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Topic: Irreducible complexity

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	What is Irreducible Complexity?
		Irreducible complexity is a term used to describe a characteristic of certain complex systems whereby they need all of their individual component parts in place in order to function.
		Behe argues that the less complicated an irreducibly complex systems is, the more likely it is that it could have evolved along an indirect route (that is, either by evolving from a simpler precursor which served a different function or from a more complicated precursor which lost parts).
		In summary, irreducible complexity is an aspect of the Intelligent Design Theory that argues some biological systems are so complex, and so dependant upon multiple complex parts, that they could not have evolved by chance.
	www.gotquestions.org /irreducible-complexity.html (1070 words)

	ipedia.com: Irreducible complexity Article (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Irreducible complexity is not recognised by the wider scientific community who point to lack of evidence and problems with its philosophy.
		Proponents of irreducible complexity argue that the transition from a reptile lung (bellows lung) to a bird lung (circulatory lung) is unlikely since intermediate stages would be a detriment to the organism.
		Irreducible complexity is not an argument that evolution does not occur, but rather an argument that it is incomplete.
	www.ipedia.com /irreducible_complexity.html (1842 words)

	Irreducible Complexity and Michael Behe on Intelligent Design
		By irreducibly complex I mean a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning.
		An irreducibly complex system cannot be produced directly (that is, by continuously improving the initial function, which continues to work by the same mechanism) by slight, successive modifications of a precursor system, because any precursor to an irreducibly complex system that is missing a part is by definition nonfunctional.
		Although the argument from irreducible complexity is essentially a rehash of the famously flawed
	www.talkorigins.org /faqs/behe.html (868 words)

	Irreducible complexity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Irreducible complexity argues that there are some structures where this is not possible - it claims that the constituent parts of these structures would be useless prior to their current state.
		Irreducible complexity is generally dismissed by the majority of the scientific community for its purported lack of scientific value; it is often referred to as pseudoscience.
		Irreducible complexity's value as a scientific proposal fails on a variety of grounds, such as its utilization of a God of the gaps style (an argument from ignorance), and its failure to provide a testable or falsifiable hypothesis as alternative.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Irreducible_complexity (5348 words)

	Irreducible Complexity
		A system performing a given basic function is irreducibly complex if it includes a set of well-matched, mutually interacting, nonarbitrarily individuated parts such that each part in the set is indispensable to maintaining the system's basic, and therefore original, function.
		An irreducibly complex evolutionary pathway is one that contains one or more unselected steps (that is, one or more necessary-but-unselected mutations).
		The degree of irreducible complexity is the number of unselected steps in the pathway.
	www.iscid.org /encyclopedia/Irreducible_Complexity (138 words)

	Irreducible complexity - SkepticWiki (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Irreducible complexity is the doctrine that at least some structures in biology cannot be simplified without causing the entire structure to fail, and that therefore they could not have evolved naturally.
		In this form, the existence of irreducibly complex systems could not be accounted for by means of evolution, it is therefore an argument from design for the existence of God.
		In this light, the several mechanisms for irreducible complexity can be accounted for by means of evolution and natural selection [3].
	www.skepticwiki.org /wiki/index.php/Irreducible_complexity (1182 words)

	Intelligent Design and Irreducible Complexity
		Intelligent Design and its faith in Irreducible Complexity as a driving force in the creation of life is ready made to explain the attributes of Jo Jo.
		Irreducible complexity then arises whenever all the parts of a structure have to be present and functional simultaneously for it to work, indicating that the structure was designed and could not possibly have been gradually built by natural selection.
		This process leads to the formation of gene "families", groups of genes clearly originated from a single ancestral DNA sequence, and that now are diversified and perform a variety of functions (e.g., the globins, which vary from proteins allowing muscle contraction to those involved in the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood).
	www.scari.org /knuckle-walker.html (1379 words)

	Irreducible Complexity: The Challenge to the Darwinian Evolutionary Explanations of many Biochemical Structures
		Other examples of irreducible complexity include the light-sensing system in animal eyes, the transport system within the cell, the bacterial flagellum, and the blood clotting system.
		By defining irreducible complexity in terms of “nonfunctionality,” Behe casts light on the fundamental problem with evolutionary theory: evolution cannot produce something where there would be a non-functional intermediate.
		Evolution simply cannot produce complex structures in a single generation as would be required for the formation of irreducibly complex systems.
	www.ideacenter.org /contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/840 (1549 words)

