Behe, Michael J. 1952-

PERSONAL:

Born January 18, 1952, in Altoona, PA; married; children: eight. Education: Drexel University, B.S., 1974; University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D., 1978; National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, postdoctoral research, 1978-82. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Bethlehem, PA. Office—Department of Biological Sciences, Lehigh University, Iacocca Hall, Room D-221, 111 Research Dr., Bethlehem, PA 18015. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Queens College, of the City University of New York, New York, NY, assistant professor of chemistry, 1982-85; Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, faculty member, 1985—, currently professor of biological sciences. Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, senior fellow.

MEMBER:

International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design (fellow).

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, Free Press (New York, NY), 1996, 10th anniversary edition, Free Press (New York, NY), 2006.

(With William A. Dembski and Stephen C. Meyer) Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe: Papers Presented at a Conference Sponsored by the Wethersfield Institute, New York City, September 25, 1999, Ignatius Press (San Francisco, CA), 2000.

(With T.D. Singh) God, Intelligent Design and Fine-Tuning: A Discussion between Michael J. Behe and T.D. Singh, Bhaktivedanta Institute (Calcutta, India), 2005.

The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism, Free Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to books, including Darwinism, Design and Public Education, edited by J.A. Campbell and S.C. Meyer; and God and Design: The Teleological Argument and Modern Science, edited by Neil Manson. Contributor of articles to biochemical journals, including Protein Science, and other periodicals, including Boston Review, American Spectator, and New York Times.

SIDELIGHTS:

Scientist Michael J. Behe has become well known for his work questioning Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and for his support of "intelligent design," or ID, as an explanation of the creation of the universe. Some religious bodies, particularly fundamentalist Protestants, have objected to Darwin's ideas on faith-based grounds and have embraced intelligent design, which presupposes the involvement of a creator. Behe, however, has said that his religion, Roman Catholicism, was not factored into his scientific ideas. In parochial school, he told Pittsburgh Post-Gazette interviewer Pamela R. Winnick, he was taught that evolution "was God's way of making life through natural laws. That seemed fine with me. It was only when I learned of scientific problems with the theory of evolution that I became skeptical of it." Contributing to his skepticism was Australian geneticist Michael Denton's book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, which asserted that the great complexity of the cell could not have occurred randomly. Behe further told Winnick that some things cannot be improved gradually, as Darwin's theory posits, giving the example of a mousetrap: "Take one part away and the trap doesn't work." Statements like this one have earned Behe the nickname "the Mousetrap Man."

Behe's first book, Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, details his problems with Darwin's ideas. The "black box" of the title is the cell, and biochemists began to open this box only in the 1950s. The structures and systems they found were so complex, according to Behe, that they bring some aspects of the theory of evolution into question. He does not reject evolution overall, but says it cannot account for what he terms the "irreducible complexity" of certain systems, which fail if any part is missing—his mousetrap metaphor. Therefore, he says, an intelligent designer—not necessarily God—must have been involved.

Behe has acknowledged that his view puts him in the minority among scientists, and some reviewers of Darwin's Black Box certainly voiced disagreement with him. H. Allen Orr, writing in the Boston Review, questioned Behe's grasp of evolutionary theory and commented that irreducible complexity can indeed be explained by evolution. "An irreducibly complex system," Orr wrote, "can be built gradually by adding parts that, while initially just advantageous, become—because of later changes—essential." Behe's theory that evolution cannot create such systems, Orr added, is "just plain wrong." In a similar vein, American Scientist contributor Robert Dorit remarked that Behe's "case for intelligent design … is built on some deep misunderstandings about evolution, molecular organization and, ultimately, about the nature of scientific inquiry." Edward B. Davis, however, noted in an essay for the Messiah College Web site that for all the criticism of Darwin's Black Box, some scientists "think that Behe has his finger on a real unsolved problem in evolutionary theory, a problem that invites novel approaches," even though these scientists reject intelligent design.

Behe explains his ideas further in The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism. He writes that evolutionary modifications and random mutations are doubtless responsible for some of the developments and differences in various species. He says that some mutations, though, have occurred at such a rate as to be unexplainable by randomness. His examples include the rapid development of drug resistance in malaria parasites.

While some reviewers again found Behe's theories flawed, others also found value in this book. Joan Roughgarden, writing in the Christian Century, expressed gratitude that Behe "has replaced his early naive claims about irreducible complexity with a more sophisticated argument about whether sufficient genetic variation exists upon which natural selection can act," although she believe this variation does exist. She thought he overemphasized his questioning of random mutation, which, she said, "is not fundamental to evolutionary biology." Noted author, athiest, and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, critiquing the book for the New York Times Book Review, voiced a similar objection, saying that natural selection, not mutation, is key to evolution, and that "if mutation, rather than selection, really limited evolutionary change," the great variation in dogs would be "a mathematical impossibility." Philadelphia Inquirer contributor Cameron Wybrow commented that Behe makes "a serious, quantitative argument about the limits of Darwinian evolution. Evolutionary biology cannot honestly ignore it." Roughgarden, while considering Behe's work "flawed," added: "If Behe is not claiming either divine intervention or miracles, then the dispute between ID and Darwinism comes down to arguing about genetic details of interest mainly to professional biologists. I'd like to think that The Edge of Evolution marks the beginning of a mid-course correction for ID proponents. If so, I welcome it."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, September-October, 1997, Robert Dorit, review of Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution.

Books & Culture, July 1, 2007, Ric Machuga, "No Chance," p. 38.

Boston Review, December, 1996-January, 1997, H. Allen Orr, "Darwin v. Intelligent Design (Again)."

Catholic Insight, March, 2002, Leonard Kennedy, review of Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe: Papers Presented at a Conference Sponsored by the Wethersfield Institute, New York City, September 25, 1999, p. 40.

Christian Century, October 30, 2007, Joan Roughgarden, "A Matter of Mutation: The Evolution of Intelligent Design," p. 24.

Christianity Today, April 28, 1997, review of Darwin's Black Box, p. 15.

Commonweal, October 12, 2007, Kenneth R. Miller, "Faulty Design," p. 31.

Creation, March, 1997, Robert T. Mitchell, review of Darwin's Black Box, pp. 29-30; June, 1998, Carl Wieland, "The Mousetrap Man," p. 17.

Current Biography, February, 2006, Christopher Mari, "Michael J. Behe, Biochemist, Author and Educator," p. 8.

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2007, review of The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism.

New Republic, June 18, 2007, "The Great Mutator," p. 38.

New York Times Book Review, July 1, 2007, Richard Dawkins, "Inferior Design," p. 14.

Philadelphia Inquirer, August 22, 2007, Cameron Wybrow, "Pa. Scientist Again on the Attack in ‘The Edge of Evolution.’"

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 8, 2001, Pamela R. Winnick, interview with Michael J. Behe, p. C1.

Publishers Weekly, April 9, 2007, review of The Edge of Evolution, p. 45.

Science, June 8, 2007, Sean B. Carroll, "God as Genetic Engineer," p. 1427.

ONLINE

Counter Balance,http://www.counterbalance.net/ (January 13, 2008), brief biography of Michael J. Behe.

Does God Exist Web site,http://www.doesgodexist.org/ (May 1, 1997) review of Darwin's Black Box.

International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design Web site,http://www.iscid.org/ (January 13, 2008), brief biography of Michael J. Behe.

Lehigh University Web site,http://www.lehigh.edu/ (January 13, 2008), brief biography of Michael J. Behe.

Messiah College Web site,http://home.messiah.edu/ (January 13, 2008), Edward B. Davis, "Of Gods and Gaps: Intelligent Design and Darwinian Evolution."