Darwin’s Black Box
I am re-reading Darwin’s Black Box by Michael Behe. It provides the best critique of Darwinism (e.g. macro-evolutionary theory, or the theory that the origins of all life are through random, unguided natural selection) that I have read to date. In the ten years since this book was first published, I have yet to read a rigorous critique of this book by a scientist.
In it, Behe provides compelling scientific argument that the ‘irreducible complexity’ of the biochemical building blocks of life point to the existence of a guiding, directing force—e.g., that random, unguided natural selection is not the best scientific explanation for the observed complexity in the building blocks of life. What this guiding, directing force might be, he does not get into.
I appreciate this book because Behe is not a philosopher or theologian, and hence provides observation and theory only through the lens of scientific method. His theory is that the enormous complexity observed in the biochemical world may indicate that a guiding force, or ‘intelligent designer’ is more likely that an unguided natural selection. He does not theorize as to what this ‘guiding force’ is (God, aliens, whatever). If you are after a book that ‘disproves’ Darwinism/evolutionism, or ‘proves’ the existence of God, this book is not for you—for science can do none of these things. Science is simply a way of observing, testing, and predicting the material world, and can neither prove nor disprove anything.
I am encouraged by this book. As a person with a scientific background who is also a follower of Jesus, I believe that indeed there was a Designer who created the natural world, and it is affirming to realize, once again, that I do not have to compartmentalize my spirit and my mind—e.g. what I observe in the ‘natural’ or material world is consistent with my faith.
Behe’s theory of ‘irreducible complexity’ is this: “An irreducibly complex system is a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contributes to the basic function, wherein the removal of an one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning. An irreducibly complex system cannot be produced directly (that is, by continuously improving the initial function, which continues to work by the same mechanism) by slight, successive modifications of a precursor system, because any precursor to an irreducibly complex system that is missing a part is by definition non-functional. An irreducibly complex biological system, if there is such a thing, would be a powerful challenge to Darwinian evolution. Since natural selection can only choose systems that are already working, then if a biological system cannot be produced gradually it would have to arise as an integrated unit, in one fell swoop, for natural selection to have anything to act on.”
Behe gives as potential examples of irreducibly complex systems some proteins, cilia, bacterial flagella, and the cascade of blood clotting biochemistry.
Dr. Behe is the Professor of Biological Sciences at Lehigh University, and a noted biochemist. I recommend this book highly.
Prayer and value for money
My TiE group is reading Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy. We were moved by this section from chapter three yesterday morning, on spirit:
“Spirit is a form of energy, for it does work, and whatever does work has power. In the biblical view, it is, of course, the ultimate form of power on which all other forms rest.
To understand spirit as ’substance’ is of the utmost importance in our current world, which is so largely devoted to the ultimacy of matter. It means that spirit is something that exists in its own right–to some degree in the human case, and absolutely so with God. Thoughts, feelings, willings, and their developments are so many dimensions of this spiritual substance, which exercises a power that is outside the physical. Space is occupied by it, and it may manifest itself there as it chooses. This is how Jesus sees our world. It is part of his gospel.
Because we are spiritual beings, as just explained, it is for our good, individually and collectively, to live our lives in interactive dependence upon God and his kingdom rule. Every kind of life, from the cabbage to the water buffalo, lives from a certain world that is suited to it. It is called to that world by what it is. There alone is where its well-being dies. Cut off from its special work it languishes and eventually dies.
This is how the call to spirituality comes to us. We ought to be spiritual in every aspect of our lives because OUR world is the spiritual one. It is what we are suited to. Thus Paul, from his profound grasp of human existence, counsels us, ‘To fill your mind with the visible, the ‘flesh’ is death, but to fill your mind with the spirit is life and peace’ (Romans 8:6).”
Revelation: Prayer, then, is the most powerful force in the world—as prayer acts in the spiritual realm, and moves that energy upon which all other energies in the universe rest. Prayer is thus the most ‘effective and efficient’ use of my time. I know this, if you asked me, I would readily agree with this statement posed to me, but I don’t really ‘own’ it, as it is not reflected in how I spend my time. Theory to practice—this must affect the percentage of my day that I spend in prayer.
There is tremendous freedom, and implication for how I spend my time, in this axiom. Here’s why: Prayer moves from being something I feel I ‘ought’ to do (a goal about which I feel guilty or sad if I don’t pray as often as I’d like) to something that is, quite simply, the best use of my time.
