Irreducible Complexity And Darwinian Pathways

 

 Irreducible Complexity And Darwinian Pathways
Guest response to article by R.H. Thornhill and D.W. Ussery
“Mike Gene“

ARN Forum
June 16, 2000

It’s official. Behe’s concept of irreducible complexity (IC) has found itself in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Ironically, it was introduced by two critics of ID attempting to formulate non-teleological mechanisms for spawning IC. The article is: Thornhill, R.H., Ussery, D.W. 2000. “A classification of possible routes of Darwinian evolution.” J. Theor. Bio. 203: 111-116.

First of all, this article shows that Behe’s work has indeed contributed to science. Thornhill and Ussery (T&U) write:

“However, the more theoretical question about the accessibility by Darwinian evolution of irreducibly complex structures of functionally indivisible components, if such exist, has not been thoroughly examined.One factor hampering examination of the accessibility of biological structures by Darwinian evolution is the absence of a classification of possible routes. A suggested classification is presented here.”