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Irreducible Complexity


Irreducible Complexity (IC) is the argument that certain biological systems are so complex that the removal of any single interacting part would cause the system to cease functioning much like how a watch will not function if a part is missing. As Michael J Behe points out in his book "Darwin's Black Box" if biological systems were unable to work without every part intact then it would have been impossible for them to have been created by slow gradual changes over time through evolution. 		 

 


The IC argument is strictly a theological attack on science in hopes push faith in creationism. All of its claims failed when tested and have been refuted in peer-review research papers. There has yet to be a single biological example supporting IC. The human eye, bacterial flagellum and blood clotting cascade have been prime targets of the Irreducible Complexity claim and have all since been explained. 		 

"If I don't know how this could have happened, it must be magic!"
Just because one does not understand how something could have evolved naturally does not mean by default that a magical deity created it.

Bacterial Flagellum
What if we take away not 1, not 2, but 40 parts from the Bacterial Flagellum? According to IC the remainder 10 parts of the biological system should have absolutely no functionality. According to evolution the parts must be able to do previous jobs. In fact, those 10 parts are fully-functional and form what is called a Type-III Secretory System, a molecular syringe that injects proteins into our cells. The 10 parts at the base of the flagellum do not produce movement and they are not a flagellum but they are fully functional. The IC claim is that any precursor to an irreducibly complex system that is missing a part is by definition non functional. When the bacterial flagellum is missing 40 parts it is still perfectly functional proving that the IC statement is wrong. In fact, almost all the parts contained in the flagellum are known to have the same structure as other proteins that have other functions in the cell.

Cumulative evidence indicates that flagella developed as modular systems, with many components deriving from other systems. Each bacterial flagellum module evolved independently from various primordial systems, which, in most cases, had nothing to do with cell motility. For an in depth look at the evolution of the flagellum Click Here and read the 6 page article in Microbe Magazine published by the American Society For Microbiology.


Blood Clotting Cascade
The blood clotting cascade in vertebrates is a complex biological pathway that is given as an example of apparent irreducible complexity. The irreducible complexity argument assumes that the necessary parts of a system have always been necessary, and therefore could not have been added sequentially. One of the clotting factors that Behe listed as a part of the clotting cascade was actually later found to be absent in whales, demonstrating that it is not essential for a clotting system. Just like all other known biological systems, the clotting cascade can also serve a functional purpose without all of its current parts.

What about parts that are necessary for a clotting system to function? Removal of such a part would not allow the system to work. How could a system dependent on various parts evolve through gradual changes unless all the parts were already there? Evolution is blind and does not predict future outcomes so there is no way it could have pre-planned the parts needed for the clotting system. What one must take note on is that, in evolution, something which is at first merely advantageous can later become necessary. What later became necessary parts of a biological system actually evolved independently because they still served some sort of advantage on their own. Even if their advantages were not vital, they were still advantages. Keep in mind that many complex structures can be found in other organisms as much simpler systems that utilize fewer parts. The best example of this is the evolution of the human eye of which every stage of its development can be seeing in various organisms living today.

The Human Eye
CLICK HERE to learn about the evolution of the human eye
   
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