Irreducible Complexity Stands Up To Biologist’s Research Efforts
SEATTLE – After several years of claiming that there is no debate about the theory of intelligent design (ID) researchers have published an article bringing the debate to the pages of the latest issue of Science. Three researchers, Jamie Bridgham, Sean Carroll and Joe Thornton claim to have shown how an irreducibly complex system, such as that described by Discovery senior fellow Read More ›
Introduction and Responses to Criticism of Irreducible Complexity
Modern biology has discovered that cells are like miniaturized factories that function using micromolecular machines. In Darwin’s Black Box (1996), Lehigh University biochemist Michael Behe proposed that many of these molecular machines exhibit irreducible complexity and therefore could not have been produced by an undirected Darwinian process. Instead, they appear to be the product of intelligent design. Behe’s book initiated a firestorm of controversy both inside and outside of the scientific community, and the debate continues to rage. As the responses below demonstrate, Behe’s arguments have not been refuted. Indeed, the case for the irreducible complexity of the bacterial flagellum and other molecular machines has continued to grow.
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Irreducible Complexity
Using examples of bacterial motors, cilia, vision, cellular transport, and more, Dr. Michael Behe explains why Darwinian gradualism fails to explain the origin of molecular machines. Through the incorporation of computer animations, this video brings Dr. Behe’s book, Darwin’s Black Box, to life.
Michael Behe on Molecular Exploitation and the Theory of Irreducible Complexity
What Is Intelligent Design?
Intelligent design is a scientific theory which states that some aspects of nature are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than an undirected cause such as natural selection. Design theorists argue that we can find biological structures with the same informational properties we commonly find in objects we know were designed. Design theorists observe that intelligent action produces large Read More ›
Agents Under Fire
In the first study of its kind, Agents Under Fire defends a robust notion of agency and intentionality against eliminative and naturalistic alternatives, showing the interconnections between the philosophy of mind, theology, and Intelligent Design. Menuge argues that Behe’s irreducible complexity is a challenge to reductionism not only in biology, but also in psychology, and shows the inability of the Darwinian psychology Read More ›
Behe’s letter in the WSJ responding to Feb. 13 article by Sharon Begley
“We should reject, as a matter of principle, the substitution of intelligent design for the dialogue of chance and necessity; but we must concede that there are presently no detailed Darwinian accounts of the evolution of any biochemical system, only a variety of wishful speculations.” So lamented Colorado State University biochemist Franklin Harold in “The Way of the Cell” (Oxford Read More ›
Evidence for Design in Physics and Biology
1. Introduction In the preceding essay, mathematician and probability theorist William Dembski notes that human beings often detect the prior activity of rational agents in the effects they leave behind.1 Archaeologists assume, for example, that rational agents produced the inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone; insurance fraud investigators detect certain “cheating patterns” that suggest intentional manipulation of circumstances rather than “natural” …
