The one exception I’d make is… I think you under-estimate Behe. He already had a paper debate with Ken Miller, a professor flush with accolades, where Behe argued that the TTSC descended from the flagellum and Miller argued for the reverse.
Additional research conducted after their debate seems to support Behe. Now granted, Miller really should have known enough to realize that an adaptation for parasitizing complex plants would not have evolved before complex plants, themselves, did. But he didn’t and Behe scored a legitimate, predictive, falsifiable assertion, albeit one very narrow in scope. It underscores the point that, in discussing the evolution of complexity, we really should consider reductions in complexity (possibly preceded by duplication) and not resort first to a belief that complexity of all things increases monotonically over time (as Miller might have, in crafting his argument.)
As an aside, I recognize that the term ‘complexity’ is very loaded to start with. I’m using the term to refer to a kind of functional elegance with high Shannon Information. If that makes sense.
So yes, ‘debate college students’ is a good way to have debates without giving too much credit to the conflict. But Behe, unlike 99% of creationists, is actually competent. He is a genuine gadfly on the scientific body politic. And it’s dangerous, frankly, to underestimate a competent opponent.
I 95% agree with this argument.
The one exception I’d make is… I think you under-estimate Behe. He already had a paper debate with Ken Miller, a professor flush with accolades, where Behe argued that the TTSC descended from the flagellum and Miller argued for the reverse.
Additional research conducted after their debate seems to support Behe. Now granted, Miller really should have known enough to realize that an adaptation for parasitizing complex plants would not have evolved before complex plants, themselves, did. But he didn’t and Behe scored a legitimate, predictive, falsifiable assertion, albeit one very narrow in scope. It underscores the point that, in discussing the evolution of complexity, we really should consider reductions in complexity (possibly preceded by duplication) and not resort first to a belief that complexity of all things increases monotonically over time (as Miller might have, in crafting his argument.)
As an aside, I recognize that the term ‘complexity’ is very loaded to start with. I’m using the term to refer to a kind of functional elegance with high Shannon Information. If that makes sense.
So yes, ‘debate college students’ is a good way to have debates without giving too much credit to the conflict. But Behe, unlike 99% of creationists, is actually competent. He is a genuine gadfly on the scientific body politic. And it’s dangerous, frankly, to underestimate a competent opponent.