Not a lot of difference at this level.
There are hundreds of little miracles that make us what we are. The evolutionists cannot explain a single one - that's why they stay away from this thread. They do not want anyone to see the facts of life which they have been so long denying.
True enough, since it's just examining the properties of the "cell machinery". And yet, that doesn't stop you from suddenly declaring:
On the contrary, it underscores the point that this is an irreducibly complex system.
Excuse me? No, it doesn't. If the article doesn't bother to "broach the subject" of how the flagellum could have (or could not have) arisen through evolution, then it provides no insight *either way* into the matter.
How quickly creationists declare victory out of thin air...
Macnab claims there are 60 different types of components in this little engine.
Yes, so? Being somewhat complex is hardly the same as being provably "irreducibly complex". You *do* actually understand what "irreducibly complex" means, don't you? It's a very specific claim about a system -- you can't just say, "well that's complex, therefore it's probably irreducibly complex, so there, I win, QED." That's incredibly sloppy "reasoning". In fact, it's no sort of reasoning at all. It's simple presumption.
Whether something is irreducibly complex or not is something that has to be *proven* in a rigorous, mathematical-proof type manner. You haven't even *begun* to do so. Nor has Behe. He's the king of the "argumentum ad ignoratum", or the argument from ignorance, which goes, "I don't see how that could happen, therefore it couldn't have". The fallacy involved in that sort of logical leap should be clear to all -- all except creationists, apparently.
A *lot* more has to be understood about the mechanics of flaggela, and the DNA coding which builds them, not to mention a comprehensive study of more primitive fossil flagella, and other forms of flagella in still-living species, before any firm conclusions can be drawn about whether they could feasibly have arisen by evolution, or whether an evolutionary pathway seems a case of "you can't get there from here".
Unless Behe (or you) have claimed to have exhaustively examined *every* conceivable stepwise pathway from cells without flagella to cells with them, and explicitly ruled *each* one out, it's ludicrous to just flatly declare a priori that they "must" be irredicibly complex.
Why don't you do what real scientists do, and go off and make a major research project out of this, exhaustively examining all the available evidence and working your way through all the intricate ramifications of your hypothesis?
Oh, right, because it's so much easier to just declare victory without doing all the hard work of making a *case* for it...
Pfaugh...
This is precisely why I pursued a degree in Molecular Biology at UCSD. All the little control systems are not that different from machines or computer software. Which is why I'm a software engineer today. The industry was too immature in 1976. It may be time to switch back to my original career path. Especially with all the IT work being sent to India.
I think what we're talking about is engineering biology.
The manufacture of living machines on a micro-level.