Book review of Michael Behe

Michael Behe:
DARWIN's BLACK BOX (1996)

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Behe is skeptical about Darwin's theory of evolution because cells are too complex to have evolved spontaneously. Most cellular systems are "irreducibly complex", i.e. they could not work without some of their parts. If one of the parts is not there, the system does not operate, and therefore cannot reproduce and evolve. Such systems cannot be built by gradual evolution: too many of their parts must be there in order for them to be able to start evolving. Their structure cannot be due to evolution because their function cannot be built incrementally. For example, a mousetrap is not a mousetrap until it has a spring: a mousetrap with the spring cannot evolve from a mousetrap without a spring because the latter would have no function, therefore would simply not reproduce.
Organisms are even more complex than mousetraps: they require sophisticated mechanisms for storing and transporting enzymes and proteins, among other things. The cell is too complicated, and it needs to be that complicated in order to be a living cell, and therefore it cannot have evolved from something that was less complicated. Behe concludes that life must have been designed by an intelligent agent.