The Engineering Prowess of the Blood Clotting Cascade

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

Science, Philosophy, Astronomy, Society & Culture, Life Sciences

4 • 993 Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The vertebrate blood coagulation system is a delicately regulated marvel that helps maintain the integrity of the circulatory system. Over 20 years ago, Michael Behe argued it was an example of an irreducibly complex system. Does Behe's claim still hold up today? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid speaks with fellow Scotsman Dr. Jonathan McLatchie about his new article series examining recent claims that an evolutionary pathway has been identified for this incredible process. McLatchie is a fellow and resident biologist at the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Forensic Biology, a Masters degree in Evolutionary Biology, a second Master’s degree in Medical and Molecular Bioscience, and a PhD in Evolutionary Biology. In their conversation, McLatchie describes how the blood clotting cascade works and why it poses a challenge for evolutionary theory. "Evolution doesn't perform particularly well when you need to make multiple co-dependent mutations," he says. McLatchie explains just how delicately regulated the blood coagulation system is and defends Behe's argument for the cascade, saying it exhibits irreducible complexity in spades. McLatchie also critiques recent proposals by the late biochemist Dr. Russel Doolittle, who claims to show a step-by-step evolution of vertebrate blood coagulation. McLatchie notes that Doolittle helps himself to irreducibly complex components as he attempts to explain its origin, inadvertently helping to confirm Behe's arguments in the process. Read McLatchie's 3-part article series on the blood clotting cascade at evolutionnews.org.

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0:00.0	I. Greetings and welcome to ID the future. I'm Andrew McDermott, your host. I'm sitting down today with Dr. Jonathan McClatchy, fellow and resident biologist at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture.
0:24.8	Previously, Jonathan was an assistant professor at Sadler College in Boston,
0:29.6	where he lectured biology for four years.
0:32.0	He holds a bachelor's degree in forensic biology,
0:34.6	a master's degree in evolutionary biology, a second master's degree in
0:38.9	medical and molecular bioscience, and a PhD in evolutionary biology. His research interests include the scientific
0:46.2	evidence of design and nature, arguments for the existence of God, and New Testament scholarship.
0:52.4	Jonathan is also founder and director of Talk About Doubts.com.
0:57.0	Jonathan, welcome to the podcast.
0:59.0	Great to be here. Thanks so much for having me on again.
1:01.0	Absolutely. You know, the first thing I should note is that Jonathan hails from Bonnie Scotland,
1:07.0	which is also my homeland, in case you haven't noticed listeners.
1:10.8	So I think this might be the first time that two Scotsmen have graced the microphones on ID the future.
1:16.3	It only takes one.
1:18.3	It does only take one, yeah. But here we have two and I don't think it'll be the last time.
1:23.0	So, Jonathan has recently posted a series of three articles at evolution news.org about the blood clotting cascade
1:31.0	and why it poses a challenge for Darwinism. He also responds to proposals
1:35.9	put forth by the late biochemist Dr Russell Doolittle that attempt to explain this amazing
1:41.4	system through evolutionary pathways.
1:44.0	So Jonathan, in your first article in this series, you call the blood clotting cascade
1:49.0	an incredible tightly regulated multi-component cascade that intuitively points to
1:54.7	intelligent design." And it's true the more one learns about this amazing
	...

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