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Articles by Jonathan McLatchie
Sunlight And Water Are Uniquely Fit to Sustain Life
Episode 2272 Guest(s) Jonathan McLatchie Duration 00:22:54 Download Audio File (31.4 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/44369/2272.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:22:54 | If the sun didn’t power the photosynthesis of green plants, we wouldn’t be breathing right now. And without the finely tuned properties of water, Earth would be a frozen, lifeless wasteland. Coincidence? Or is something else at work?
Why Carbon is Finely Tuned for Life
Episode 2269 With Andrew McDiarmid Guest(s) Jonathan McLatchie Duration 00:21:13 Download Audio File (29.1 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/44346/2269.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:21:13 | In his book Darwin’s Black Box, biochemist Michael Behe writes that in order to understand the barriers to evolution, we have to “bite the bullet of complexity.” On this classic episode of ID The Future from the...
Why Carbon is Finely Tuned for Life
Episode 2269 With Andrew McDiarmid Guest(s) Jonathan McLatchie Duration 00:21:13 Download Audio File (29.1 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/44346/2269.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:21:13 | In his book Darwin’s Black Box, biochemist Michael Behe writes that in order to understand the barriers to evolution, we have to “bite the bullet of complexity.” On this classic episode of ID The Future from the...
Dave Farina Misunderstands Behe’s Darwin Devolves
In five previous articles (find the full series here), I offered a series of responses to YouTuber Dave Farina’s criticisms of my defense of biochemist Michael Behe’s work. Here, in this final installment, I will engage with Farina’s comments regarding my defense of Behe’s most recent book, Darwin Devolves. Farina remarks, Finally we get to the fourth one, which is about Behe’s third and arguably dumbest book, Darwin Devolves.
In Defense of The Edge of Evolution , a Response to Dave Farina
In four previous articles (find the full series here), I replied to YouTuber Dave Farina’s response to my defenses of biochemist Michael Behe’s work. In this fifth installment, I will engage with Farina’s critique of my comments on The Edge of Evolution. Farina comments, Moving on to number three, we go from Behe’s first garbage book, Darwin’s Black Box, to his second garbage book, The Edge of Evolution, and Jonny doesn’t do any better here.
Has Dave Farina Refuted Behe and Me on the Bacterial Flagellum?
In three previous articles (find the full series here), I offered a response to YouTuber Dave Farina’s criticisms of my defense of biochemist Michael Behe’s work. In this fourth installment, I will interact with Farina’s criticisms of my previous discussion of the bacterial flagellum. As I noted in my first article in this series, Farina had previously claimed that scientists had observed a flagellum evolve in real-time.
Answering Dave Farina on the Vpu Protein in HIV-1
In two previous articles (find the full series here), I revisited YouTuber Dave Farina’s engagement with me on biochemist Michael Behe’s work, noting various substantive issues with Farina’s understanding of the relevant subject matter. In this third installment, I will assess Farina’s discussion of the Vpu protein in HIV-1, which he had previously offered as a counterexample to Behe’s thesis in The Edge of Evolution.
Answering Dave Farina on the Lenski Experiment
In an article yesterday in a developing series, I began to engage with YouTuber Dave Farina’s low-quality response to me from a few years ago, lamenting Farina’s failure to acknowledge substantive mistakes on his part in his previous video. Here, I will revisit the Lenski experiment, and evaluate Farina’s comments in relation to my previous article engaging with this topic. Farina offers the Lenski experiment as a purported counterexample to irreducible complexity.
Let’s Educate “Professor” Dave Farina on Evolution and Design
Three years ago, I published a series of four articles (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) engaging with Dave Farina who had published a video critique of Michael Behe’s three books, Darwin’s Black Box, The Edge of Evolution, and Darwin Devolves. Farina, though not holding a terminal degree in any field, is a popular YouTuber. He is a rather sad example of today’s low-quality Darwin defenders.
On Minds and Machines, Richard Dawkins’s Curious Inconsistency
On Richard Dawkins, arguably the world’s most famous atheist, has spent his career arguing that biology only gives the “appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” In Dawkins’s view, the striking resemblance of living systems to intelligently engineered technology is merely illusory — indeed, the outworking of billions of years of fundamentally mindless processes.
When Dawkins Met Claude, He Forgot About the Cell
Richard Dawkins, arguably the world’s most famous atheist, has spent his career arguing that biology only gives the “appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” In Dawkins’ view, the striking resemblance of living systems to intelligently engineered technology is merely illusory—indeed, the outworking of billions of years of fundamentally mindless processes.
