BioS 90-11; CRN 5422
3 Credits
TR 10:45-12:00 
Professor Michael Behe

 

Popular Arguments of Evolution

 

Is life on earth the inevitable result of terrestrial chemical processes? Is there evidence that life here was “seeded” by beings from another planet, as a Nobel laureate scientist has suggested? How could bats and whales be descended from a common ancestor? To intelligently evaluate arguments on such questions requires the ability to weigh the occurrence of wildly improbable biochemical events against the availability of vast quantities of time and matter.

In this course we will critically evaluate arguments that are addressed to the general public on the topic of evolution. The factual evidence used to support various positions and the reasonableness of conclusions based on extrapolation of the evidence will be examined from a scientific viewpoint.

course materials
Books: The Blind Watchmaker, by Richard Dawkins and  Darwin’s Black Box, by Michael J. Behe
Videos:  “Monkey Trial”, produced by PBS; portions of “Evolution”, a nine-part series produced by PBS;  “Unlocking the Mystery of Life”, produced by Illustra  Media.

required assignments
Active class participation, student debates on a facet of evolution, student presentation of a controversial topic in biology, final paper on the public debate on evolution.

Professor Behe is a biochemist who has done research on sickle cell disease and aspects of DNA and protein structure. He is most notorious for writing Darwin’s Black Box, a book that questions Darwinian evolution, and proposes that at least some parts of life were purposely designed by an intelligent agent. He has appeared on national TV and radio to talk about his peculiar ideas.