Friday, May 9, 2008

Tiny refutation of Michael Behe's Black Box

Say structure X is composed of A, B, and C, each necessary for function; that is A, B, and C together are "irreducibly complex." However, the structure could have started out as A, B+, C, and D. B+ modified to take over the role of D, turning into B, and D dropped out. This gives us A, B, and C.

Or, X was initially composed of A alone; B appeared, (perhaps as a result of the mutation of A into two copies of A, a common occurrence, and then as B could be used to perform some of the functions of A, A and B both modified in ways that made B required. Now A and B together appear to be irreducibly complex.

This outcome of evolution was first spotted by the Nobel prize winning biologist H. J. Muller in papers that came out in 1919 and 1939. [Edit] Specifically, the mechanisms go under the name Muller's Morphs) [/Edit]
So, Behe took something previously shown to be a natural consequence of evolution and, uh, missed the point somewhat spectacularly.

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