The Edge of Evolution

The Edge of Evolution

Author	Michael Behe
Publisher	Free Press
Publication date	June 5, 2007
Media type	Hardcover/Audiobook (August 1, 2007)
Pages	336
ISBN
OCLC	136958644
Dewey Decimal	576.8/2 22
LC Class	QH367.3 .B44 2007

The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism is an intelligent design book by Discovery Institute fellow Michael Behe, published by the Free Press in 2007. Behe argues that while evolution can produce changes within species, there is a limit to the ability of evolution to generate diversity, and this limit (the "edge of evolution") is somewhere between species and orders. On this basis, he says that known evolutionary mechanisms cannot be responsible for all the observed diversification from the last universal ancestor and the intervention of an intelligent designer can adequately account for much of the diversity of life. It is Behe's second intelligent design book, his first being Darwin's Black Box.

While the book has been well received by creationists and non-biologists, reviews by certain scientists, especially those working in the field of biology, have been highly critical of Behe's methods, information and conclusions in the book.

Behe begins the book with an observation that the theory of evolution consists of a coherent relationship of three related ideas: common descent, natural selection, and random mutation. He continues by stating he believes they are distinct ideas, with implications for the theory as a whole; common descent and natural selection he accepts without question but questions the scope and power of random mutation to produce beneficial mutations that lead to novel, useful structures and processes. He terms "Darwinian evolution" the type of evolution relying on all three of these factors, applies the label "Darwinists" to scientists who hold the view that Darwinian evolution is the only existing form of evolution, and who take exception to intelligent design as well as other theistic and non-theistic complexity theories.