From: Howard J. Van Till (hvantill@chartermi.net)
Date: Fri Sep 26 2003 - 11:38:22 EDT
>From: "Steve Petermann" <steve@spetermann.org>
> Dembski wrote:
> "If evolutionary biologists can discover or construct detailed, testable,
> indirect Darwinian pathways that account for the emergence of irreducibly
> and minimally complex biological systems like the bacterial flagellum, then
> more power to them--intelligent design will quickly pass into oblivion."
That's an interesting statement, not only for its expression of willingness
for ID to be shown superfluous, but for raising the following question:
Dembski goes to great length in his books and papers to argue that the
bacterial flagellum does indeed display the quality of "specified
complexity" ("irreducible complexity" is a special case of "specified
complexity"). He also asserts repeatedly that any object that possesses this
quality could not possibly be actualized by the joint effect of all natural
causes. Here, however, he suggests that it is not impossible that
evolutionary biologists some day find a way to account for the formation of
the flagellum by natural means. So, does the flagellum actually display
specified complexity or not?
Howard Van Till
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