The most recent and hottest attack on Darwinism comes form Michael Behe, Associate Professor of Biochemistry at Lehigh University in Darwin’s Black Box, NY: The Free Press, 1996.

The thesis of the book is very simple: 1) Irreducible complexity cannot be accounted for by small incremental changes; 2) Life, especially on the molecular level, is often irreducibly complex; 3) Therefore, Darwinism has no explanation for such life.

Further, 1) irreducible complexity is best accounted for by intelligent design; 2) such irreducible complexity exit in living cells; 3) Hence, the best explanation for such life is an intelligent Designer.

Darwin admitted: "If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely breakdown" (Darwin Origin of Species, 6^th ed. NYU, 1988, p. 154).

Evolutionist Richard Dawkins agrees: "Evolution is very possibly not, in actual fact, always gradual. But it must be gradual when it is being used to explain the coming into existence of complicated, apparently designed objects, like eyes. For if it is not gradual in these cases, it ceases to have any explanatory power at all. Without gradualness in these cases, we are back to miracle, which is a synonym for the total absence of [naturalistic] explanation" (Dawkins, River Out of Eden, 83).

"No one at Harvard University, no one at the National Institutes of Health, no member of the National Academy of Sciences, no Nobel prize winner—no one at all can give a detailed account of how the cilium, or vision, or blood clotting, or any complex biochemical process might have developed in a Darwinian fashion. But we are here. All these things got here somehow; if not in a Darwinian fashion, then how?" (Behe, Darwin’s Black Box, 187).

Behe concludes that: "Other examples of irreducible complexity abound, including aspects of DNA reduplication, electron transport, telomere synthesis, photosynthesis, transcription regulation, and more" (Behe, Darwin’s Black Box, 160).

"Life on earth at its most fundamental level, in its most critical components, is the product of intelligent activity" (ibid., 193).

"The conclusion of intelligent design flows naturally from the data itself—not from sacred books or sectarian beliefs. Inferring that biochemical systems were designed by an intelligent agent is a humdrum process that requires no new principles of logic or science" (ibid., 193).

"The result of these cumulative efforts to investigate the cell—to investigate life at the molecular level—is a loud, clear, piercing cry of ‘design!’ The result is so unambiguous and so significant that it must be ranked as one of the greatest achievements in the history of science. The discovery rivals those of Newton and Einstein" (ibid., 232-33).

This is one of the best critiques of Darwinism in a long time. It will be in the center of discussion for some time. It is loaded with good illustration and quotations. It is a strong scientific defense of an intelligent Creator.