ABSTRACT
Irreducible complexity (IC) is a viewpoint based on religious faith and dogma. It is aterm coined by biochemist Behe (1996), who claimed that many physiological and biochemical systems are irreducibly complex. To be IC, such asystem must be composed of several interacting “parts” (subsystems, components, modules) that contribute to its overall function, and the removal of any one of the parts, subsystems, components, or modules will cause the IC system to effectively cease functioning. Behe claimed that “An IC system cannot be produced gradually by slight, successive modiŸcations of aprecursor system, since any precursor to an IC system is by deŸnition nonfunctional.” He argued that IC systems cannot have evolved, and therefore must have been “designed,” linking his deŸnition of IC biological systems to the intelligent design (ID) religious movement.
