On the weekend, I watched a nice interview of Michael Behe conducted by Eric Metaxas about Behe’s latest book “Darwin Devolves”. Behe is a genial man, but very direct about where he thinks the scientific evidence leads. He’s been challenging evolution from the scientific evidence since 1996, and the emergence of new evidence has only strengthened his opposition.

Here’s the interview:

(61 minutes)

Here’s a good summary of the book from Tom Gilson, writing for Evolution News, that captures the main argument well.

Gilson writes:

Michael Behe, professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University, has been keeping committed Darwinists awake nights for years. His 1996 book Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution asked a long-ignored question: If Darwin’s theory explains everything so well, why hasn’t anyone shown how it works at the minutest level, biochemistry? If it doesn’t work there, it doesn’t work anywhere.

Now Behe has released a new book, based on new science, showing once again that it doesn’t work there. Darwin Devolves: The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution is going to cause a lot more sleepless nights.

The new science he covers in this book shows that Darwin’s theory can explain some changes, but quickly breaks down. DNA sequencing has only been available in the past decade or two. Its findings show that when organisms change, they do it almost always by breaking genes, not by making new ones. So in general, the evidence shows that when species evolve, they’re really devolving. And that devolution prevents future evolution.

This car example really helps you understand the point, and it came up in the interview, too:

Experiments show that even adaptive changes — changes that seem like improvements — almost always come by way of breaking genes. In a recent podcast, Behe likened it to a car for which gas mileage suddenly became its most important feature… The mileage problem is easy for a car, actually. Just remove some of its seats. In organisms this principle works, for example, when a gene that’s been holding back an existing capability gets damaged. That capability then shows up. It’s not a new capability, just newly expressed.

[…]Not only that, but once nature finds a way to improve a function by degrading a gene, nature is happy with that. It will spread that new answer throughout a population just as fast as Darwin ever supposed. That’s what natural selection does: It preserves helpful (adaptive) changes and spreads them around while letting less lucky populations die off. Once nature is happy with one quick answer produced by breaking things, though, it’s not going to hang around waiting for another, more elaborate answer produced by making things.

There were a lot of critical responses to the book, but Behe replied to all of them.

If you haven’t read the book, and have an hour to spare for the interview, take a look. He’s easy to listen to.

I’ve heard from atheists how easy it is to jettison a moral Lawgiver from one’s worldview, and still be able to rationally ground objective morality. No matter how many times these atheist’ “philosophers” are caught supporting pedophiles, rapists, and the policies that enable pedophiles and rapists, they never seem to learn the lesson – dump God, and you will end up championing immorality.

Story from National File:

Arizona State Senator, Tony Navarrete, an openly gay Democrat and founding member of Arizona’s LGBTQ Caucus, has been arrested for child molestation. Phoenix Police confirm that Navarrete, widely considered a “rising star” within the Democrat Party, faces multiple counts of sexual conduct with a minor, among other charges.

While few details surrounding the charges and arrest have been made immediately available, local media has confirmed with Phoenix Police that Democrat State Senator Tony Navarrete “was arrested on Thursday, Aug. 5, and charged with multiple counts of sexual conduct with a minor among other charges.”

[…]Navarrete has been a member of Arizona’s legislature since 2017, first winning election to the State’s House of Representatives where he served one two-year term before being elected to the Arizona Senate, entering that body in 2019. As a member of the legislature, Navarrete, who is openly gay, has made his homosexuality a centerpiece of his political schtick, helping to found the Arizona LGBT Caucus during his first year in office.

Navarrete has made several appearances alongside high-profile Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris and far-left New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Considered a “rising star” within the Democrat Party, Navarrete was expected to announce a statewide run for Treasurer of Arizona.

What do atheists who support Democrats and celebrate redefining marriage to embrace atheist values of non-exclusivity and non-permanence have to say about this? They say “well, I didn’t do it – I only voted for it. I only voted for it for decades, and promoted it through my voting and political advocacy”.

The problem with atheism is that it isn’t really a rational position or a cognitive worldview at all. It’s just the denial of moral accountability, and the denial of whatever parts of reality challenge that.

Why do atheists deny science, such as the origin of the universe or intelligent design? Because science points to an objective moral lawgiver, and they don’t want that. Why do “moral” atheists vote for pedophiles and support rapists running for office? Because the most important overriding concern is autonomy from that pesky moral lawgiver. It doesn’t matter what science they have to deny.

It doesn’t matter which children – born and unborn – have to suffer. It doesn’t matter what the lives of fatherless children are like. They cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door, to mess with their pursuit of hedonism. They vote for a world where every trace of objective morality and moral accountability has been erased.

It really is that simple. Atheists become atheists when their desire for happiness is first thwarted – LONG BEFORE they ever look through a telescope or a microscope at the evidence. It’s not the result of some long, dispassionate chain of reasoning. Logic and evidence DON’T MATTER.

If they have to elect a few pedophiles and rapists in order to protect their right to an abortion, that’s what they’ll do. Too bad for the weak, because it’s survival of the fittest in an atheist universe – that’s the way they like it. The goal is to keep God as far as possible from their reckless, irresponsible actions.

Wow, here is that return to civility that all the woke evangelical leaders like Beth Moore, Russell Moore, Tim Keller, David French, etc. promised me when they told me not to vote for that horrible Donald Trump. We had to put a stop to his mean tweets somehow, they said, and never you mind about the violence and damage caused by Black Lives Matter and Antifa Democrats.

Here’s the latest on the secular left fascists from The Post Millennial:

A large group of Antifa carrying shields and melee weapons attacked a group of Evangelical Christians congregating for a prayer and worship event at the waterfront in downtown Portland, Ore. Video recorded at the scene showed children and families running away as black-clad Antifa militants tore apart the sound equipment and assaulted attendees with pepper spray and projectiles.

[…]Shocking video recorded at the violent event show dozens of armed Antifa members in black bloc and riot gear moving in to physically confront attendees of the event. One of the Antifa members sprayed a congregant with an unidentified, gas-like substance that is suspected to be pepper spray. The congregation took several steps back to avoid injury. “Where is your god now?” an Antifa member can be heard saying in the video.

After pulling apart the sound system, the Antifa toss the equipment into the Willamette River. A woman can be seen panicking as she and her fellow parishioners backed away to avoid further altercation. “They threw a flash bomb into a group of kids,” said a female attendee who spoke to a videographer at the scene while the injured were being treated. An Antifa account on Twitter later posted that they stole the Christian attendees’ food and water.

Yes, yes. These are all the good things that Evangelicals for Biden wanted us to have. Get rid of all those “Christian nationalist” policies (i.e. – border security, law enforcement and low taxes), and bring back the good, wholesome Marxist morality of Black Lives Matter and Antifa.

When are we going to get some real leadership from “Christian leaders” about the issues that Christians actually care about? I oppose atheism. Let’s see some evidential apologetics. I oppose feminism. Let’s see some opposition to no-fault divorce, abortion and same-sex marriage. I oppose socialism. Let’s see some support for lower taxes, job creation, school choice and limited government.

I just don’t think that the “evangelical” left (Russell Moore, David French, Beth Moore, Tim Keller, etc.) understand what their allies on the secular left are capable of. But they are still responsible for enabling it when they support the secular left at election time.