To use business terms, it has the best value for money and the best effort to earnings ratio.
To use engineering terms, it is the most efficient use of my time.
To use physics terms, it is the most elegant solution to any problem.
Being “present” to God
From the letters of Frank Laubach, missionary and champion of literacy; observations from the midst of an experiment to put his attention on God one second of every minute of every day.
January 29, 1930
I feel simply carried along each hour, doing my part in a plan which is far beyond myself. This sense of cooperation with God in little things is what so astonishes me, for I never have felt it this way before. I need something, and turn round to find it waiting for me. I must work, to be sure, but there is God working along with me. God takes care of all the rest. My part is to live this hour in continuous inner conversation with God and in perfect responsiveness to his will, to make this hour gloriously rich. This seems to be all I need think about.
March 1, 1930
The sense of being led by an unseen hand which takes mine while another hand reaches ahead and prepares the way, grows upon me daily. I do not need to strain at all to find opportunity. It piles in upon me as the waves roll over the beach, and yet there is time to do something about each opportunity.
Perhaps a man who has been an ordained minister since 1914 ought to be ashamed to confess that he never before felt the joy of complete hourly, minute by minute–now what shall I call it?–more than surrender. I had that before. More than listening to God. I tried that before. I cannot find the word that will mean to you or to me what I am now experiencing. It is a will act. I compel my mind to open straight out toward God. I wait and listen with determined sensitiveness. I fix my attention there, and sometimes it requires a long time early in the morning. I determine not to get out of bed until that mind set upon the Lord is settled. After a while, perhaps it will become a habit, and the sense of effort will grow less.
These observations are from a man taking action because he was desperately dissatisfied with the status of his relationship with the living God. Laubach wanted to ‘do as he saw the Father doing’, and allow the Lord to lead and to guide, even in the mundane.
This notion of being led by the Lord, of being ‘with Jesus’ in the everyday is one I cannot let go of.
I am grateful for his action-related words—words like will, act, compel, open, listen, wait, determined, fix, attention, requires, set, habit, effort—for these are all words that describe my experience in realising this goal—I find that habits are not formed in my life until after sustained, determined, action. But the result—cooperation with God.
May there be more cooperation in my life, Lord, and less work.
Peace
There is an intersection between the peace that as followers of Christ we use as the ‘umpire’ in our day-to-day decision-making (”Let the peace [shalom] of Christ rule [be the umpire or judge] in your hearts…” Colossians 3:15) and ministry.
“Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting [shalom aleikum—peace be unto you]. If the home is deserving, let your peace [shalom] rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you.” –Matthew 10:11-13
The same Hebrew word, shalom, used in these two verses is more than simply ‘peace’; more than a peaceful ‘feeling’. Shalom in the OT and NT scriptures represents a whole system of peace, tranquillity, safety, well-being, welfare, contentment, success, comfort, wholeness, and integrity that the Messiah offers—and in Matt 10:12 we see that one of the mechanisms through which he offers it is through his disciples.
In my prayer and day-to-day life I am finding the intersection here: as I learn to involve the Lord in the small things of my life; in the ordinary, the seemingly mundane [Lord, what do you want me to get out of this book? Lord, should I go to this meeting or have coffee with that friend? Lord, what are you doing in this person's life and do you want me to help?], the peace I sense in my spirit that leads me to a particular outcome is the same peace/shalom [or system of goodness, integrity, well-being, etc] that I bring to relationships, work, my family, my leisure.
I find that a war zone analogy helps me here. Think of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the equivalent of D-Day in WWII. Just as historians acknowledge that the success of D-Day meant that the outcome of WWII was certain within a few years of landing Allied troops on European soil, so too the final outcome of the war between good and evil, God and Satan, for creation was decided at the resurrection of Jesus.
As it was in WWII, so it is now simply a matter of a ‘mop-up campaign’ between D-Day and the troops arriving in Berlin. We are in the mop-up phase, and we participate in skirmishes, battles, and full-on conflict by bringing the Messiah’s system of peace, love, comfort, wholeness, and forgiveness to bear wherever we go. We are Jesus’ ’shock troops’; his crack troops.
I am led by shalom, and I am to bring shalom to bear wherever I go.
