by Chris Banescu –
The “Biology of the Baroque” documentary explores the amazing patterns, order, and beauty in biology that go beyond what can be explained by Darwinian evolution. In the video, geneticist Michael Denton, author of “Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis” (2016), explains that there are patterns “in the natural world for which you can’t imagine what function it served. And that’s a fantastically serious challenge to Darwinism.”
Denton began wondering about the standard Darwinian explanation of nature while studying the red blood cell to complete his Ph.D. at King’s College in London. He came across many features in biology that did not seem to possess any particular survival benefit. Denton started to realize just how much order in biology was actually non-adaptive. He began to see life more as a piece of baroque artwork than as a purely functional machine.
Transcript from the Biology of the Baroque video (embedded below):
“Ornate mathematical patterns, lavish design, exquisite detail. Nature surpasses even the most talented artists in her extravagant beauty, richness, and deep order. Her forms are marked by an overabundance that cannot be reduced to mere utility. But can such order and beauty be explained by Darwinian evolution? And if it can’t, what does that mean for our understanding of nature? [Read more…]