Irreducible complexity

General resources

Resources dealing with the topic generally or with multiple claims of irreducible complexity

Claim CB200: Some systems are irreducibly complex

Claim CB300: Complex organs couldn't have evolved

Claim CB340: Organs and organ systems would have been useless until all parts were in place

Claim CB921: New structures would be useless until fully developed

Claim CI102: Irreducible complexity indicates design

Brief responses in the Index to Creationist Claims in the TalkOrigins Archive.

Creation Myth: Irreducible Complexity

Video by biology professor Dan Stern Cardinale on his Creation Myths YouTube channel, responding to three possible interpretations of Michael Behe's definition of Irreducible Complexity.

STAN 4: Assessing Limits to Evolution and to Natural Selection: Reviews of Michael Behe’s “Edge of Evolution” and John Sanford’s “Genetic Entropy”

A letter by old-Earth Christian Scott Buchanan to a young-Earth creationist friend named Stan, published on his Letters to Creationists blog. The first half deals with Michael Behe’s book about 'irreducible complexity' titled Edge of Evolution.

Darwin's Black Box: Irreducible Complexity or Irreproducible Irreducibility?

Keith Robison looks into Behe's claims of irreducible complexity, as presented in Behe's book Darwin's Black Box.

Darwin v. Intelligent Design (Again)

A review of Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution by Michael J. Behe, discussing how something that appears to be irreducibly complex can come about.

The Mullerian Two-Step: add a part, make it necessary, or why Behe’s “irreducible complexity” is silly

An article in the TalkOrigins Archive demonstrating, using a very simple example, of how something that appears to be irreducibly complex can arise.

The evolution of “irreducibly complex” antifreeze proteins in a polar fish (and a fish-slap at Behe)

Blog post by Jerry Coyne.

Irreducible Incoherence and Intelligent Design: a look into the conceptual toolbox of a pseudoscience

'Evolutionary biologists and philosophers have unambiguously rejected the purported demonstration of "intelligent design" in nature, but there have been several, apparently contradictory, lines of criticism. We argue that this is in fact due to Michael Behe's own incoherent definition and use of IC. This paper offers an analysis of several equivocations inherent in the concept of Irreducible Complexity and discusses the way in which advocates of the Intelligent Design Creationism (IDC) have conveniently turned IC into a moving target.'

Publish or Perish: Some Published works on Biochemical Evolution

Behe has made a claim that the scientific literature almost completely ignores biochemical evolution. This list shows otherwise.

Irreducible complexity cut down to size

Video by QualiaSoup. He also produced a rebuttal to criticism of this video.

The Evolution of Creation Science, Part 3: Natural Selection and Convergent Evolution

Article by Philip J. Senter in the journal Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith. Appendix 1 briefly addresses a number of specific claims of irreducible complexity. The full issue in which this article appears is also available.

Resources dealing with specific structures

AMP synthesis

Claim CB200.5: The metabolic pathway for AMP synthesis is too complex to have evolved

Brief response in the Index to Creationist Claims in the TalkOrigins Archive.

ATP synthase

Evolution of ATP Synthase

Video by Jackson Wheat.

Bacterial flagellum

Note: There are many different bacterial flagella. The flagella in Archaea and Eukaryota are different from the bacterial flagella.

Claim CB200.1: Bacterial flagella are irreducibly complex

Claim CB200.1.1: The flagellum has 30 or so unique (non-homologous) proteins

Brief responses in the Index to Creationist Claims in the TalkOrigins Archive.

Evolution of the Flagellum

Video by Jackson Wheat.

The Bacterial Flagellum

Video in the How Creationism Taught Me Real Science series.

The Evolution of the Flagellum

A video demonstrating how the bacterial flagellum could have evolved. (See 'just-so' stories.)

Evolution in (Brownian) space: a model for the origin of the bacterial flagellum

Article by NJ Matzke, whose work was used to provide the video in the preceding link.

Evolution of the Bacterial Flagellum: Cumulative evidence indicates that flagella developed as modular systems, with many components deriving from other systems

Article in Microbe (Volume 2, Number 7, 2007).

Blood clotting cascade

Claim CB200.2: Blood clotting is irreducibly complex

Brief response in the Index to Creationist Claims in the TalkOrigins Archive.

The Coagulation Cascade

Video in the How Creationism Taught Me Real Science series.

The Evolution of Vertebrate Blood Clotting

A look at the blood clotting cascade.

Bombardier beetle

Claim CB310: The bombardier beetle is too complex to have evolved

Claim CB310.1: Bombardier beetle chemicals would explode if mixed without an inhibitor

Brief responses in the Index to Creationist Claims in the TalkOrigins Archive.

Bombardier Beetle

Video in the How Creationism Taught Me Real Science series.

Bombardier Beetle Myth Exploded

Article by Christopher Gregory Weber in Creation/Evolution Journal on the website of the National Center for Science Education. References appear to be missing from this version of the article but a PDF version of the issue in which this appears is available.

Response to Dr. Kofahl

Article responding to Dr. Kofahl's response to the above article about the bombardier beetle. Issue in which this article appears is also available in PDF format.

Kind of Confusing – Young-earth Creationist’ Classification of the Bombardier Beetle

Post by Joel Duff on his Naturalis Historia blog about creationist classification of bombardier beetles, which also touches on creationist claims about their supposed 'irreducible complexity'.

Brain

Claim CB303: The brain is too complex to have evolved

Brief response in the Index to Creationist Claims in the TalkOrigins Archive.

Butterfly metamorphosis

Claim CB311: Butterfly metamorphosis is too complex to have evolved

Claim CB311.1: Evolution can't explain butterfly evolving from caterpillar

Brief responses in the Index to Creationist Claims in the TalkOrigins Archive.

Ear

Claim CB302: The ear is too complex to have evolved

Brief response in the Index to Creationist Claims in the TalkOrigins Archive.

An Earful of Jaw

Article in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould.

We Hear with the Bones that Reptiles Eat With

Clip from documentary Your Inner Fish. Evolutionary biologists Karen Sears and Neil Shubin show us evidence of the ear bones' origins as the bones of ancient reptilian jaws.

Eye

Claim CB301: The eye is too complex to have evolved

Claim CB921.1: What use is half an eye?

Brief responses in the Index to Creationist Claims in the TalkOrigins Archive.

Evolution of the Eye

Video by Jackson Wheat.

The Eye

Video in the How Creationism Taught Me Real Science series.

How Could An Eye Evolve?

Article in the Don Lindsay Archive (click on the links under the heading 'More Detail' for the different sections).

Evolution of the eye

Wikipedia article.

Foundational Toolkit Genes

Part of an article from the University of Utah detailing the eye. Note in particular the concept of duplication and divergence.

First cells

Claim CB010.1: Even the simplest life is incredibly complex

Claim CB010.2: First cells could not come together by chance

Brief responses in the Index to Creationist Claims in the TalkOrigins Archive.

Frogs, gastric-brooding

Gastric-Brooding Frogs

Video by Jackson Wheat.

Giraffe’s neck

Claim CB325: The giraffe neck could not evolve without a special circulatory system

Brief response in the Index to Creationist Claims in the TalkOrigins Archive.

Giraffe Evolution

Video by Jackson Wheat.

Young-Earth Creationism Leads the Short-Necked Okapi to Identify as a Giraffe

Post by Joel Duff on his Naturalis Historia blog about creationist classification of the giraffe, which also touches on creationist claims about their supposed 'irreducible complexity'.