EXTREME PERFECTION AND COMPLICATION, INDEED
We began this article by mentioning the objection of the human eye as it was raised and addressed by Darwin. For most people coming to grips with the implications of materialistic evolution, complex structures like the human eye are not simply a hard pill to swallow but rather a chicken bone stuck in the throat. Intuitively, we struggle to imagine how such a structure could slowly develop over time and what use a half-developed eye would serve.
A careful reading of Darwin’s explanation in “Organs of Extreme Perfection and Complication” reveals that he never answers the problem. In fact, regarding how the eye got started, Darwin stated, “How a nerve comes to be sensitive to light hardly concerns us more than how life itself originated.”14
Did Darwin really believe the eye evolved bit by bit over time? Although his theory attempts to explain how it could have happened, many believe Darwin himself was unconvinced. Years after he had written his world-changing theory Darwin admitted to a friend, “The eye to this day gives me a cold shudder.”15 Hmm…
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ENDNOTES
1. Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989),1.
2. Ibid.,12.
3. Michael Behe, Darwin’s Black Box (New York: Free Press, 2003), 24.
4. Charles Darwin, Origin of Species (New York: Bantam Books, 1999), 158.
5. Behe, 22.
6. Quoted in Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004), 199.
7. Macnab, R. (1978), “Bacterial Mobility and Chemotaxis: The Molecular Biology of a Behavioral System,” CRC Critical Reviews in Biochemistry, vol. 5, issue 4, Dec., 291-341.
8. Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (Chevy Chase, MD, Adler & Adler, 1986), 328.
9. Quoted in Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, 199.
10. Michael Behe, “The Sterility of Darwinism,” Boston Review, February/March 1997.
11. William Dembski, “Still Spinning Just Fine: A Response to Ken Miller”, William [email protected] 2.17.03, v.1.01.
12. James Shapiro, “In the details …what?” National Review, (September 16, 1996), 62-65.
13. Alan Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects on Religious Belief,” Truth: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Christian Thought, Vol. 1, (1985).
14. Darwin, 156.
15. Charles Darwin (1860) in letter to Asa Gray, F. Darwin, ed., The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, vol, 2, (London: John Murray, 1888), 273.