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.

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.

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 ›

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” …