Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design

by Stephen C. Meyer

Douglas Axe’s results highlight an acute dilemma for neo-Darwinism, a “catch-22.” On the one hand, if natural selection plays no role in generating new genes, as the idea of neutral evolution implies, then mutations alone must climb a Mount Improbable in a single leap—a situation that, given Axe’s results and Dawkins’s own logic, is probabilistically untenable. On the other hand, any model for the origin of genetic information that envisions a significant role for natural selection, by assuming a preexisting gene or protein under selective pressure, encounters other equally intractable difficulties. The evolving genes and proteins will range over a series of disadvantageous or nonfunctional intermediates that natural selection will not favor or preserve, but will, instead, eliminate. At that point, selection-driven evolution will cease, locking existing genes and proteins into place.