On Charles Darwin and Rube Goldberg

My Debate with Michael Ruse -- Evolution as a Rube Goldberg Machine

Cornelius Hunter March 17, 2016 3:32 AM 

Editor's note: Evolution News is delighted to welcome back Dr. Hunter as a contributor. He is a Fellow with the Center for Science & Culture, Adjunct Professor at Biola University, and author of the award-winning Darwin's God: Evolution and the Problem of Evil. He blogs at Darwin's God

It was great to see Professor Michael Ruse again last week in Northern California for our debate on the question, "Is Evolution Compelling?" He was in good spirits as usual, and his jokes were much better than mine. But I had one big advantage over my erudite opponent: I was not defending the age-old idea that the world of life arose by chance. The main problem, as I explained at the outset, is that the scientific evidence contradicts unguided evolution. That is a very simple point, but it opens new worlds of thought.

I used my time to discuss a range of scientific evidence from biology. On that evidence, unguided evolution simply makes no sense. But I almost hesitate to show you my list simply because there is nothing special about it. One of the difficulties in explaining the problems with evolution to an audience is the plethora of examples from which to choose. I had a long list of fascinating biological designs that refute evolutionary thought. I like every one of them, because they all add a different angle on why evolution fails. But there are far too many to fit into an evening's presentation. I was changing my mind right up to the last day, but as difficult as it is, one must pare back the list to fit the time constraint.

I began with one of my favorites, micro RNA. I then discussed the failure of evolution's nested hierarchy. Later I had fun with echolocation and the DNA code, and I finished with directed adaptation. The obvious and unavoidable truth is that evolution is believed to be a fact not because of the science, but despite the science.

I also punctuated my scientific examples with some philosophy of science concerns. One of them is the problem of parsimony. I explained Occam's Razor, and how a sure sign of a failing theory is if it becomes overly complicated. The appeal of heliocentrism over geocentrism was not that of an improvement in accuracy, but in simplicity. Like heliocentrism, Copernicus' geocentrism had epicycles. So why make the move? Because Copernicus was able to use fewer epicycles. That is how important simplicity is in science.

Theory complexity is the enemy in science, and it would require volumes to explain all the details in today's theory of evolution. The reason why evolution is so complicated is that with each scientific failure, the theory is adjusted yet again. Today it resembles one of Rube Goldberg's wonderful machines.

For this theory, there is no ray of hope. I think I left the audience convinced that evolution is an utterly failed attempt. That's not because of any rhetorical skills on my part, but simply because I took the side of science. This isn't at all complicated. What is complicated is the question of why people believe in evolution to begin with. But that's another story.