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Secrets of the Cell with Michael Behe

When Darwin first published On the Origin of the Species, the science of his time saw the cell as an uncomplicated organism. That’s quite the contrast with what we’ve learned in the 150 years since: the deeper we delve into life on the smallest scale, the more we find there is yet to discover. Even the simplest cells are more intricate than the most complex automated factories.

In the five short videos that follow, Dr. Michael Behe shares “secrets of the cell” to show us how evolution’s random mutation and time simply can’t account for the magnificent design we find even on the cellular level. And in each episode, he uses helpful analogies and computer animations to introduce key Intelligent Design concepts.

Behe is one of the principal figures behind the Intelligent Design (ID) Movement, which argues that Nature gives evidence of being intelligently designed. Creationists would agree, but the two groups part ways on who gets the credit. ID proponents refuse to name their Intelligent Designer, leaving room in their tent for Muslims, Moonies, Christians, and even agnostics (some of whom might believe in thousands of years, and others who hold to millions of years). Meanwhile, creationists give glory specifically to God for how fearfully and wonderfully we have been made.

Thus these ID videos, on their own, don’t bring us to the Truth. However, they do a fantastic job of exposing the evolutionary lie.

SEASON 1

Episode 1: Someone Must Have the Answer! (4 minutes)

In the opening episode, Dr. Michael Behe introduces us to “the unseen world of organic micro-machines” contained inside the “most fundamental unit of life,” the cell. He also shares how he first came to question the explanatory power of Darwin’s Theory:

“My own view of the cell took a turn years ago. I was in a lab at the National Institutes of Health doing postdoctoral research; I was discussing the origin of life with a fellow postdoc. As she and I thought about the cell, we wondered, how could its complex membrane, proteins, metabolism, genetic code, how could all that have formed by the accumulation of undirected changes? So we were both sort of stunned by the notion. But then we just laughed it off. We figured that even if we didn’t know the answer, somebody must know…”

But that isn’t what he found.

Episode 2: The Complexity of Life (5 minutes)

One of the key evidences of Intelligent Design is how some biological “machines” could not have evolved via any sort of step-by-step process – they need all the steps already in place to function. This is what Behe calls “irreducible complexity” and he gives as one example, the flagellum – a type of “outboard motor” that some single-cell bacterium use to move about.

“[It] has a number of parts a driveshaft, a universal joint, a rotor, bushings, stator, even a clutch and braking system. The motor of the flagellum has been clocked at a hundred thousand revolutions per minute and…removing even one component of this elegant machine destroys its function…”

So how could such an irreducibly complex machine have been “developed blindly, in stages”?

Episode 3: The Power of Evolution (6 minutes)

Behe begins with how bugs are amazing, and far more intricate than anything Man can engineer. In fact, there is a whole field of science called biomimetics, or biomimicry devoted to improving human designs by studying bug and animal mechanisms that are “both precise and purposeful.” Did you know that one bug even comes complete with gears?!? 

Behe talks about mutation and natural selection, and because these are key elements of Darwin’s Theory, Christians sometimes make the mistake of thinking we must oppose and deny their impact. But the way to figure out the truth isn’t simply to hold to a position 180-degrees from that of mainstream science – evolutionists can’t be trusted to be that reliably wrong.

The key difference between evolution and creation is not in whether mutation and natural selection happen, but rather in what they can accomplish. Evolutionists say mutation and natural selection can, together, create wholly new species, accidentally. We argue that the changes possible are of a more minor sort, and the potential for them is largely built-in, or the changes come about as a result of mutations causing information loss, which would be better called devolution.

Episode 4: Effects of Mutation (7 minutes) 

Richard Lenski’s 30-year long E coli bacteria experiment is one of the most popular, and seemingly best examples of evolution observably happening. Mutations had helped the offspring grow faster, and grow bigger than their ancestors.

But what sort of mutations were these? It turned out that they involved broken genes. Thus this was, once again, devolution and did nothing to explain the growth in complexity that would be needed to take us from the simple first molecules to the awesome creature that is Man.

But how does breaking genes help a cell grow faster? Behe notes that just as jettisoning key car parts – maybe the doors, most of the seats, the hood, and cigarette lighter – might allow it to run further on a tank of gas, so, too, some broken genes can increase a cell’s ability to reproduce in a given environment…but only at the expense of the complexity it might need to deal with other circumstances. As Behe puts it, such

“…helpful mutations are not a DNA upgrade.”

Episode 5: The X Factor in Life (8 minutes)

In this conclusion, Behe invites us – challenges us! – to follow where the evidence takes us. This is where Behe gives his most overt pitch for an Intelligent Designer, asking “Who is this Mind?” But he then doesn’t answer his question. So we’re left with his conclusion that there is a Mind behind it – an immensely intelligent, but still unnamed, Designer.

SEASON 2

Episode 6: Bacteria: Superheroes of the Microbial World

While the fifth episode was the original conclusion to the series, it started up again 2 years later, with a sixth, and plans for more.

This time Dr. Behe highlights just how complex even a simple bacterium really is, doing naturally, what no scientists has been able to do via concerted effort, and computer-assisted design. There is, in fact, an astonishing factory – one that would “rival any modern-day fabrication plant” – at work in these small organisms.

