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Bradley Monton: Behe’s irreducible complexity is not a “God of the gaps” argument

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Bradley Monton, author of Seeking God in Science: An Atheist Defends Intelligent Design (Broadview Press, 2009), observes,

First, despite how it’s typically portrayed in the anti-intelligent design literature, I maintain that Behe’s irreducible complexity argument is not a God-of-the-gaps argument at all. Behe is not saying that we don’t know (or can’t know) how irreducibly complex systems like the bacterial flagellum could plausibly arise naturalistically. Instead, Behe is giving positive reasons that the sequence of events that would have to happen for irreducibly complex systems like the bacterial flagellum to arise via an undesigned process is an improbable sequence, and hence the design hypothesis should be taken seriously. p. 115.

Anyway, do people other than Christian Darwinists use the expression “God of the gaps” seriously? Isn’t the real world dividing between self-organization of life and design of life?

Comments
What are the positive reasons?
He doesn't say. At least not on page 115. He just provides an analogy.Mung
May 18, 2011
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Behe is giving positive reasons that the sequence of events that would have to happen for irreducibly complex systems like the bacterial flagellum to arise via an undesigned process is an improbable sequence
What are the positive reasons?lastyearon
May 18, 2011
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semi OT: I liked how Jonathan Wells pointed out, in this video, that evolutionists are guilty of "Darwin of the Gaps' argumentation; Francis Collins, Darwin of the Gaps, and the Fallacy Of Junk DNA - video http://www.evolutionnews.org/2010/11/francis_collins_is_one_of040361.html And seeing as neo-Darwinists have not demonstrated the origination of even one molecular machine by Darwinian processes, it really strains credulity to think that these machines, each of which surpass man made machines in efficiency and power parameters, arose by accident; Bacterial Flagellum - A Sheer Wonder Of Intelligent Design - video http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3994630 The Sheer Genius And Brilliance Of Flagellar Assembly https://uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/the-bacterial-flagellum-truly-an-engineering-marvel/ Molecular Biology Animations - Demo Reel http://www.metacafe.com/w/5915291/bornagain77
May 17, 2011
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