Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" Biology has progressed tremendously due to the model that Darwin put forth. But the black boxes Darwin accepted are now being opened, and our view of the world is again being shaken. "
Michael Behe
World
Now
View
Related Quotes:
" The question of how the eye works - that is, what happens when a photon of light first impinges on the retina - simply could not be answered at that time. "
Michael Behe
How
Eye
First
" In the 19th century the anatomy of the eye was known in great detail and the sophisticated mechanisms it employs to deliver an accurate picture of the outside world astounded everyone who was familiar with them. "
Michael Behe
Great
Eye
Detail
" By irreducibly complex I mean a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning. "
Michael Behe
Basic
System
Mean
" But sequence comparisons simply can't account for the development of complex biochemical systems any more than Darwin's comparison of simple and complex eyes told him how vision worked. "
Michael Behe
Him
Vision
Eyes
" Thus it seemed to Haeckel that such simple life could easily be produced from inanimate material. "
Michael Behe
Material
Simple Life
Life
" Proteins are the machinery of living tissue that builds the structures and carries out the chemical reactions necessary for life. "
Michael Behe
Structures
Life
Chemical
" The basic structure of proteins is quite simple: they are formed by hooking together in a chain discrete subunits called amino acids. "
Michael Behe
Chain
Together
Structure
" Since natural selection requires a function to select, an irreducibly complex biological system, if there is such a thing, would have to arise as an integrated unit for natural selection to have anything to act on. "
Michael Behe
System
Complex
Natural
" It was a shock to people of the nineteenth century when they discovered, from observations science had made, that many features of the biological world could be ascribed to the elegant principle of natural selection. "
Michael Behe
Principle
People
Science
" We are not inferring design to account for a black box, but to account for an open box. "
Michael Behe
Design
Box
Black
" This fact immediately suggested a singular event - that at some time in the distant past the universe began expanding from an extremely small size. To many people this inference was loaded with overtones of a supernatural event - the creation, the beginning of the universe. "
Michael Behe
People
Small
Time
" Science is not a game in which arbitrary rules are used to decide what explanations are to be permitted. "
Michael Behe
Science
Decide
Game
" In order to say that some function is understood, every relevant step in the process must be elucidated. "
Michael Behe
Step
Understood
Relevant
" It was only about sixty years ago that the expansion of the universe was first observed. "
Michael Behe
Universe
Expansion
First
" It is often said that science must avoid any conclusions which smack of the supernatural. "
Michael Behe
Avoid
Science
Said
" Skin is made in large measure of a protein called collagen. "
Michael Behe
Large
Made
Skin
" It is a shock to us in the twentieth century to discover, from observations science has made, that the fundamental mechanisms of life cannot be ascribed to natural selection, and therefore were designed. But we must deal with our shock as best we can and go on. "
Michael Behe
Us
Natural
Best
" In many biological structures proteins are simply components of larger molecular machines. "
Michael Behe
Biological
Structures
Machines
" The theory of undirected evolution is already dead, but the work of science continues. "
Michael Behe
Work
Dead
Evolution
" Throughout history there have been many other examples, similar to that of Haeckel, Huxley and the cell, where a key piece of a particular scientific puzzle was beyond the understanding of the age. "
Michael Behe
Key
Understanding
Puzzle
" In Darwin's time all of biology was a black box: not only the cell, or the eye, or digestion, or immunity, but every biological structure and function because, ultimately, no one could explain how biological processes occurred. "
Michael Behe
Biology
Structure
Black
" Although Darwin was able to persuade much of the world that a modern eye could be produced gradually from a much simpler structure, he did not even attempt to explain how the simple light sensitive spot that was his starting point actually worked. "
Michael Behe
Simple
Eye
Structure
" The point here is that physics followed the data where it seemed to lead, even though some thought the model gave aid and comfort to religion. "
Michael Behe
Thought
Lead
Religion
" As can be seen even by this limited number of examples proteins carry out amazingly diverse functions. "
Michael Behe
Even
Carry
Seen