Peering Into Darwinism's Black Box

Thirteen years ago, Michael Behe published Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, in which he argued that certain structures and systems in the biological realm defy naturalistic explanation. Such systems exhibit a property that Behe coined "irreducible complexity" (IC). IC, simply stated, refers to the fact that the structure or system in question could not have "evolved" by gradualistic change -- as demanded by Darwinism -- because the precursors to the final system would be useless, if not fatal, to the continued survival of the organism of which they are a part. The title of his book was meant to point out that, in Darwin's time, the inner workings of the cell, most importantly those that take place on the DNA/molecular level, were quite literally impossible to observe. The cell was, for all intents and purposes, like a magical "black box" -- a gob of protoplasm that no one could peer into, let alone understand.

A lot has changed since Darwin's time.

Now we can see what goes on inside the cell and, most importantly, within the DNA that defines and orchestrates everything that makes living organisms work. PhD Biochemist Fazale Rana of Reasons To Believe, recently published an article titled, "What Darwin Didn't Know" that starts out like this:

A sage once said, "It's not what you know you don't know that's the problem; it's what you don't know that you don't know." ... When Charles Darwin advanced his theory of biological evolution, there was a lot of biology he didn't know. Some of it he recognized. But there was much he never even thought about.

Rana goes on to touch on some of those things. I would like to use this month to consider them and the implications that flow from what Charles Darwin didn't know about life in the world we live in. Darwinism has changed considerably from the thing it was when its namesake put the theory forward in 1859. To his credit, Darwin was well aware of some of those things and was quite prescient about that difficulties that have served to poke holes in his theory -- no matter how vehemently our modern Darwinists may claim otherwise. But the key to each of those things lies inside the black box that Darwin couldn't pierce -- the cell. If Darwinism is true it must be able to explain the origin of life, the information content therein, the fossil record with which all life is associated, and the order of magnitude differences that so obviously separate humanity from the rest of life. Every attempt by Darwinism to explain those things has fallen short.

The Darwinists may appeal to future discoveries to eliminate those deficiencies, but in doing so, their appeal is no different than the "blind faith" they accuse we theists of having. They have no proof. They have no evidence. They are wishful thinkers.

But science isn't about wishful thinking.