William Dembski, noted promoter of Intelligent Design said recently, emphasis mine:

In the next five years, molecular Darwinism—the idea that Darwinian processes can produce complex molecular structures at the subcellular level—will be dead. When that happens, evolutionary biology will experience a crisis of confidence because evolutionary biology hinges on the evolution of the right molecules. I therefore foresee a Taliban-style collapse of Darwinism in the next ten years. Intelligent design will of course profit greatly from this.

(Source)

No, wait, that wasn’t recent. Those were his comments published in July/August 2004

Has “molecular evolution” or “molecular Darwinism” crumbled in the meantime? Let’s see if there’s any progress in the sciences. I’ll take 10-15 minutes and dig around, and see what I can find.

Emergence and Evolution of B6 Enzymes Experimental Simulation of Steps of B6 Enzyme Evolution Alternatives for and to Pyridoxal-5′-phosphate

Anopheles innate immunity affects Plasmodium development and is a potential target of innovative malaria control strategies. The extent and distribution of nucleotide diversity in immunity genes might provide insights into the evolutionary forces that condition pathogen-vector interactions. The discovery of polymorphisms is an essential step towards association studies of susceptibility to infection.

Introduction Bovine tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic disease of animals caused by infection with the slow-growing, obligate intracellular bacterium Mycobacterium bovis. It is the most complex and difficult multi-species endemic disease currently facing government, the veterinary profession and the farming industry in the UK (Reynolds 2006). Despite sustained (and

costly) implementation of eradication programmes since the 1950s, bovine TB has not been eradicated from either the UK or Ireland. Indeed, there has been a sustained and largely unexplained increase over the last 20 years in parts of the UK (Gilbert et al., 2005).

In order to optimise control measures it is important to investigate the neutral and selective forces which have shaped the current epidemic and to investigate the influence of genetic variation in the pathogen (Smith et al., 2006). Different classes of bacterial genetic marker, which inform on different evolutionary scales, have been identified recently in sequenced M. tuberculosis complex genomes (Gagneux and Small 2007). Deletions and SNPs are well suited to reconstructing the evolutionary history (phylogeny) of these clonal pathogens. This study was undertaken to investigate the molecular evolution of Mycobacterium bovis in the UK and Ireland. Knowledge of the evolutionary history and population structure of M..bovis in the British Isles could lead to the rational development of population-specific diagnostic tests, genotyping tools and vaccines.

2010 – Dartmouth Biologist Makes Major Discovery in Molecular Evolution

In 2004, Erives and collaborator Mike Levine of the University of California Berkeley discovered a second layer of regulatory code in DNA. The next step was to decipher how this regulatory code worked and how it evolved.

The availability of spontaneously occurring genetic variants is an important driving force of biological evolution. Largely thanks to experimental investigations by microbial geneticists, we know today that several different molecular mechanisms contribute to the overall genetic variations. These mechanisms can be assigned to three natural strategies to generate genetic variants: 1) local sequence changes, 2) intragenomic reshuffling of DNA segments, and 3) acquisition of a segment of foreign DNA. In these processes, specific gene products are involved in cooperation with different nongenetic elements. Some genetic variations occur fully at random along the DNA filaments, others rather with a statistical reproducibility, although at many possible sites. We have to be aware that evolution in natural ecosystems is of higher complexity than under most laboratory conditions, not at least in view of symbiotic associations and the occurrence of horizontal gene transfer. The encountered contingency of genetic variation can possibly best ensure a long-term persistence of life under steadily changing living conditions.

I’m no biologist, but molecular evolution seems to be chugging along, let alone Evolution, as a field of study. I’m not sure what Dembski means, but it doesn’t seem to be happening. I’m not clear on the difference between “molecular Darwisnism” and “molecular evolution”, but even if the “darwinism” bit is falsified, that doesn’t mean that Intelligent Design is real. It may mean we’ve discovered different natural mechanisms.

Keep in mind that 2004 was shortly before Intelligent Design had its ass handed to it during Kitzmiller v. Dover.

It’s somewhat interesting that he used “Taliban-style”, considering the Taliban is still very much in existence now.

I can’t believe I missed Evolution-Downfall Day. I was waiting for years, and now I overshot it by a few months!