Behe's Pseudoscience

Pseudoscientist Michael Behe is a relatively famous creationist who suggests that irreducible complexity on the molecular level implies intelligent design. He has a veneer of credibility because he’s a biochemist. Anyway, he recently misinterpreted scientist Joe Thornton’s work, and Thornton took the time to to clarify things. Great response, very educational, and it discusses interesting aspects of evolution I didn’t fully appreciate before (like genetic drift). I like this bit:

Behe erroneously equates “evolving non-deterministically” with “impossible to evolve.” He supposes that if each of a set of specific evolutionary outcomes has a low probability, then none will evolve. This is like saying that, because the probability was vanishingly small that the 1996 Yankees would finish 92-70 with 871 runs scored and 787 allowed and then win the World Series in six games over Atlanta, the fact that all this occurred means it must have been willed by God.

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10/19/09 @ 08:24 PM

Hi

I'm Jim Biancolo, and this is my weblog. It's mostly links to stuff I find interesting (here are some of my favorites), but some stuff is mine. I also created Listology in the previous millennium (raised it from a pup but I stopped playing with it and I felt bad so I gave it away to a good home), and the fitness weblog Lean & Hungry Fitness, which is gone, subsumed, but it was a cool domain while it lasted.

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