Why Irreducible Complexity Isn’t Really A Big Deal
I always like posting on Intelligent Design as it always seems to drive those who think it is a big deal up the wall…and I admit I gain some amount of pleasure from seeing this. Anyhow the typical response is that Irreducible Complexity (IC) provides a very serious challenge to evolutionary theory. This is just simply not the case. Irreducible pathways can be explained as follows: Duplication and Loss of Function. Here is the idea in some simple pictures.
Notice that we can get from A to D a variety of ways. The nodes B’ and C’ are duplicates of B and C. Now via mutations the pathway becomes,
Notice that now we have to go through each node, whereas before we did not. This pathway is IC. Remove any part (i.e. node) and the pathway no longer functions. Does loss of function happen in nature? Yes. Does duplication? Yes. Do we need to invoke a supernatural designer? No. The Principle of Parsimony tells us we don’t want to make any hypothesis any more complicated than it needs to be. Hence IC is not a problem for evolutionary theory.