Evolution debate

I read with interest Eric Priest’s article in the July edition. For readers unfamiliar with the current state of this controversy, my disquiet with the thrust of Eric’s piece is that it gives the impression that all in the garden of Darwinian evolution is rosy. This is not the case. Things are changing, and it Is because of what microbiology has revealed in just the last 30 years. Even high profile evolutionary biologists such as Gerd Müller have conceded (at a Royal Society conference in November 2016) that the Darwinian mechanism of natural selection, operating upon genetic mutations, is incapable of generating novel biological functionality. This is a huge admission, because we have all been taught that natural selection does have creative power.

Eric mentions examples of irreducible complexity such as the bacterial flagellum and asserts that such ‘complex structures [have] been shown to be consistent with evolution’. I could not disagree more. My science background is in electrical and electronic engineering. Engineers are preoccupied with ‘how’ questions, such as ‘How does this work?’ In my view, the attempt by Ken Miller of Brown University to discount the bacterial flagellum challenge falls woefully short of a plausible explanation and has been credibly countered in its turn. Nor is it a “God-of-the-gaps” argument, but that’s beyond the scope of this letter.

Cartoon: Bill McArthur 

However, here’s the problem: speaking to an American audience the Chinese palaeontologist J Y Chen candidly remarked, “In China, we can criticise Darwin, but not the government. In America, you can criticise the government, but not Darwin.” It could have been a UK audience. The science of Darwinism is in deep trouble, but it’s not politically correct – especially in academia – to say so. If anyone is interested in glimpsing the problems with the science, David Gelernter, a brave Yale professor, has recently ‘come-out’ and describes why he completely changed his mind on evolution: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/giving-up-darwin/ 

Guy Douglas, South Queensferry

This article appears in the September 2020 Issue of Life and Work

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