The cell: Pandora's box for Darwin?

Coming on Darwin Day, a New Video Series — Secrets of the Cell with Michael Behe

Evolution News | @DiscoveryCSC

The cell is what biochemist Michael Behe has called evolution’s “black box,” its spectacularly complex, superbly designed contents unknown to Charles Darwin. When the box was opened by modern science, it was a turning-point moment for the articulation of the modern theory of intelligent design. A revolution followed, fundamentally challenging how scientists discuss the history of life.

Of course that revolution remains ongoing. To reach ever-wider audiences of the skeptical and the unconvinced, whether in academia or the general culture, is the central mission of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture. What better occasion for that could there be than February 12, also known as Darwin Day? The birthday of the great man is an occasion each year for atheists and materialists to promote once again the theory of purposeless, unguided evolution.

Revolutionary Behe

With that in mind, this coming Darwin Day, Wednesday of next week, we will be launching an exciting new way to introduce your friends and family to the revolutionary work of Professor Behe. It’s Secrets of the Cell with Michael Behe, a five-part YouTube series that will provide a non-technical and beautifully produced introduction to Behe’s key ideas. Look for it here at Evolution News.

The series is the brainchild of filmmaker Cal Covert, President of Silver Ridge Productions, a media production company based in Virginia. Covert has more than 30 years of experience in television and video production. As a bonus, he graduated from Lehigh University, where Dr. Behe is a professor.

Cal approached us in 2019 with an idea for a series that could reach a broad viewership with Behe’s ideas, and things developed from there.

“I’m a big fan of Discovery Institute,” says Cal. “I’ve been a subscriber to Nota Bene for many years, and I read every edition. Dr. Behe and others have shown that good science points to intelligent design. I’d like to make videos that will go on the offensive and challenge people’s thinking with Behe’s findings in a way accessible to a broad audience.”

A Passion for Communication

Cal has a passion for communicating science to the general public. “For the last ten years much of my work has been in medical production,” he explains. “I work with surgeons, researchers, scientists, and patients as they tell their stories. These are widely viewed on Facebook, YouTube, and other platforms. The success of these videos has come through taking technical material and making it both understandable and compelling. That’s what I want to do with Behe’s ideas.”

Secrets of the Cell employs Behe himself as the onscreen host, showing him like you’ve never seen him before — out in the woods, in an auto shop, operating a drone, driving a jeep.

Each 4-6 minute episode investigates some intriguing discovery in science — micro-machines inside the cell, gears in insects, or the evolution of polar bears, and more. Behe uses the examples to explain his concepts of irreducible complexity, the “edge” of evolution, and Darwinian devolution. A new episode of Secrets of the Cell will be released each week from February to early March.

“We are grateful for Cal’s inspiration for this series, as well as how he donated his professional talents for the project and raised funds for new animation and on-location footage,” says John West, CSC Associate Director. “We are always looking for fresh ways to expand the impact of our scientists’ work.”

Among ID scientists, Mike Behe is a superstar. If you missed his thoroughly delightful Socrates in the City interview with Eric Metaxas, see it here now:

Uncommon descent?

A Forest, Not a Tree? Nelson Asks Why Universal Common Descent Needn’t “Pay” for Failures

David Klinghoffer | @d_klinghoffer

Philosopher of biology Paul Nelson recalls the expectation, a scientific standard when he was an undergrad, that all living things would turn out to share a universal genetic code. How could they not if, as Darwin argued, there is only a single, universal tree of life? On a classic ID the Future podcast with host Brian Miller, Dr. Nelson discusses the implications of this failed prediction. Download the podcast or listen to it here.

The question is a weighty one since it has emerged that there is no universally shared code, but, instead, many variants. When evolutionists realized this, they performed a sidestep, supposing that since the prediction flopped, it must be the case that the code can itself evolve. But this deft move allows universal common ancestry a luxury that other scientific theories are not allowed: the freedom to fail without paying a price. Nelson suggests that this is a reason to revisit the options in the evolution debate. Maybe life is not a tree but, as biologists are finding to be increasingly likely, a forest or an orchard. But then what are the consequences for strict naturalism?

Broadly, Paul notes, there are four possibilities, each populated with scientific advocates, past and present: no design with common ancestry, no design with no common ancestry, design with no common ancestry, and design with common ancestry. In the last category, he mentions leading intelligent design proponents (Behe, Denton) but perhaps also, and this really intrigued me, the French paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, more typically thought of as a theistic evolutionist. That’s something I’d like to hear more about.

Paul Nelson is a great explainer, remarkably lucid in illuminating complex subjects. You will enjoy this conversation.