Darwin Devolves Quotes

“intelligence is detected by perceiving a purposeful arrangement of parts. That is the way, the only way, that we can discern the existence of other minds and their intelligence.”
― Michael J. Behe, Darwin Devolves : The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution

“What can the theory account for? If it can’t explain even color patterns, how much has it been exaggerated? Quite a bit, it turns out. To see the problem more clearly, let’s first think about studies of human nutrition. For decades the public was told to avoid foods with a lot of cholesterol. Recently, however, a government panel changed its mind, saying there’s no evidence that’s harmful. Here’s the problem for grand claims about evolution. Science can’t tell if cholesterol is bad for modern humans, who can be studied in great detail. Yet if that’s too hard, then how can science claim to know what affected plants and animals in the distant past? Ones that can’t be studied in real time like people? Ones that encountered myriad environmental influences over millions of years? That’s easy to answer: Science can’t and doesn’t know”
― Michael J. Behe, Darwin Devolves : The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution

“(One common confusion of critics is to think that ID argues everything is planned. That’s not the case. Chance is an important, if superficial, feature of biology.)”
― Michael J. Behe, Darwin Devolves : The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution

“I concluded that I had been led to believe in Darwin’s theory not because of strong evidence for it. Rather, it was for sociological reasons—that simply was the way educated people were expected to think these days.”
― Michael J. Behe, Darwin Devolves : The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution

“I suppose we both thought that, even if we didn’t know how undirected nature could begin life, somebody must know. That’s the impressive power of groupthink.”
― Michael J. Behe, Darwin Devolves : The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution

“When one starts to treat Darwinism as a hypothesis about the biochemical level of life rather than as an assumption, it takes about ten minutes to conclude it’s radically inadequate.”
― Michael J. Behe, Darwin Devolves : The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution

“Wallace thought that much of nature showed strong evidence of purpose, as he forcefully conveyed in The World of Life: A Manifestation of Creative Power, Directive Mind and Ultimate Purpose.4 In other words, in modern parlance, the very cofounder of the theory of evolution was an intelligent-design proponent.”
― Michael J. Behe, Darwin Devolves : The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution

“With only their eyes for tools, through no fault of their own, naturalists were stuck at the surface level of biology for thousands of years. Although dissection allowed some progress in understanding large-scale internal anatomy, it too was often misleading. For example, arteries and veins could be seen in dissected animal bodies. Yet the fact that they connected to each other through tiny capillaries in a closed circulatory system escaped even the great Roman surgeon Galen, who thought blood was pumped out by the heart to sink into the tissues, much as water in irrigation canals in his day sank into the ground. His mistaken ideas were taught for thirteen hundred years.”
― Michael J. Behe, Darwin Devolves : The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution

“In 2001 Science featured an article, “The Soft Science of Dietary Fat,” that argued a low-fat diet is not necessarily healthful and that the public had been misled about the relative merits of fat and starch.16 A few years ago Scientific American declared: “It’s time to end the war on salt: the zealous drive by politicians to limit our salt intake has little basis in science.”17 About the same time the Department of Agriculture tossed out its iconic food pyramid for a food plate and juggled several of its recommendations.18 Recently the USDA was reported to be poised to recommend that Americans eat less meat—not because it’s better for individuals, but because it may be better for the environment, which indirectly could affect our health too.19”
― Michael J. Behe, Darwin Devolves : The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution

“Gratuitous affirmations of a dominant theory can mesmerize the unwary. They lull people into assuming that objectively difficult problems don’t really matter. That they’ve been solved already. Or will be solved soon. Or are unimportant. Or something. They actively distract readers from noticing an idea’s shortcomings. “Of course,” students are effectively prompted, “everyone knows what happened here—right? You’d be blind not to see it—right?” But the complacency isn’t the fruit of data or experiments. It comes from the powerful social force of everyone in the group nodding back, “Of course!”
― Michael J. Behe, Darwin Devolves : The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution