Evolution Icon Evolution
Intelligent Design Icon Intelligent Design

Why This Virus Is No Threat to Intelligent Design

Photo: "Lysis plaques of lambda phage on E. coli bacteria," via Wikimedia Commons.

On a classic episode of ID the Future, host and biologist Ray Bohlin interviews biophysicist Cornelius Hunter, author of Darwin’s God, about an article in the journal Science concerning a virus invasion of E. coli bacteria. The article subtitle announces “Natural Selection Caught in the Act,” and suggests that an impressive instance of unguided evolution has been directly witnessed.

Not so fast, Hunter says. The results were intelligently designed (by the lab scientists), he notes, and the changes are less impressive than they may appear at first glance. Hunter also explains protein-protein binding and counters evolutionist Dennis Venema to argue that the way the immune system drives change is not analogous to the evolutionary process of random mutations and natural selection. Moreover, Hunter says, the mammalian immune system is itself an enormous challenge for evolutionary theory. Download the podcast or listen to it here.