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Concept
Irreducible complexity
Summary
Irreducible complexity (IC) is the argument that certain biological systems with multiple interacting parts would not function if one of the parts were removed, so supposedly could not have evolved by successive small modifications from earlier less complex systems through natural selection, which would need all intermediate precursor systems to have been fully functional. This negative argument is then complemented by the claim that the only alternative explanation is a "purposeful arrangement of parts" inferring design by an intelligent agent. Irreducible complexity has become central to the creationist concept of intelligent design (ID), but the concept of irreducible complexity has been rejected by the scientific community, which regards intelligent design as pseudoscience. Irreducible complexity and specified complexity, are the two main arguments used by intelligent-design proponents to support their version of the theological argument from design.
The central concept, of biological complexity too improbable to have evolved by chance natural processes, was already featured in creation science. The 1989 school textbook Of Pandas and People introduced the alternative terminology of intelligent design, the 1993 edition was revised to include a variation of the same argument: it was later shown that these revisions were written by Michael Behe, a professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University.
Behe introduced the expression irreducible complexity along with a full account of his arguments in his 1996 book Darwin's Black Box, and he said it made evolution through natural selection of random mutations impossible, or extremely improbable. This was based on the mistaken assumption that evolution relies on improvement of existing functions, ignoring how complex adaptations originate from changes in function, and disregarding published research. Evolutionary biologists have published rebuttals showing how systems discussed by Behe can evolve, and examples documented through comparative genomics show that complex molecular systems are formed by the addition of components as revealed by different temporal origins of their proteins.
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