Problem Set: Click on link to bring up problem set. Please turn
in your answers to the problems
at the beginning of class.
Readings: M. J. Behe. Darwin's Black Box. Chapters 1-4.
Be prepared to discuss the following kinds of questions:
1. What is irreducible complexity? What criteria can be used to recognize it?
2. Can the claim that a character is irreducibly complex be substantiated
experimentally? If so, how?
3. Is Behe's argument that a cilium is irreducibly complex convincing?
4. Does a character being irreducible complexity necessarily preclude
the
possibility that it was built up by a series of small steps by evolution?
Why or why not?
Assignment: Write a two-page (typed) essay explaining and justifying one of the following statements:
1. A mousetrap is not (or is) irreducibly complex.
2. Behe makes (or does not make) a convincing case for the blood-clotting
system
being irreducibly complex.
NOTE: This assignment is due at the beginning of class.
[ Bio 120 Home Page | Department of Biology | Duke University ]