RE: [asa] Behe Responds To Ken Miller - Edge of Evolution

One thing that I find about this type of discussion on ID, maybe on the
science of creation in general, the more explicitly scientific the
discussion becomes, the further it gets from comprehensibility by the
average lay reader. In particular, in order to make ID more acceptable to
the scientific community, Behe has to necessarily employ arguments that
can't possibly be evaluated by the general public, and the same with any
critiques and counter-critiques. Is it any wonder that there remains a gap
between the "simple believing folk" who choose to simply "accept the Bible
account", and those who try to contextualize it in a scientific framework?
 
But one question about the article below, in one of the few
counter-arguments that I can even begin to understand, in the last paragraph
Behe complains that Ken Miller has redefined what Behe meant by "irreducibly
complex" as a straw man argument. Behe defines it as a system which has had
a part removed, Ken Miller is looking for a system where other parts have
some function. This seems specious to me. Behe is defining it backwards --
you don't get evolution by taking a full system and removing a part (well
maybe in some cases, but not in this context). You start with parts,
presumably, and obtain a working system. Therefore, looking at it the right
way around, Behe appears to mean that an IC system couldn't exist and
function with one or some of its parts undeveloped, because the parts don't
cause the organism to "live long and prosper" until they are all assembled.
The logical counter-argument to that is to show, even though the final
system has not been fully assembled, the organism can survive because the
parts have other beneficial functions in the organism. This seems to be
Miller's definition, which it seems to me to be a logical approach to
falsifying Behe's hypothesis.
 
Am I missing something here?
 
Jon Tandy
 <http://www.arcom.com/>

-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of (Matthew) Yew Hock Tan
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 4:50 AM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: [asa] Behe Responds To Ken Miller - Edge of Evolution

Response to <http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK1WNX2AI5EMGXN> Kenneth
R. Miller

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Received on Fri Jul 13 07:33:53 2007