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Irreducible Complexity and Evolution:
Michael Behe — Criticisms & Responses
I.O.U. — Below are some useful resources for thinking about irreducible complexity; additional resources, that have been more thoroughly evaluated, will be here soon, probably by mid-October 2010.
making claims for Irreducible Complexity and questioning the sufficiency of natural evolution:
• Irreducible Complexity in a Nutshell (or PDF) from the IDEA Center
• Irreducible Complexity: The Challenge to the Darwinian Evolutionary Explanations of many Biochemical Structures from the IDEA Center
and
• Molecular Machines: Experimental Support for the Design Inference by Michael Behe
• Irreducible Complexity Revisited by William A. Dembski
criticizing claims for Irreducible Complexity and claiming the sufficiency of natural evolution:
• FAQs about Molecular Biology, Irreducible Complexity, and Evolution from Talk Origins (ed. Mark Isaak)
• Irreducible Complexity Demystified by Pete Dunkelberg
• Answering the Biochemical Argument from Design by Kenneth Miller
• Irreducible Complexity from Wikipedia
• Complexity (Yes!), Irreducible (Maybe!), Unexplainable (No!): A Creationist Criticism of Irreducible Complexity by Terry Gray (in 1994, before the publication of Darwin's Black Box!)
• The Mullerian Two-Step: Add a part, make it necessary; or, Why Behe's "Irreducible Complexity" is silly by Douglas Theobald (for Talk Origins)
• Behe's Criticism of Evolution in Biochemistry Textbooks by Laurence Moran (for Talk Origins)
• Is the Complement System Irreducibly Complex? by Mike Coon (for Talk Origins)
Basic Ideas
• Irreducible Complexity — Definitions and Evolutionary Implications by Craig Rusbult
Pro-and-Con Combinations:
Bacterial Flagellum — Is it irreducibly complex? Could it evolve?
• from Michael Behe and ARN: verbal description and picture /
• audio interview of Mike Behe — by Casey Luskin for ID the Future
• The Flagellum Unspun: The Collapse of "Irreducible Complexity" by Kenneth Miller, plus Still Spinning Just Fine: A Response to Ken Miller by William Dembski
• Stepwise Formation of the Bacterial Flagellar System by Renyi Liu & Howard Ochman
• Summary of Proposed Evolutionary Scenario from Talk Origins (ed. Mark Isaak)
Miller (post-Dover) on flagellum [6 min] -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_HVrjKcvrU
Minnich [xx min] -- http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/bacterial-flagella-a-paradigm-for-design/7709113
• Publish or Perish: Some Published works on Biochemical Evolution edited by John Catalano
• Irreducible Complexity and the Evolutionary Literature: Response to Critics by Michael Behe
And regarding analogous questions about scientific publications supporting Intelligent Design:
• The Elusive Scientific Basis of Intelligent Design Theory by George Gilchrist
• Correspondence with Science Journals: Response to Critics Concerning Peer-Review by Michael Behe
• Darwin v. Intelligent Design (Again) by Allen Orr
• Philosophical Objections to Intelligent Design: Response to Critics by Michael Behe (re: Orr and others)
• H. Allen Orr Responds
• The Evolution of Vertebrate Blood Clotting by Ken Miller
• In Defense of the Irreducibility of the Blood Clotting Cascade: Response to Russell Doolittle, Ken Miller and Keith Robison by Michael Behe
• A True Acid Test by Ken Miller
• A True Acid Test: Response to Ken Miller by Michael Behe
• Darwin's Black Box: Irreducible Complexity or Irreproducible Irreducibility? by Keith Robison
• Behe Responds to Postings in Talk Origins Newsgroup by Michael Behe [not directly about the review above]
OTHER LINK-PAGES about Irreducible Complexity, from:
• Talk Origins (mixed, mainly anti-IC)
• Infidels (mixed, mainly anti-IC)
•
• Articles on Evolution (re: irreducible complexity and more) in Boston Review (mixed, mainly anti-IC)
Specified Complexity (a related topic)
• No Free Lunch - book review by Allen Orr
• Sheer vs. Real Possibilities: A Response to Allen Orr by William Dembski
Behe Responds to Postings in Talk Origins Newsgroup by Michael Behe
In Section 4 they explain how "biochemical processes frequently... are the
product of a large number of overlapping, slightly different and redundant
processes" which "simultaneously accounts
for the stability of evolved biochemical systems and processes in the face
of even quite radical perturbations, for
biochemical
and metabolic plasticity, and, mainly as a result of gene duplication, for
extant structures and processes to get co-opted in the course of evolutionary
time, to serve novel functional ends."
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