Irreducible Complexity? This is a term created by Dr. Michael Behe, biochemist at LeHigh University, from which the scientific community has never been the same sense. Although Behe is (still?) a theistic evolutionist, his book is a powerful witness to devastating flaws in evolution (Go CREATION!). At times the book is hard to understand amongst the scientific mumbo-jumbo, but Behe does a good job at summarizing it in a way that lay people can understand. So what is irreducible complexity? It basically refers to those biological systems, which are in their current observed state, that could not exist without ALL of its current functioning parts.
The most easiest, rudimentary example is a mouse trap. The mouse trap consists of only a handful of parts (i.e., spring, board, etc.). If any of these parts are removed, the mouse trap fails. It can no longer function. What can we derive from this observation? If the mousetrap could not be deconstructed from its current state, then it would be impossible for evolution to have evolved a mouse trap.
This applies to countless biological systems, two of which I will mention. First, there is blood clotting (the science is too complicated here, so suffice to say I will only briefly mention it). The nature of blood clotting is irreducibly complex. If any of its functions were gone, the clotting could not happen. Result? A single cut that is deep enough to draw blood would never stop bleeding until the being was dead. Thus any animal that was possibly "evolving" would never survive in the end, because a single cut would wipe out the species existence. Secondly, there is the cell. The cell comprises (as far as I know) all of biological systems. If something so basic could not have possibly evolved, how could any other system have evolved? Could a cell live without a ribosome? No! A lysosome? No! Therefore, how could it have possibly evolved if it could never survive without all of its parts working together? And that's the point...
Fascinating book. I highly recommend it!
