Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Being Michael Behe   posted by Razib @ 10/20/2009 11:25:00 PM
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Reading Joe Thornton's response to Michael Behe, I'm struck by the de ja vu that the exchange induces. I remember reading Darwin's Black Box when it came out, and being confused as to why this was such an awesome challenge to evolution, and following the debates in its wake. Behe seems to think he's pwning everyone, when his arguments from outside of his charmed circle seem a bit flimsy and amateurish.

But let's assume that Behe doesn't have any screws loose. There have to be presuppositions which allow for his arguments to seem rock-solid and irrefutable in his own cognitive universe. I know that some readers of this weblog have ID sympathies. Normally I just delete those sorts of comments because I'm an intolerant evolutionist/intolerant of idiocy (your selection of the two options obviously depends on your starting point). But I'm genuinely curious from an anthropological perspective, why does Behe think his arguments are not being refuted over and over? I could go read the ID & Creationist weblogs, but the quality of the comments are low, and individuals like William Dembski deal with an sympathetic audience and seem to demand a level of sycophancy so there's a lot of garbage to wade through.

Rather, I'll leave the thread open to ID believing GNXP readers to flesh out their axioms. Specifically, I want some insight to why Behe is totally unconvinced by all the rebuttals which have been offered in the 15 years since he came on the scene.

(Obviously this is not an invitation to religious argument or preaching)

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