The Combinatorial Abyss: Why the Genetic Code Defies Chance
In previous essays (here, here, and here), we have surveyed various aspects of the genetic code that appear to be highly optimized. So strong is the appearance of fine-tuning that it can hardly be a random accident. We are thus left with two choices — either the genetic code is the result of trial and error, driven by natural selection, or else it is the product of conscious design. In this final post, I will evaluate which of these options is the more likely.
The Genetic Code: Two More Levels of Optimization
In two previous articles (here and here), we considered two ways in which the genetic code is highly optimized for the minimization of errors from point mutations and frameshifts. In this third post, I will consider two additional levels of fine-tuning.
Stop Signals in Disguise: How the Genetic Code Guards Against Frameshifts
In a previous article, I discussed how the genetic code used in life appears to be highly optimized for the minimization of errors that might be introduced through point mutations. Here, I will discuss another astonishing aspect of the genetic code’s design. The genetic code appears to have been set up in such a way to dampen the impact of frameshift mutations. A frameshift mutation occurs as the result of indels (insertions or deletions) of a number of nucleotides that is non-divisible by three.
Introducing the Remarkable Genetic Code
In a previous article, I discussed the implications of the highly optimized set of amino acids commonly used in biological proteins. As we saw, this provides in itself a strong argument for design. Another incredible feature of the genetic code is that the assignments between codons and amino acids is finely tuned to minimize errors that might arise due to mutations.
The Set of Amino Acids Used in Life Is No “Frozen Accident”
Francis Crick described the conventional genetic code as a “frozen accident,” given that once the mapping between codons and amino acids is established it becomes extremely difficult to make significant changes without wreaking havoc on every polypeptide made by the cell.1 In recent decades, scientists have come increasingly to the realization that the genetic code is not random but highly optimized, on multiple levels.
Do the Asgard Archaea Hold the Keys to Eukaryotic Origins?
In 2015, a new superphylum of archaea was reported, having been discovered through metagenomic sequences of sediments collected near a hydrothermal vent known as Loki’s Castle in the Arctic Ocean.1 These microorganisms therefore became known as the Asgard archaea. The first characterized lineage was named Lokiarchaeota, and subsequently discovered lineages were named after other Norse deities — Thorarchaeota, Odinarcheota, and Heimdallarchaeota2,3.
Debating ID, This Critic Is Still Stuck on Old Talking Points
The most recent episode of Unbelievable? features a debate between philosopher Peter S. Williams and biochemist Keith Fox. The focal question was, “Is Intelligent Design Science?” Keith Fox, whom I have debated myself, is one of the more friendly critics of intelligent design. However, disappointingly, Fox’s critiques of ID have not progressed at all since my own debate with him in 2018.
Irreducible Complexity: Reply and Challenge to Stern Cardinale
Daniel Stern Cardinale is an evolutionary biologist on faculty at Rutgers University. We have engaged with Stern Cardinale a few times in the past, and he is for the most part one of the more thoughtful critics of intelligent design. In a recent video on his YouTube channel, “Creation Myths,” Stern Cardinale attempts a rebuttal of the argument from irreducible complexity, a concept first coined by Michael Behe and an argument of choice of mine for years. Click here to display content from YouTube.
Could Genetic Mutations Be Non-Random?
A core tenet of evolutionary biology, ingrained in mainstream thinking for more than a century, is that genetic mutations occur randomly, without respect to the needs of the organism.
Sex: A Masterpiece of Design
Episode 2165 With Andrew McDiarmid Guest(s) Jonathan McLatchie Duration 00:23:33 Download Audio File (17.2 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/43546/2165.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:23:33 | In his landmark book Darwin’s Black Box, biochemist Michael Behe wrote that “to appreciate complexity, you have to experience it.” On today’s ID The Future out of the vault, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes a...
Sexual Reproduction: Engineered for Success
Episode 2162 With Andrew McDiarmid Guest(s) Jonathan McLatchie Duration 00:26:05 Download Audio File (23.9 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/43536/2162.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:26:05 | Sexual reproduction depends on an irreducibly complex core of components for its success. But can we really credit a gradual evolutionary process for this remarkable system?
New Peer-Reviewed Paper Defends Cosmic Fine-Tuning Argument
A paper was published in November last year in the Journal for General Philosophy of Science by Roberto Fumagalli.1 The author, who is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at King’s College London, contends that the probability of the fine-tuning (FT) of the physical properties of the universe to be conducive to complex life is significantly higher on the presumption of non-chance-based explanations than it is on the presumption that it arose purely by chance.
