The Edge of Evolution

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The divine comedy
Creationism
Icon creationism.svg
Running gags
Jokes aside
Blooper reel
Evolutionism debunkers

The Edge of Evolution is a book written by Michael Behe which claims to describe the limits of random mutation and natural selection.

Behe's argument is a classic argument ad big number, ignoring the fact that improbable things happen. Basically, he claims that it is impossible to evolve anything that requires two binding sites. He uses examples from drug resistance in malaria as being impossible from a standard model perspective (this of course means the mysterious designer purposefully inserted drug resistance into malaria).

The fact of the matter is that multiple binding sites have been observed to evolve in the laboratory.[1] This pretty much throws out the whole book. The rest of it is a tortuous straw man creation trying to argue that local maxima on fitness landscapes are "traps" that evolution cannot overcome. Several critics have succinctly and convincingly shown how Behe is, again, totally wrong, and that local maxima are easily overcome.[2][3]

See also

References