Immune system is irreducibly complex

From EvoWiki

Contents 1 Claim 2 Source 3 Responses 4 Fallacies contained in this claim 5 External Links 6 Related claims 7 See Also 8 Acknowledgments

Claim

The human immune system is irreducibly complex, indicating that it must have been designed.

Source

• Behe, Michael, 1996. Darwin's Black Box, The Free Press, New York, pp. 117-139.

Responses

1. It has recently been discovered that certain white blood cells communicate with each other in a manner very similar to neurons. This implies that the immune system has components that are utilized by other tissue systems in the body.
2. Phagocytes consume invading pathogenic organisms, such as bacteria, by receptor-mediated endocytosis, a process largely identical to the phagocytotic processes used by Amoeba and various other unicellular eukaryotes, either by surface protein-mediated invagination, or simply by surrounding the prey with pseudopodia.
3. Echinoderms have a primitive immune system very similar to the immune system of chordates.
4. add more responses

Fallacies contained in this claim

• add fallacies

External Links

• Coon, Mike, 1998. Is the Complement System Irreducibly Complex? [1]
• Inlay, M., 2002. Evolving Immunity. [2]

Related claims

• Irreducible complexity indicates design
• Some systems are irreducibly complex
• Bacterial flagella are irreducibly complex
• Blood clotting is irreducibly complex
• Protein transport within a cell is irreducibly complex
• Metabolic pathway for AMP synthesis is too complex to have evolved

See Also

Why is Creationism not a Scientific Theory?

Acknowledgments