What’s so fun here is the amazement evidenced by Behe in all that he shares. He’s making an argument, one that’ll put evolutionists in their place, but he’s also enjoying himself peering closely at the wonders God has put on display on the microscopic scale. We should do likewise. Maybe the most interesting factoid this time around is, did you know that we have almost as many (generally helpful) bacteria residing on and in us as we have cells in our body? Roughly 40 Trillion, give or take a few trillion. But because they are so small, they cumulatively only weigh about 1/300th of an ounce. How’s that for amazing?

Episode 7: Blood clotting: the bodies emergency response team (16 minutes)

In this episode, Dr. Behe highlights how the blood clotting system needs to work to save us from bleeding out due to minor cuts and scrapes. But it also has to work in delicate balance, because if it works too well, it could clot blood in the body, stopping the distribution of oxygen, or causing strokes.

Behe also explores whether there are beneficial mutations. He notes that the answer is yes…. and no. Any advantages that do happen aren’t the sort that would contribute to evolutionary progress.

Conclusion

For more Michael Behe, be sure to check out his full-length free documentary Revolutionary: Michael Behe and the Mystery of the Molecular Machines, which is both an account of the man, and also a history of the Intelligent Design Movement. The film, and our review, can be found here. You can also watch the first five episodes of the series above – the first “seasons” – re-edited into one half-hour-long video here.

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Science Uprising: a revolutionary case for Intelligent Design

The Bible tells us this world and this universe were spoken into being by God Himself, and that Mankind is the pinnacle of His creation (Ps. 8:3-9, Gen. 1:26-28). Meanwhile mainstream science – the sort we read about in the newspapers and get taught in our public schools and universities – says we're only modified monkeys. So which is it? Are we a special creation? Or does the scientific evidence show we're just the products of time and chance? As the six videos below lay out, there's evidence aplenty to undermine mainstream science's modified monkey theory. And while evolution preaches we are matter and nothing more, that turns out to be philosophy, not evidence-based. Each of the videos are between 6 and 8 minutes long, and all are part of the "Science Uprising" project crafted by the Intelligent Design think tank Discovery Institute to "directly confront the false views of science held by the growing number of science popularizers like Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye.” Be aware, though, that Science Uprising is not a specifically Christian argument. In none of these videos is the Bible mentioned, and the Intelligent Designer the series argues for is never specifically named. That means the project, as compelling as its argument is and as professional as the production values are, has a notable shortcoming: it ably tears down evolutionary arguments, but it never raises up God's Truth. If we share this material with non-Christian friends, we need to also point out everyone's need for a Redeemer, and share with our audience who that Savior is, the God-man Jesus. That limitation noted, this whole series is remarkable. This is as succinct and slick a presentation of the Intelligent Design argument as you will ever find. So grab some popcorn, shut off your phone, and for the next hour kick back and enjoy the show! Materialism vs. reality - Episode #1 The Bible says that the universe and all that is in it was created by Someone who is more than it and beyond it. But materialist science tells us "the cosmos are all there is, all there was, and all there ever will be." So is our universe matter and nothing more, and is it anti-science to believe that non-material things like love and consciousness are real? Dr. Jay Richards weighs in. No, you're not a robot made out of meat - Episode #2 Who are we? The Bible says we are physical and spiritual beings – we have a body, but we are more than our body. If I lose an arm and leg, I may have lost 25% of my body, but I am still all there – there isn't 25% less of me. And the evidence agrees. For example, it shows that our immaterial minds – our thoughts – can actually change our material brains. The Programmer - Episode #3 The Bible says we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" by a Master Craftsman. And what does Science say? The materialist scientists reduce us to mere machines. And yet they have to acknowledge that "our DNA code is more complex than any man-made software..." And as Stephen Meyer explains, our observations of the world show us "information always arises from an intelligent source." You don't suck - Episode #4 The Bible declares that Man is something special, created in the very image of God (Gen. 1:26-28). Materialist science has a very different perspective. As Bill Nye puts it, "I am a speck on a speck, a whirling speck, among still other specks in the middle of specklessness....I suck!" At the same time, scientists are discovering that this supposedly purposeless universe seems to be especially and improbably fine-tuned to not just support life but to enable us to thrive. How do the materialists explain that? By proposing this is just one of millions or billions or trillions of universes out there, and this is the one where everything came out just right. One problem: as physicist Frank Tipler explains there's exactly as much evidence for this "multiverse theory" as there is for the existence of unicorns and leprechauns. The origins of life - Episode #5 The Bible says that life was designed, and came about by an extraordinary supernatural act of God. In contrast, materialist science says that life came about by simple, random, unguided chemical interactions. But if life really could come about by sheer unintended luck, then why haven't the world's most brilliant scientists – with their billions of dollars in equipment, awesome computing power, refined chemicals, and ready blueprints all around them – ever been able to create life on purpose? Mutations break; they don't create - Episode #6 The Bible says that due to Man's Fall into Sin the perfect world that God created is broken, and wearing out (Isaiah 51:6, Ps. 102:25-25). In this worldview it is no surprise that mutations are harmful, causing things like cancer. It's no surprise because Christians understand that we as a species are breaking down. But evolutionary theory says Mankind is the end result of a long process of beneficial mutations that changed us and improved us, progressing upward from life's simple origins as a single cell, to eventually evolve into the incredibly complex creatures that we are today. Evolution says that we as a species are improving. So which worldview fits best with the evidence? Do we see mutations improving us, or harming us? A closer look at the science shows that mutations don't have the type of creative power that evolution proposes and needs. The picture at the top of the page is a screenshot from episode #6....


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