The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism

This is a thought-provoking book; I urge everyone to read it! Nevertheless, after having just previously read David Sloan Wilson's "Evolution for Everyone", I found myself wondering: Has Behe missed some possible explanations for "larger steps" made in evolution? Do some complex-systems "self-organize" in ways that go beyond the molecular level in ways that we have not yet discovered?

I also found it interesting that while Behe is very critical of evolutionists supposed inability to presently explain large steps in evolution, Behe himself did not explain how his agent of "intelligent design" did either of the initial encoding of all future combinations of genetic permutations nor how an agent might have later effected large changes.

This show more questioning led me to do some googling of Behe and this book. I've discovered evidence that he did miss some discoveries that contradict some of the tenets of this book. However, I think this book is worth reading as a counterpoint to present ideas about evolution and that is what matters: Science is at its best when challenged. I am a fan of peer-review, even with its complications. show less

Behe gives some powerful arguments against evolution being able to account for all of life that we can see. He concentrates on the evolution of malaria and human malaria defenses to make his case. He maintains that given the rate of evolution of those two opposing forces, evolution would not be able to explain the complexity of life. He does not attribute things to God, but to an intelligent designer. My main problem with the book is that the math and biology are complex enough that I have to confess I cannot fully evaluate whether he is correct or not.