The recent series of contributions to The Bulletin on intelligent design have encouraged me to join in, as one who is familiar enough with the science to have given a course on it!

In Darwin’s original writings, he himself expressed doubts about his main theme. He worried that his successive infinitesimal random mutations would, in fact, not ever lead to evolution. He mourned the complete lack of any evidence of the evolution of transspecies forms (e.g., the successive forms that must evolve to carry life from fish to amphibian, from amphibian to reptile, and from reptile to mammal, etc.). Obviously, there should be evidence of a goodly number of such forms, since, via Darwin’s mechanism of successive, minute random mutations, many of these forms would be needed, since the probability would be small of any one form able to evolve sufficiently, to carry life upward! And yet, even today, still no evidence of transspecies has ever been found. So, where does this leave Darwin?

One basic problem with Darwin’s theory: Biochemistry was an unknown science at his time. All Darwin had to work with were external appearances. Yet biochemistry is essential to understanding the many minute complexities underlying the biological mechanisms that make up living things; e.g., the cells that make up our bodies, and their subcellular structures. Consider also such sophisticated systems as that complex light-sensing mechanism, the eye, which translates photons into ordered optical signals to the brain. Biochemistry is also needed to understand the actions of muscles, nerves, senses, and indeed, the body’s every component.

Each of the trillion cells in our bodies has a unique task. Each cell must know what to do and how to do it, and also how to coordinate with other cells. Each cell is controlled by the DNA. Messengers carry the DNA’s instructions throughout the cell; the cell is a busy metropolis, made up of atoms, molecules, enzymes, proteins, peptides, etc., all engaged in coordinated work. There are workshops and assembly lines; trucks bring in building materials, plus fuel for the cell’s own power plant; dump trucks remove waste; disinfectant is spread through the cell to protect the workers; there are doormen controlling the entrances and exits of the cell; a pretorian guard protects the DNA, with an additional home guard of workers that can be called up in an emergency. (The DNA is often under threat, and if it dies, the cell dies.)

There are 60,000 possible designs of proteins and peptides. The cell manufactures those designs it needs, although it might import some proteins as well. Proteins are manufactured from various combinations of 24 different amino acids. Two of these acids include clocks that can be built into a protein for time-sensitive tasks.

Darwin was totally ignorant of biochemistry. But ID is a modern science based on biochemistry! For example, Dr. Dembski applied modern information theory to the construction of the DNA to show the impossibility of DNA evolution. And Dr. Behe, the biochemist, with his knowledge of complex biomolecular systems, developed the theorem of irreducible complexity: ”For a single system composed of a number of well-matched interacting parts, where all contribute to its basic function, the absence of any single part causes the system to cease.” What this means is simply: All parts in a biological system must be present and functioning at the same time. No part can be developing randomly at its own sweet time and then randomly fitting in correctly with the other parts. All must be together from the start, correctly built and connected together, or the system (e.g., the eye) can never work.

Dembski and Behe and many others have developed ID in a strictly scientific manner. The ID that they all propose is demonstrable. They, of course, do not intend to introduce us to any designer, although some evangelists have tried to latch on to ID! Those among us so concerned about keeping all religion out of our schools should do something about that superstition called evolution.