Sex: A Spicy Problem for Evolutionary Theory
Episode 2159 With Andrew McDiarmid Guest(s) Jonathan McLatchie Duration 00:25:04 Download Audio File (18 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/43524/2159.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:25:04 | Sexual reproduction ought to be a recipe for evolutionary disaster. It’s a seeming waste of resources producing little or no short-term advantages. It demands an entirely different form of cell division.
New Paper Argues for the “Unreasonable Likelihood of Being”
The mathematical plausibility of naturalistic origins-of-life scenarios has been a subject about which many of us in the intelligent design community have written. In a new paper made available this summer on the pre-print arXiv.org, systems biology professor Robert E. Endres, of Imperial College London, sought to place an estimate on the mathematical plausibility of chemical evolution.
Bayesian Probability and Intelligent Design: A Beginner’s Guide
Episode 2135 With Andrew McDiarmid Guest(s) Jonathan McLatchie Duration 00:28:30 Download Audio File (17.7 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/43413/2135.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:28:30 | If the phrase “Bayesian calculus” makes you want to run for the hills, you’re not alone! Bayesian logic can sound intimidating at first, but if you give it a little time, you’ll understand how useful it can be to...
To a Pro-ID Paper, Jerry Coyne Reacts with Question-Begging
In 2024, a paper by Olen R. Brown, a professor emeritus in biomedical sciences at the University of Missouri, and David A.
Month: July 2025
Image: RNA polymerase, by Maria Voigt and PDB-101. This image is available under CC-BY-4.0 license. Attribution should be given to PDB-101 and Maria Voigt., CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons.
Evolution News and Science Today
In an article yesterday, I gave an example of recurring design logic in the mechanism of repression of two operons, both of which encode genes involved in the biosynthesis of amino acids — namely, tryptophan and arginine respectively. Here, I will focus on another fascinating, and quite ingenious, aspect of these operons — a secondary control mechanism known as attenuation.
Evolution News and Science Today
In previous articles, I have surveyed various examples of recurring design logic in bacterial systems — in particular, two-component regulatory systems (here) and transcriptional hierarchies (here and here). In this article, I will discuss another example of recurring design logic — the control mechanisms of the expression of operons. Operons, you might recall, are clusters of genes that are transcribed together, under the control of a common promoter.
Evolution News and Science Today
News this month from Imperial College London caught my attention with the provocative headline, “New study shows how bacteria evolved powered-up propellers.” An image caption goes on to say that “Dr. Morgan Beeby’s lab has discovered how some flagella — tiny ‘tail’ propellers used by bacteria for swimming — evolved to be more powerful.” As I read the body of the news item and the original paper on which it is based1, it quickly became apparent that the paper does not demonstrate this at all.
Examples of Recurring Design Logic in Living Systems
Episode 2079 With Andrew McDiarmid Guest(s) Jonathan McLatchie Duration 00:28:53 Download Audio File (39.7 mb) Share Facebook Twitter/X LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/43156/2079.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:28:53 | Architects, painters, musicians, and other creators apply recognizable patterns of thinking to their craft, resulting in a trademark style that sets them apart from others.
Evolution News and Science Today
Skip to content A major obstacle to any explanation of the origins of eukaryotes is the emergence of the non-coding regions of genes known as introns which are largely absent from bacteria. Before we discuss how the origin of introns poses a significant challenge to evolution, it is first necessary to give a short introduction as to what introns are.
Evolution News and Science Today
In previous articles, I have discussed the exquisite design and irreducible complexity of the mitotic cell division apparatus.
Evolution News and Science Today
I recently stumbled across a YouTube channel (“Clockwork”) that has some of the best molecular animations and explanations of biochemistry that I have seen. These are great for college students, or others, to use to learn about biology. Here is one of their animations on DNA replication, a subject I have previously written on: Click here to display content from YouTube. Learn more in YouTube’s privacy policy.
Evolution News and Science Today
In a previous article, I discussed the topic of recurring design logic, with a particular emphasis on two-component regulatory systems in bacteria. As I argued there, recurring design logic is a strong prediction on the hypothesis of design but is otherwise a surprising observation. Here, I will discuss another example of recurring design logic: transcriptional regulatory hierarchies in bacteria.
This ‘Science’ Rally Took A Hard Left Turn. We Were There.
