Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: bobdsmith
Only an idiot would compare the purposesive complexity of the human body (the eye, for example, or the blood-clotting cascade) with the non-purposive complexity of the rainbow (dispersed water droplets in the air don't exist "for the purpose" of scattering sunlight).

By the way, the notion of "purpose" does not necessary imply "complexity." Something can be quite simple in structure and still designed; something else can be quite complex and still be reducible to chance. It isn't the complexity of the eye that suggests it is designed by an outside Designer; it's the irreducible nature of the complexity that does so. As Behe shows in his book, only the entire vision cascade has any value; 1/2 or 1/3 of the chemical steps, coming together over time through blind chance (as per Darwinism) has no value -- it doesn't lead to 1/2 or 1/3 the amount of vision. It leads to no vision. It's a biochemical dead end. Either we admit the notion of "design" in nature, or we admit the idea that Nature makes incredible jumps ("saltations"). The second notion is just as anathema to Darwinism as the first, as it smacks a little too much of "miracle" at least for orthodox materialists such as Richard Dawkins.

18 posted on 12/07/2004 2:51:05 PM PST by rhetor
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies ]


To: rhetor

You obviously haven't read any of the refutations of Behe's book. Irreducible complexity can evolve, and has been shown to evolve.


20 posted on 12/11/2004 6:07:46 PM PST by bobdsmith
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson