Günter Bechly

We are shocked and grieved to report the death of our friend and colleague Günter Bechly, on January 6 in an auto crash in Austria. He was 61. “There is no easy way to say this,” said Center for Science and Culture Managing Director John West yesterday morning when we all found out. I could feel my scalp tighten from the grim tone of his voice before I even knew what was coming. Now try in vain to imagine how Bechly’s wife, Luise, and his two young sons are feeling. It seems beyond inadequate to wish them comfort. What can one say about Günter as a man? As a colleague, he probably worked most closely with biologist Richard Sternberg, most recently on the “waiting time” problem for evolution. They spent personal time together and Sternberg even had the opportunity to introduce Bechly’s sons to the Pacific Ocean. I suppose because most of us at Discovery Institute are English-speakers, Günter’s Germanness was a point of charm with a bit of foreign exoticism. And yet, says CSC Associate Director Casey Luskin, once you got to know him, “Günter was also very gentle, a softy on a level with Paul Nelson,” another scientist in our circle known for that quality. To be a softy like Dr. Nelson is quite an accomplishment. The essay with Meyer, “The Fossil Record and Universal Common Ancestry,” was a key contribution. It “highlight[s] the many discontinuous or abrupt appearances of new forms of life in the fossil record — a pattern that contradicts the continuous branching tree pattern of biological history postulated by proponents of universal common descent.” In that tour de force , they reviewed 19 fossil explosions in the history of life that testify against Darwinism and support design. However, Casey Luskin offered an encouraging thought. He was talking yesterday with Dr. Wells’s widow, Lucy Wells. She was upbeat and said, “ID is unstoppable,” despite the death of these two towering figures. Luskin agreed: “If you took Discovery Institute, put everyone on an airplane, and God forbid, dropped us in the ocean, ID would go on and even thrive. I’m devastated by the loss of my friend Günter but ID is bigger than all of us and anyone who looks at the evidence will find this is true.” With all the publications and other writings, the publicly available teaching, extensive mentoring, and so much other outreach to the world, the fire has already been lit, by Günter and Jonathan and many other scholars. Farewell to Günter Bechly, our friend, co-worker, and teacher, who helped light the fire. It cannot be unlit. Comfort to his family, for whatever that may be worth. We will all miss you for a very long time. More to come about this wonderful man.