— Opinion — It seems everyone working in a biology lab must now support Antifa. Last Friday we attended a “Stand up for Science” rally in Seattle, Washington. Given that we both have science PhDs, have spent years doing research, and think science is a great tool for investigating the world, we were hopeful we’d find something to agree with. It wasn’t easy.
Month: February 2025
Photo: Francis Collins, by National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) from Bethesda, MD, USA, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons.
Complexity of Glycan Structures Points to Design
A new peer-reviewed paper published by carbohydrate researcher Russell Carlson at the University of Georgia has been published in the journal BioCosmos, which explains the high informational content and complexity of glycans, and why this is best explained on the hypothesis of intelligent design rather than unguided evolutionary processes.1 Indeed, the structural diversity exhibited by glycans is immense — due to variations in the composition of monosaccharides, linkage positions, anomeric...
Prior Probability and the Case for Design
As many readers will know, I am a card-carrying Bayesian when it comes to hypothesis testing. I recently interviewed Tim McGrew (professor of philosophy at Western Michigan University) for the ID the Future podcast on the application of Bayesian reasoning to intelligent design. I have also previously been interviewed by Andrew McDiarmid on the same subject.
McLatchie: Why Cell Division Challenges Darwinism
Episode 2010 With Andrew McDiarmid Guest(s) Jonathan McLatchie Duration 00:19:51 Download Audio File (27.3 mb) Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/42789/2010.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:19:51 | One of the most incredible features of cellular life is the capability of self-replication. But can a Darwinian mechanism take the credit for the origin and design of the cell division process?
Recurring Design Logic in Gene Regulation
A feature of biology that has struck me over the years is the phenomenon of recurring design logic, even across systems that do not appear to be related by descent. This is a feature that is quite surprising on the supposition that a mindless process is responsible for life’s origins, but is precisely what we might predict on the hypothesis that a mind played an important role.
Engineered Elegance: The Checkpoint Pathways of the Cell Cycle
Episode 2008 With Andrew McDiarmid Guest(s) Jonathan McLatchie Duration 00:28:03 Download Audio File (38.5 mb) Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/42777/2008.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:28:03 | One of the most incredible features of cellular life is the capability of self-replication.
McLatchie: How Motor Proteins Power Eukaryotic Cell Division
Episode 2007 With Andrew McDiarmid Guest(s) Jonathan McLatchie Duration 00:22:53 Download Audio File (31.4 mb) Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/42772/2007.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:22:53 | Could the components of the eukaryotic cell division process have arisen through a gradual, unguided process?
McLatchie: Intelligent Design in the Eukaryotic Cell Cycle
Episode 1997 With Andrew McDiarmid Guest(s) Jonathan McLatchie Duration 00:25:56 Download Audio File (35.6 mb) Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flipboard Print https://op3.dev/e/idthefuture.com/podcast-player/42720/1997.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:25:56 | On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid begins a short series with Dr. Jonathan McLatchie delving into the remarkable design and irreducible complexity of the eukaryotic cell cycle.
The Cell Division Challenge to Evolution
In a previous article, I discussed the irreducible complexity of the eukaryotic cell division machinery. What makes the origins of the eukaryotic cell cycle particularly resistant to evolutionary explanations is that a wide gulf exists between the mechanism of cell division by eukaryotes and that employed by prokaryotic cells — both in terms of the protein components involved, as well as the underlying logic. There is essentially nothing in common between the two systems.
Month: November 2024
features original reporting and analysis on the sciences with a particular interest in discovering design in nature and in the impotence of purely material theories like evolution. We also cover the impact of science on culture and promote scientific freedom and discernment.
Irreducibly Complex
I have previously published several articles at Evolution News on the incredible design, and exquisite engineering, of the eukaryotic cell division cycle (see this recent article for links to previous essays on this subject).
A Search Engine for Identifying Orfan Genes
Taxonomically restricted genes are coding sequences that are restricted to a specific taxonomic group and lack recognizable homologs in other groups, including closely related species. The existence of such genes is surprising given the hypothesis of universal common descent — i.e., that all genes have evolved by numerous successive modifications from other genes, tracing all the way back to the last universal common ancestor.
Is Daphnia Evolving at “Lightning Speed”?
A Yahoo! News article offers the sensationalist headline, “An Incredible Organism is Evolving at Lightning Speed – Faster Than We Ever Imagined Possible.” (See Denyse O’Leary’s earlier commentary.) The body of the article itself provides a good summary of the original paper.1 Unfortunately, neither the substance of the paper, nor the popular press summary, support the hyped header. The study identified variation in traits in this tiny crustacean.
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