Brian: <<Really? My impression was that it was a critique of Darwinism,
not evolution.>>
Good point. And furthermore it was an 'attempt to refute Darwinism by the imho artificial use of a tautology. Refer to something as irreducible complex and define irreducibly complex as something that could not have evolved gradually. Voila.
Only problem is that while I agree that 'irreducibly complex' systems exist, this does not mean that this could not have happened through gradual steps, as was quite aptly shown in several hypothetical case.