Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution

by Michael J. Behe

Touchston Books/Division of Simon and Schuster

Michael Behe shook up the evolution/creation debate with this compelling book. He introduced the idea of inrreducible complexity--that some biological "machines" such as the eye are so complex that all components must have been in place for any of the components of the eye to be useful. This argument undermines one of the basic requirements of evolution--that changes occur slowly and gradually. Behe contends that there is no logic to support a gradual development of the pieces of the incredibly complex biological machinery that occur from the "simple" cell to large organs when the machine will not function at all in an incomplete stage.

This is thought provoking reading. While Behe includes some science that might baffle those without scientific backgrounds, the ideas will still be understandable to intelligent readers.

Behe takes no religious position but discusses the issue purely on scientific grounds.