Its survival of the fittest and Darwinism is not adapting well to the modern environment. Competition was not as intense 150 years ago, resources were scarce (not much was known about the complex nature of life) but there were fewer theories struggling for the limited natural resources available. Not much was known about the living cell in Darwin’s day, it was in effect, a “black box”, something that could not be looked into like we can today with our high powered microscopes and was considered simplistic to today’s standards. DNA was not discovered until 10 years after Darwin’s Origin was written and it was not until the 1950’s that a correct understanding of its function was known. Since then there has been an explosion of information about the living cell; the voluminous information stored in the DNA, cell replication and specialization, etc., etc. All of this knowledge makes it harder for Darwinism to compete as a plausible explanation for how life began. Darwinist explanations require randomness and multi-celled organisms require a front loaded plan in order for a cell to replicate and specialize to form various organs in the new living being. Evolution does not do “front loading” and so these ideas are antithetical by nature and the pressure on Darwinism just gets worse as the scientific knowledge increases, how can it possibly survive?

If the scope of Darwin’s work was to show evolution as a means of species adapting to their environment or slight genetic changes within species leading to rare genetic enhancements, there would be no issues at all, since “evolution” does a good job with those types of things.  But Darwin sought to explain the Origin of Species, and this we are finding out Darwinian Evolution can not help us with.  Mike Behe showed the “Edge of Evolution” and that genetic changes coupled with natural selection have a very limited scope in providing positive mutation withing a species.  He also demonstrated that “Irreducible Complexity” provides a wall that genetic adaptation cannot hurdle.

We are finding out that the “simplest” cell is complex beyond our wildest imaginations.  That life at the cellular level is a source of wonder and amazement, that even with 50 years of research has just begun to be tapped.  All of the “just so” stories of evolution can not begin to explain amazing machines that function withing these microscopic entities.