At Origins' Margins | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Free Newsletters:

RSS Feeds |

Audio |

Twitter

Home > 2008 > March (Web-only)

Christianity Today, March (Web-only), 2008 |

Review

At Origins' Margins

Michael Behe wonders how much Darwinism can really explain.

Stephen H. Webb | posted 3/27/2008 08:39AM

3 of 3

Evolution is such a sensitive topic for the scientific community that Behe will be dismissed as a fringe thinker, but he does not think the edge of evolution is Darwin's undoing. Behe is a reformer, not a revolutionary. He wants to divide the Darwinian cake into small pieces so that he can be picky about what he accepts. Whether he has gotten to the bottom of Darwinism, he has shown that it lacks explanatory depth. Behe holds out the possibility that the progress of science, more than the claims of theologians, will undermine the dogmas of Darwin.

Stephen H. Webb is professor of religion and philosophy at Wabash College.

Related Elsewhere:

The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism is available from ChristianBook.com and other retailers.

Books & Culture also reviewed The Edge of Evolution.

The Discovery Institute lists Behe's articles.

Christianity Today profiled Behe's work in a two-part 1997 article.

Our recent coverage of intelligent design include:

ID Tagged | Faculty member at Iowa State University denied tenure for supporting intelligent design. (January 10, 2008)

Living with the Darwin Fish | Why the discovery of yet another 'missing link' doesn't destroy my faith. (March 12, 2007)

first page |

3 of 3

share this page

March (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52

E-mail this page

Write CT

Print this article

Post a comment

Reader Reviews are below

Subscribe to Christianity Today and get 3 free trial issues. No credit card required.

Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only.

If you decide you want to keep Christianity Today coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive nine more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The three trial issues are yours to keep, regardless.

Click here for international orders

2-for-1 Gifts!

[Reader Reviews]

Average User Rating:

Displaying 1 - 3 of 72 comments.

See all comments

David vun Kannon, FCD

Posted: April 07, 2008 1:02 PM


Webb leads off with a misleading half-quote. Why does a Christian publication accept this kind of shoddy writing? The author's own prejudices make anything written by Behe or about Behe of secondary importance. Try taking the high road of seeing God's glory in the world, revealed in ever more detail by science.

Alt	Posted: March 31, 2008 10:57 PM


Christianity Today Poll(Alt.) Shud the world interfere if those negators below be in trouble? Should world leaders protest China's hosting the 2008 Olympics? No, the Olympic Games aren't about reforming host countries. 23% No, China seems to be improving and shouldn't be discouraged. 5% No (other) 7%

Jafar

Posted: March 31, 2008 2:10 PM

Mr. Webb seems to fall into the Strobel-esque trap, selectively quoting a few individuals in a given field, and conflating their status to make it seem as though they in fact are legitimate opposition. The trap is further identified by there being no direct quotations from actual pro-science evolutionary biologists. Virtually all individuals who question the mechanisms of natural selection and gene mutations do not have an adequate understanding of evolutionary theory. Mutation rates HAVE been proven to support evolution. There ARE plentiful mechanisms by which genetic information increases. There is NO distinction between micro and macroevolution. Intelligent Design, and it's ancestor, Creationism, does a disservice both to religion and science.

The allotted time for commenting has ended.