	Evolution: science and belief; Intelligent Design? A Special Report from Natural History Magazine
		Irreducibly complex systems appear very unlikely to be produced by numerous, successive, slight modifications of prior systems, because any precursor that was missing a crucial part could not function.
		Note that complexity in the sense of improbability is not sufficient to eliminate chance: flip a coin long enough, and you'll witness a highly complex or improbable event.
		In the evolutionary process, an increase in biological complexity does not represent a "free lunch" -- it is bought and paid for, because random genetic variation is subjected to natural selection by the environment, which itself is already structured.
	www.actionbioscience.org /evolution/nhmag.html (6262 words)

	Molecular Machines: Experimental Support for the Design Inference: Behe, Michael
		By irreducible complexity I mean a single system which is composed of several interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, and where the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning.
		An irreducibly complex system cannot be produced gradually by slight, successive modifications of a precursor system, since any precursor to an irreducibly complex system is by definition nonfunctional.
		Recall that by "irreducible complexity" we mean an apparatus that requires several distinct components for the whole to work.
	www.arn.org /docs/behe/mb_mm92496.htm (4435 words)

	A response to Michael Behe -- Darwin's Black Box -- Irreducible Complexity
		Mike Behe has given us a nice introduction to his notion of "irreducible complexity" and the inference of intelligent design of these complex systems that can be made from it.
		Since some of the irreducibly complex features of eukaryotic cells are shared by all eukaryotic cells, then, given an evolutionary scenario, the details of the origin of those features are exceedingly primitive and it may well be impossible to reconstruct the details.
		The irreducible complexity argument questions how such a complex molecular machine functioning in such a complex physiology involving the circulatory and respiratory systems could possibly have evolved step by step.
	www.asa3.org /evolution/irred_compl.html (4622 words)

	Irreducible Complexity - Formal Definition (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Irreducible complexity is a term coined by Michael Behe in "Darwin's Black Box" as a proof for the necessity of a designer in earthly organisms.
		Finally, complexity may have no relationship to the question of design since often (human) designed systems are appreciated for their simplicity whereas complex designs have a notorious side: the Rube Goldberg devices.
		Irreducibility becomes much more difficult to find (in practice) since a predecessor to a system may be either more or less fit than the system and fitness no longer plays a role in irreducibility.
	www.berteig.org /mishkin/IrreducibleComplexity.html (1540 words)

	The Flagellum Unspun
		In the case of the flagellum, the assertion of irreducible complexity means that a minimum number of protein components, perhaps 30, are required to produce a working biological function.
		By the logic of irreducible complexity, these individual components should have no function until all 30 are put into place, at which point the function of motility appears.
		It also demonstrates, more generally, that the claim of "irreducible complexity" is scientifically meaningless, constructed as it is upon the flimsiest of foundations – the assertion that because science has not yet found selectable functions for the components of a certain structure, it never will.
	www.millerandlevine.com /km/evol/design2/article.html (6610 words)

	Rejection of Pascal's Wager: Irreducible Complexity
		Irreducible complexity is a concept that sounds clear enough, yet upon closer examination, it is hard to be certain if it can be applied in any meaningful way.
		Thus a major example used by the supreme master of recognizing irreducible complexity is conclusively shown to be not irreducibly complex.
		Irreducible complexity may not be a meaningless term, certainly some structure (both macro and micro structures) are irreducibly complex in the sense that there may be no simpler way to fulfil the current function.
	www.geocities.com /paulntobin/behe.html (6880 words)

	Critical Characteristics and the Irreducible Knee Joint
		The irreducible mechanism of the knee joint is shown to contain at least 16 critical characteristics, each requiring thousands of precise units of information to exist simultaneously in the genetic code.
		In this paper, the concept of irreducibility is developed further to the level of an irreducible set of characteristics that must exist simultaneously for a mechanism to have any useful function.
		The irreducibility of the knee joint is most clearly demonstrated by identifying the critical geometrical characteristics that must be defined in the genetic code.
	www.trueorigin.org /knee.asp (4135 words)

	Irreducible Complexity and Multiscale Reductionism
		Certain complex systems with high level of frustration and connectivity present a certain hierarchy in their energy landscape which is responsible for the hierarchy of time scales characterizing their multiscale slowing down.
		Recognizing the "irreducibly complex" parts of a complex system (rather than trying vainly to solve them by multiscale means) might be a very important aspect both conceptually and computationally.
		While such irreducible macros might have fortuitous characteristics, lack generality and present non-generic properties, they might be very important if the same set of cores appears recurrently in biological, neurological or cognitive systems in nature.
	shum.cc.huji.ac.il /~sorin/pop.htm/cook/irred.htm (2312 words)

