that you know the way to San Jose.

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