On January 1982, judge William K. Overton, during a famous law case in Arkansas, handed down a decision that creationism is not a scientific theory. One of the arguments for creationism was an argument from design. Later it became a fundamental argument for intelligent design theory which presently, in author’s opinion, is the most important alternative to theory of evolution. Author is critical about intelligent design theory. In his opinion, it is a theory which requires us to pretend we know less than we really do about living organisms, design, engineering, and information theory. It demands us to set aside simple and logical evolutionary explanations of design flaws in living organisms and to accept a vague theory that seemingly explains everything by stating: „that is the way the designer made it”. Thus, it is only an argument from ignorance, whereas modern biology offers new evidence that organisms emerged gradually in the process of evolution.
It is a review of Michael J. Behe’s book titled Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical CHAllenge to Evolution (The Free Press, New York 1996), containing the criticism of evolutionary theory. Author criticizes Behe’s thesis that irreducible complexity of biochemical systems suggest they were designed by an intelligent designer, i.e. that they were not produced gradually by the working of natural selection. According to the author, irreducible complexity can be a result of the action of evolutionary process called gene duplication. He also thinks that the reference to the supernatural factors to explain phenomena occurring in nature has the same value as explanations invoking miracles, and this, according to him, cannot be described as a scientific practice. Scientists should hold on to the principle of methodological naturalism.