	Behe on Irreducible Complexity and the Evolutionary Literature
		Behe on Irreducible Complexity and the Evolutionary Literature
		Behe claims that science is largely silent on the details of molecular evolution, the emergence of complex biochemical pathways and processes that underlie the more traditional manifestations of evolution at the level of organisms.
		Irreducible complexity and the problem of biochemical emergence.
	www.trueorigin.org /behe04.asp (2826 words)

	Irreducible Complexity
		Those that developed increasingly complex molecules and metabolic processes would have survived and grown more complicated.
		In contrast, irreducible complexity says that the system is useless until it reaches, or comes close to its final form.
		But anything that is irreducibly complex cannot evolve in gradual steps, and thus is very existence refutes the Darwinian theory.
	www.jconline.org /irreducible-complexity.htm (604 words)

	The Panda's Thumb: Irreducible Complexity as an Evolutionary Prediction
		Muller’s definition of “interlocking complexity” is exactly the same as the definition of “irreducible complexity” – a system of mutually independent parts that requires all those parts to be present for the system to work.
		“‘Irreducible complexity’ is one of those things the ID people have gotten a lot mileage from, but every competent biologist immediately recognizes its antecedents: Muller’s ratchet.
		Complexity that is NOT irreducible is an unstable and temporary evolutionary condition.
	www.pandasthumb.org /archives/2006/10/irreducible_com.html (3939 words)

	Irreducable Complexity
		The theory of evolution states that complex life evolved from very simple organisms to very complex ones gradually over billions of years.
		His thesis is that there are some parts of organisms that are very complex and could not have evolved their functions in a piecemeal way.
		Therefore it is reasonable to posit that some intelligent being guided the design and development of complex living organisms.
	www.geocities.com /nmonco (219 words)

	Darwin's Black Box
		The implication is that such irreducibly complex structures or machines cannot be built by natural selection because in natural selection, each component must be useful to the organism as the molecular machine is built.
		Cilia are tiny hair-like structures on the outside of cells that either help move fluid over a stationary cell, such as the cells in your lungs, or serve as a means of propelling a cell through water, as in the single-celled paramecium.
		Clearly, the irreducible complexity inherent in many biochemical systems not only precludes the possibility that they evolved by Darwinian natural selection, but actually suggests the strong conclusion that some kind of intelligent design is necessary.
	www.leaderu.com /orgs/probe/docs/darwinbx.html (2670 words)

	Does Irreducible Complexity Imply Intelligent Design? (Skeptical Inquirer November/December 2005)
		the notion of irreducible complexity is nonsense” (1999, p.150).
		It is evident that for Behe, the complexity in question is part of his idea, which points to design as the alternative to evolution.
		Here, the relationship between probability and complexity is the opposite of the one prescribed by Dembski’s definition (but compatible with the definition of Kolmogorov complexity [see the box to the right and, for example, Chaitin 2003]).
	www.csicop.org /si/2005-11/id.html (2938 words)

	Evolution of 'irreducible complexity' explained
		The scientists used state-of-the-art statistical and molecular methods to unravel the evolution of an elegant example of molecular complexity – the specific partnership of the hormone aldosterone, which regulates behavior and kidney function, along with the receptor protein that allows the body's cells to respond to the hormone.
		The point of "irreducible complexity" is that a mechanism cannot function unless all the parts are present, in other words, "piecemeal evolution" doesn't address irreducible complexity.
		Irreducible complexity didn't evolve, it was designed and put in place by some unknown agency that there is no evidence for, yet should be obvious to anyone.
	www.freerepublic.com /focus/f-backroom/1610396/posts (3655 words)

	Evolution of 'irreducible complexity' explained
		Advocates of Intelligent Design argue that such systems are "irreducibly complex" and thus incompatible with gradual evolution by natural selection.
		Thornton and coworkers used state-of-the-art statistical and molecular methods to unravel the evolution of an elegant example of molecular complexity — the specific partnership of the hormone aldosterone, which regulates behavior and kidney function, along with the receptor protein that allows the body’s cells to respond to the hormone.
		"So-called irreducible complexity was just a reflection of a limited ability to see how evolution works.
	www.eurekalert.org /pub_releases/2006-04/uoo-eo040406.php (464 words)

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