Evolution Icon Evolution

Behe’s New “Mousetrap” Book — The Fragility of Darwinism

Photo credit: Justus Menke, via Unsplash.

Darwinism is “sustained mostly by sociology.” Meaning, career pressures, groupthink, media hypnotism, and the like. So says biochemist Michael Behe, author of the new book A Mousetrap for Darwin: Michael J. Behe Answers His Critics, in a webinar conversation with Discovery Institute’s John West. The webinar was held over the past weekend and you can see it now.

The video recording of the event is quite entertaining, covering topics both weighty and whimsical — like Behe’s comparison of life, with its molecular machines, to The Borg from Star Trek. And what is the Lehigh University biochemist’s favorite Star Trek episode, anyway? Dr. Behe and Dr. West discuss the purpose of gathering Behe’s replies to the stronger and the weaker critiques of his earlier books. They take on a diverse range of live questions from viewers around the world. Why this book and why now? The idea of the volume is not merely to dunk on the critics. Behe, to be frank, doesn’t find of any their criticisms very meaningful.

Nor is it just to shoot down what West calls the fake news-like “fake criticism” that Behe ignores challenges, as the reviewers of Behe’s recent book Darwin Devolves insinuated in a prominent article in the journal Science. West was surprised to realize just how voluminous Behe’s record of answering critics actually is. He first thought he could fit the replies in a volume of just 300 pages or so. It turned out that Behe had more than 700 pages available to use. These were culled down in the end to 556 pages.

Instead, A Mousetrap for Darwin demonstrates that “Darwinism is much more fragile” than many people realize, as Behe puts it here. That is the big takeaway. What’s assumed to be an unmovable, unbreakable monument to objective science should at this point, if we were all honest with ourselves, be steps away from shattering.

David Klinghoffer

Senior Fellow and Editor, Evolution News
David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and the editor of Evolution News & Science Today, the daily voice of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, reporting on intelligent design, evolution, and the intersection of science and culture. Klinghoffer is also the author of six books, a former senior editor and literary editor at National Review magazine, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Commentary, and other publications. Born in Santa Monica, California, he graduated from Brown University in 1987 with an A.B. magna cum laude in comparative literature and religious studies. David lives near Seattle, Washington, with his wife and children.

Share

Tags

A Mousetrap for Darwinbiochemistrycareer pressuresDarwin DevolvesDarwinismDiscovery InstituteevolutiongroupthinkJohn WestMichael Behemolecular machinesScience (journal)sociologyStar TrekThe Borg