Claim CB200.4:
The human immune system is irreducibly complex, indicating that
it must have been designed.
Source:
Behe, Michael J. 1996. Darwin's Black Box, New York: The Free Press, pp.
117-139.
Response:
- The complement system of the human immune system is not irreducibly
complex. Urochordates have a functional complement system, yet they
lack a component of the cascade.
- Common mechanisms, such as gene duplication and co-option of molecules
with other roles, allow the immune system to evolve naturally. Much
has been written on the subject. (Kasahara et al. 1997; Lindsay 1999;
Travis 1998)
- Behe gets some of the basic biology wrong. Bacteria are not destroyed,
as Behe says (1996, 134), by water rushing in when the cell membrane is
punctured, but because their chemical gradients have been destroyed
(Ussery 1999).
- Irreducible complexity is not an obstacle to
evolution and
doesn't imply design.
Links:
Bottaro, Andrea. 2005 (May 30). The revenge of Calvin and Hobbes.
http://www.pandasthumb.org/pt-archives/001081.html
See also: Bottaro, Andrea. 2005 (June 2). Behe's meaningless complexity.
http://www.pandasthumb.org/pt-archives/001108.html
Coon, Mike, 1998. Is the complement system irreducibly complex?
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/behe/icsic.html
Inlay, M., 2002. Evolving immunity.
http://www.talkdesign.org/faqs/Evolving_Immunity.html
References:
- Kasahara, M. et al., 1997. Chromosomal duplication and the emergence
of the adaptive immune system. Trends in Genetics 13(3): 90-92.
- Lindsay, Don, 1999. How could the immune system evolve?
http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/creation/evolve_immune.html
- Travis, John, 1998. The accidental immune system. Science News 154:
302-303.
- Ussery, D., 1999. (see below).
Further Reading:
Ussery, David, 1999. A biochemist's response to "The biochemical
challenge to evolution". Bios 70: 40-45.
http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/staff/dave/Behe.html
created 2001-2-17, modified 2005-6-28
